Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
So I was on the phone with a friend Sunday night and while we were talking, the Mtv Video Music Awards were on the TV, but on mute. And I had several epiphanies as the images flashed before me.
First of all, where the hell do they even find these videos to give awards to? Where does anyone actually watch videos? Mtv and VH1 certainly aren't showing them, those channels are all "reality" TV all the time now. So where do these videos actually come from and where has anyone ever actually seen them?
The demise of Mtv and VH1 is kind of sad. I don't think most kids these days can imagine the impact that music videos had when I was growing up. I was 14 when Mtv debuted. I remember sitting and watching the very first video, Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles, and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. The cultural impact of music video was huge at the time. And now it's pretty much gone, buried in a haze of ever more spinoffs from Flava of Love.
I didn't recognize any of the performers. I recognized a few of the people in the audience as the cameras panned (Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez). I wouldn't know a Jonas Brother if I was kicking one in the face (and consequently, I have to kick every 14-19 year old boy I happen to run across in the face).
And then it hit me: I'm officially old. I wanted to yell at this parade of teen and tween douchebags and cretins to get off my lawn. I have turned into my father. Except my father is a Ted Nugent fan. This is all rather disturbing.
The one person whose identity I did know was Katy Perry, but only because of all the furor over her song about kissing a girl. What I did not know was that Joe Perry was her father. Which leads to an obvious question: Did Joe Perry and Steven Tyler have a contest to see which one could produce the most beautiful daughter? And how did two men that incredibly ugly manage to produce those two daughters? It doesn't seem possible.
Comments
Are you sure about Joe Perry? I recall her being the child of evangelists and that's why there was such furor over her song...she had turned away from the church. Wikipedia says her real last name is Hudson.
Posted by: Boudica | September 14, 2009 9:41 AM
I just saw Liv Tyler on some show..... she is dazzlingly beautiful, but it's 50% looks and 50% her personality. When she smiles, the whole room falls in love....
Posted by: Rick R | September 14, 2009 9:48 AM
The warrior queen is correct, according to Wikipedia.
(sorry Boudica if you're a dude and have that name for other reasons)
Posted by: Jordan G | September 14, 2009 9:51 AM
Apparently the evolutionary advantage of being a rock star is getting to mate with women so hot they cancel out your ugliness.
Posted by: Squiddhartha | September 14, 2009 9:51 AM
No, I'm not sure about it at all. That's what my friend told me on the phone and I didn't bother to verify it (mostly because I don't really care). But it does sort of ruin the comparison if it isn't true.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | September 14, 2009 9:57 AM
When I was a teen (in the late 90's), it was all about MTV2, because at that time they showed nothing but videos. You could really see the most obscure and random stuff on that channel. When was the last time you could see a Leonard Cohen video on MTV? Of course, now MTV2 is just a dump for the crap that MTV can't fit into it's normal schedule. It seems to be happening to every station these days. The airwaves are being filled with so-called "reality" programming, and all the programming that made each station unique is getting dumped. Also, what's with all this damn autotuned crap? Can't people sing anymore? Christ...
Posted by: Imrryr | September 14, 2009 9:58 AM
They still show videos "early" in the morning on mtv and vh1. Not sure about mtv2 at this point, but there are some digital mtvs and vh1s that show videos. There was always muchmusic/fuse, who used to have promo spots mocking mtv for showing almost no music. That worked for a few years, but now if you check fuse they don't really show a lot of videos anymore, either.
So to answer you question, they show videos just not when/where most people look for them.
Also, we wont get off your lawn.
Posted by: JohnV | September 14, 2009 10:03 AM
I never got music videos when MTV and VH1 were showing them. By the way, have you heard about this great new band that just released a huge box album, the Beetles or something like that?
Posted by: CJColucci | September 14, 2009 10:04 AM
In my opinion the main reason videos have largely vanished from MTV and VH1 is b/c at the end of the day videos were ultimately just advertisements for the products peddled by recording companies. So TV/VH1 were at the time essentially 24 hour commercials. Admittedly many displayed high levels of creativity and originality, but then again it was a brand new ad medium. A few may well have attained the status of art in their own right, as have some standard TV commercials. Audiences eventually got bored with this and/or got wise to the ploy. Plus with the rise of digital distribution, that form of advertising became less effective. And of course the MTV Music awards, like most awards shows, is just a mutated form of promotional gimmickry.
Having said that I still fondly recall 120 Minutes though. The alternative culture displayed has long since sadly become mainstreamed.
Posted by: Eric J | September 14, 2009 10:06 AM
I saw the ad for the Video Music Awards on Hulu yesterday and was surprised that MTV still produces that show. Like Ed said, where do they find these videos? The only place I know to see videos is YouTube, and a lot of those get removed due to copyright issues. Every time I try to watch a video on MTV's own site, I get the message that "this video is currently unavailable", an oblique way to refer to a copyright notice.
How does it make any sense for a music company to take its videos off these services, if they are the only outlets for videos?
As for me, I don't think my lack of knowledge about the current pop music scene is due to getting old, but to looking for something original and compelling. The last major-label band I've listened to was Zoe, a Mexican band who sing songs with a science-fiction flair.
Posted by: thinkoplex | September 14, 2009 10:10 AM
Posted by: WScott | September 14, 2009 10:15 AM
@#6 Imrryr
I think you'll see the auto-tune start to fade now that Jay-Z has called for it's death.
Even though he's pushing 40, he still has the weight to make great things happen.
Posted by: Jordan G | September 14, 2009 10:15 AM
This is one of the greatest statements in the history of the written word, and I am so stealing it.
...
With attribution, of course. Now, admittedly, I've pretty much had the desire to do this since I was a boy that age. That's one thing about being a nerdy outcast; I can at least be consistent about who I despised between then and now.
Posted by: Ranson | September 14, 2009 10:20 AM
While you can still kick 14 year old boys in the face if you're so inclined, you may have to revise your age range upwards. Nick, the youngest Jonas, turns 17 on Wednesday, while Joe is 20 and Kevin is 21.
The sad part is, I'm 43 and, while I had to look up the specifics, I knew that they were older than you inferred. I have nieces, I'll blame it on them.
Posted by: chris | September 14, 2009 10:36 AM
MTV had a huge impact on me. I don't remember how I happened to come across it, but I, too, saw that first video. I was just out of high school ... up until that time I listened solely to classical (you can guess I was a nerd and an outcast among my peers.) But MTV, with its visuals, turned me on to rock for the first time. I watched it religously until the started replacing the great, movie-like narrative videos with standard performance vids.
Posted by: SueinNM | September 14, 2009 10:49 AM
Forget the daughters - my mind is reeling at the notion that there is another man as ugly as Steven Tyler.
Posted by: xebecs | September 14, 2009 11:08 AM
Mick Jagger + Jerry Hall
Posted by: Gretchen | September 14, 2009 11:13 AM
"I think you'll see the auto-tune start to fade now "
OH NOES!!!
how will I be able to watch the news?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bduQaCRkgg4
Posted by: Kevin (NYC) | September 14, 2009 11:27 AM
Don't feel bad, Ed. I'm twenty-five, and I'm probably just as in the dark as you are. To illustrate: my Facebook newsfeed is abuzz with talk of Kanye West and Taylor Swift. I know who West is, but I couldn't tell you much of anything about Taylor Swift if you held a gun to my head and refused me access to Google.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | September 14, 2009 11:29 AM
@Jordan G - I hope you're right. Jay-Z has gained some respect from me today.
@Kevin (NYC) - Admittedly, as much as I hate auto-tuning in music, I got a real kick out of seeing it applied to the speeches of JFK and Winston Churchill. And I laughed out loud when Auto-Tune The News recently worked their magic on one of Joe Biden's speeches.
Posted by: Imrryr | September 14, 2009 11:37 AM
Hah! I am totally with you on becoming dad. I have regularly think of particularly stupid (i.e. dangerous) drivers in terms of dad's "we should be allowed to just shoot them" mentality. I am also disinclined to particularly appreciate loud, obnoxious fucking motor cycles...
But I think it is important to note that dad isn't a "get off my fucking lawn" kind of guy and quite honestly, he listens to his damned music considerably louder than I find comfortable...
Posted by: DuWayne | September 14, 2009 11:46 AM
I loved the early days of MTV when it was actually about music, and video creation was a mix of quirky experimentation (often on very low budgets) and pushing the edges of a "new" medium which truly began with the Beatles.
Now, however, I like to call MTV "the commercial that never ends" because at every single moment they are always marketing something. I haven't watching the network in over a decade.
Posted by: CHV | September 14, 2009 11:50 AM
I don't know what the situation is like in the US, but in the UK there are dozens of channels on satellite and two or three on free-to-air terrestrial digital which do nothing but show music videos 24hrs a day. Which is presumably why MTV and VH1 don't bother competing in that field any more. And then there's YouTube, obviously.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | September 14, 2009 11:50 AM
You go to youtube. I have been pulling up old videos for my kids to watch every so often so they can see what I saw in college. So far, my son's fave is Weird Al's "Yoda", lego version (he's 9) & my daughter's is Neil Diamond's Sooliamon (she's 11). The rest of the stuff they think is no good. I guess I'll have to leave my Pink Floyd, AC/DC & Ozzie albums to charity.
Posted by: Pineyman | September 14, 2009 12:06 PM
The grooves on a vinyl record spiral into the centre, and they're wiggly.
If you're nodding in agreement; you are really ancient, like early Pleistocene at least. Join the club baby! :D - DJ
Posted by: DIngoJack | September 14, 2009 12:07 PM
Ed --
Music videos are watched online now. If you go to YouTube and look at the most viewed videos of all time, the majority of them are music videos:
http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mp&t=a
Posted by: Dave K | September 14, 2009 12:11 PM
DuWayne wrote:
Well, that's because he's about 70% deaf in one ear. I blame it on Ted Nugent.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | September 14, 2009 12:13 PM
Ed, you actually used the term "kids these days" in your original post, I think that adds another 5 years to whatever age you happen to be.
Posted by: Michael Day | September 14, 2009 12:27 PM
I remember seeing MTV when it first debuted and watching 'video killed the radio star'. But unlike - say - newspapers MTV moved on from a market that wasn't making them any money years ago.
But music video's never drove what music I listened to, purchased (or downloaded). I have watched one music video in the last 5 years and that was the killers - are we human. The trance remix is much better.
Posted by: yoshi | September 14, 2009 12:32 PM
This post got me thinking about the last time I actually bought a CD of a new artist, and I can't even remember when the last time was. I used to buy a hell of a lot of CDs in the 90s, and the reason was that MTV actually showed music videos. That's where I would hear a new artist or band for the first time and decide I liked them enough to buy their CD. Since MTV became just another reality TV station, the only music I buy is stuff by artists I already know I like.
Video might have killed the radio star, but reality TV is killing everything else. Even the History Channel is now a reality TV station. What the hell do "Ice Road Truckers" and "Ax Men" have to do with history? This crap even led Bill Maher to have a new rule saying the History Channel must change its name to the "Really Bad Life Choices Channel."
Posted by: Chris Rodda | September 14, 2009 12:34 PM
I remember watching the first season of The Real World on MTV as a teenager, when it was actually something new and different-- and controversial, as one of the people on the show, Pedro Zamora, was gay and had AIDS. I wrote about it for the school paper. Later during college they held auditions for the show in Chicago, so I went. I'm so happy, in retrospect, not to have made it on!
Posted by: Gretchen | September 14, 2009 12:41 PM
I assume you would characterize radio the same way then...
BTW, I can answer Ed's question: YouTube.
Posted by: James Sweet | September 14, 2009 12:55 PM
I used to feel the same way, Ed, but I was pleased to realize that I'd seen all of the nominees for the first award last night, and even had opinions on them (all good, except for the one that actually won, natch). I haven't watched the rest of the show yet.
Apart from YouTube, you can still see music videos on MTV U, MTV Jams, and MTV Hits -- these channels are where they pushed them after they pushed them off of MTV2. I'm not sure how long they've been around, but I only saw them once I switched to Fios.
I always thought the idea behind MTV moving away from music videos was nothing more than wanting to hold on to viewers through the commercial breaks. Though, they could've done that with concerts... I dunno. I do know that it was MTV that abandoned me, and not the other way around.
Posted by: Nemo | September 14, 2009 1:38 PM
I didn't bother watching the VMAs (never did) but I did see the clip where Kanye West made an utter ass of himself on YouTube. Really, I think South Park let him off lightly.
I also watched Beyonce's performance. How can so much talent and hotness occupy just one body?
As for the demise of videos on TV -- yeah, YouTube, iTunes, on-demand digital, and portable media players are pretty much killing off the old-style delivery system, but videos are here to stay.
Posted by: tacitus | September 14, 2009 2:18 PM
you're a mere child. I remember when HBO showed music videos as fillers between movies.
Posted by: Rev. Bob | September 14, 2009 2:25 PM
Minor OT on Ted Nugent whom I know nothing about except from the movie Ocean's Eleven. The scene shows Danny Ocean getting out of prison, Rusty Ryan is waiting in a ruffled shirt. Ocean's comment: "Ted Nugent called, he wants his shirt back." Cracks me up every time I see that. No idea why.
Posted by: MikeMa | September 14, 2009 2:27 PM
In my opinion the main reason videos have largely vanished from MTV and VH1 is b/c at the end of the day videos were ultimately just advertisements for the products peddled by recording companies.
Ah, so the same reason you never see commercials on network TV anymore?
Posted by: rob | September 14, 2009 2:30 PM
When MTV (and more importantly to us, USA's Night Flight) started, I was in my early-20s and living with three other guys in the town's almost official party-house (small town). We had a fairly nice stereo hooked-up to the TV, which was considered radical at that time (and cost me a pretty penny in regularly blown receiver pre-amps). We quickly soured on music videos for one reason: when the TV was on the young ladies' attention was diverted from us to the video display. Therefore, back to LPs and cassettes, we were men on a mission.
I think the videos from that time I did like and resonated for others was Golden Earring's Twilight Zone and Prince's When Doves Cry.
However, it was cool watching music-centric movies like Pink Floyd's The Wall or The Who's Tommy.
For another entire reason I ignored music videos was due to my preferring the movie in my head when listening to songs like Hotel California or Turn the Page, though I currently greatly enjoy learning about new bands on YouTube if it focuses on the band performing since it provides added information about them.
Posted by: Michael Heath | September 14, 2009 2:32 PM
Not necessarily, no. For commercial radio stations, yes. Most commercial FM radio stations exist primarily to serve audience segments to advertisers. The songs they play are used primarily as hooks to get people to listen to the commercials. More often than not these days a single company like Clear Channel will own several stations in a given area and divide their local audience into market segments and sell advertising appropriately. Rarely do they want to take risks and play artists not widely known. The lowest common denominator must be catered to.
However there are still many local community and college and yes even pirate radio stations where people do actually care about the music they play. There is a great community radio station in my area. I find the occasionally lackluster professionalism in the DJs quite refreshing
Posted by: Eric J | September 14, 2009 2:33 PM
Nielsen killed the video channel.
The reason you don't see videos on MTV any more is that Nielsen doesn't (didn't?) provide ratings for timeslots that were primarily videos. Even though there may have been more people watching MTV than any other channel during a given slot, without ratings numbers they couldn't sell advertising efficiently.
Posted by: Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother | September 14, 2009 2:39 PM
I would not be surprised to see the demise of commercial music radio in the digital age either. I recently modded my car stereo to provide an AUX input connection to my MP3 player, and haven't switched back to the radio once since. It's wonderful not to have to listen to the endless ads and jingles any more.
Posted by: tacitus | September 14, 2009 2:41 PM
The concept is not obsolete, but the technology is. The day all cars come with internet connections is the day terrestrial radio dies. All radio will be broadcast over the internet. You'll get the same utility as satellite radio for free.
Posted by: FishyFred | September 14, 2009 2:53 PM
What really got me was this:
Why was that important? Because I was 16. Now I do feel old.
I'm not yelling at kids to get off my lawn yet, but I still feel the same way about music that I think is crap. The crap artists (mostly) from the early MTV years are not even a memory for most of us. I have no doubts that the crap artists of today will be just as memorable. I hope that one or more of the Jonas Brothers will learn the magic phrase "Would you like fries with that?" for their next big career move. It would only be an improvement.
I do keep up with some new artists, and new music by old artists, and artists whom I would never have heard of without the Internet. (I've been on a Nordman kick lately.)
Posted by: Dan J | September 14, 2009 2:54 PM
Though the Joe Perry story sounds convincing, according to Wikipedia, "Perry" or real name Hudson was born and raised in Santa Barbara by Christian pastor parents and grew up listening only to gospel music. After earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to pursue a music career.
Posted by: Jeff | September 14, 2009 3:22 PM
The Videos are on MTV, Ed. That's what MTV is. The Music TV thing. Its all videos pretty much all the time. That's the whole point of MTV.
Right?
Posted by: Greg Laden | September 14, 2009 3:44 PM
"I recently modded my car stereo to provide an AUX input connection to my MP3 player, and haven't switched back to the radio once since."
Back in the old days we had 8-track playerss and then cassette players and then CD players and yet radio managed to survive.
Posted by: Tilting At Windmills | September 14, 2009 4:28 PM
Sigh. Your story is mine except I was (almost) 13 when MTV debuted. Thank goodness for the Intertubes, for without them I'd never see videos.
Get off my lawn, darn kids!
Posted by: Buffy | September 14, 2009 4:30 PM
Yeah, but now you can have your complete music collection available at the touch of a couple of buttons (not to mention the collections of dozens more people). Most people used to own a few dozen albums at most. These days most teenagers own (well, have) hundreds, if not thousands of them.
Music radio isn't going away any time soon, but they will be hard pressed to survive unchanged once the pre-iPod generation dies out.
Posted by: tacitus | September 14, 2009 4:38 PM
It was topical years ago, and it's still topical today:
MTV get off the
MTV get off the
MTV get off the air!
Get off the air!
I see music videos from time to time because one of the tvs that is unfortunately taking up line-of-sight space in my gym is always tuned to MuchMusic. Sometimes I really wish I hadn't seen some of the things I've seen...
Posted by: Interrobang | September 14, 2009 4:50 PM
Joe Perry does not have a daughter - he and Katy Perry are not related. Steven Tyler has three gorgeous daughters - Liv Tyler, Mia Tyler and Chelsea Tallarico.
Posted by: Suze | September 14, 2009 4:54 PM
"I was 14 when Mtv debuted."
LOL I was 14 when color TV broadcasts arrived. NBC declared it's leadership position in this area with more shows aired in color than any other network, six hours per week. That's when the peacock logo first appeared, BTW.
I've never watched music videos except for a couple that involved some controversy, so I don't miss them.
As far as feeling old, this happened to me when Clinton was elected, the first president younger than me. Now we have a president just a year older than my first born. Oh, well.
You have a long way to go before you consider yourself "old" Eddie boy. In any case enjoy each day as you live it no matter your age.
Posted by: Bill Ware | September 14, 2009 5:23 PM
Well, they play music videos at the gym, and some of them look new (i.e., hot young boys and girls that I don't recognize) - I look them up on youtube later, and there they are...
When a band comes to Columbus that I want to check out, I go to Myspace, and if they are a big name they have a professionally produced video up along with their latest songs...
Then there's that cool video using high-tech stuff that Radiohead did for their song House of Cards last year...
I'm old but I'm a hepcat.
Posted by: ildi | September 14, 2009 5:44 PM
I should actually LOOK UP words before I use them to seem cool. I don't like most jazz.
Posted by: ildi | September 14, 2009 5:47 PM
Did I somehow wander into the schoolyard here? I'm afraid someone official is going to come up and chase me away or ask me why I'm hanging around with a bunch of kids.
I was 36 when MTV started. I not only remember vinyl, I remember those silly little discs you had to put inside a 45 to play it on your regular "phon-o-graph.' I even had 78s at one time, and know why record albums are called 'albums.' (For the youngsters like Ed, they were packaged like books, with individual pockets to put the 78s in, because you couldn't put a lot of music on one disc, maybe one song per side.)
And y'know, I am still finding music I like, though the best stuff in my memory was the wonderful explosion of music between '67 and '70, as well as some of the stuff from the early 80s.
Posted by: Prup (aka Jim Benton) | September 14, 2009 7:12 PM
I'm sorry, but MTV was the worst thing to ever happen to music. Without MTV Madonna (and Britany, et al) would never had a second album. And the world would be a better place.
Posted by: Sam Lewis | September 14, 2009 8:39 PM
Well, if you're into kicking Jonas Brothers, you'll have to aim older than 14-19. Those guys are 17, 20 and 21.
Posted by: Lynn | September 14, 2009 8:50 PM
I never paid attention to M-TV or VH-1. M-TV may have saved rock music for its time, but I just found it to be dumb. I still have 1000 LP's of which some are monorail. I realized I fell into the generation gap recently when I had to explain the movie Sleeper. I'm 51 and an ex-lower peninsulite.
Posted by: JefFlyingV | September 14, 2009 9:33 PM
Just to add noise to the noise, I'm 21, and even as a Performing Arts Tech major at UofM I'm still reluctant to learn to use Autotune even for basic, non T-Pain (dude who "pioneered" auto-tune, even though Neil Young was one of the first artists to really use Vocoding vocal synthesis.. and promptly drop it) stuff.
Also, I don't enjoy most pop music these days unless I'm drunk.
Posted by: Matt | September 15, 2009 12:08 AM
Prup - I hear ya - I turn 60 this week and grew up in the era of 78's (have a whole bunch of them in my bookcase still,) 45s and the latest and greatest - mono 33 1/3rds :) I got my first radio (a wonderful old Phillips 3 band tube radio) at 4 years of age (1953) from my grandfather and listened to a lot of wonderful music as I grew up.
Glory be to the Internet and YouTube though - I keep finding new music that I love a re-finding music from my youth that I had long forgotten about.
Posted by: Doug Alder | September 15, 2009 12:59 AM
VH1 and MTV proper do show music videos though not at times when most people are viewing. MTV2 still has blocks of videos and MTV Jams and MTV Hits along with Vh1 Soul and VH1 Classic still play lots of music. Videos are niche markets not for basic level cable but usually now on digital or expanded packages (i.e. you pay more to have them). iTunes has a large catalog of music videos people can buy.
Posted by: ponderingfool | September 15, 2009 6:45 AM
Oddly enough, I ran across this generation gap stuff recently, albeit in a surprisingly compressed way. I spent considerable time about a decade ago hanging out with exotic dancers, and frankly, this rather affected my musical tastes. Last month, I've renewed the acquaintance with a new dancer, who is around 21. I was amazed to find that she has never heard of some of the finest stripping music of my past. Fiona Apple? Lords of Acid? Never heard of them. Even a bit vague on Pink Floyd.
This girl have never heard of Enigma! How in the hell can you be a successful dancer without 'Principles of Lust?"
Get off my...well, not lawn. Er, I mean "don't get off it," honey. Just let me play something for you.
TMI? Sorry. Thought it was relevant.
Posted by: Longstreet63 | September 15, 2009 7:55 AM
Longstreet63 = "I ran across this generation gap stuff recently...I spent considerable time about a decade ago hanging out with exotic dancers..."
Hot damn! What a way to blow a fortune.
My version of the above (briefly re-told):
My nephew and his friend came up to my house to show me a near mint condition copy of "Thriller" they picked up from a second-hand store for $2. They did this not only to show what a bargain it was, but also because I had a working turntable.
Just as my nephew's friend was placing the needle down he said "Hey! The groove on this record spirals around and around into the centre."* I restrained myself from an eye-glazing lecture on how vinyl records work, with dawning realisation that I had officially become a boring old fart.
I don't mind all that much, but I wish that it had happened in the company of 'exotic dancers' though. :) - DJ
___________________
*see post #25
Posted by: DingoJack | September 15, 2009 8:27 AM
This line--"it does sort of ruin the comparison if it isn't true"--is one of the funniest I have read lately.
Imagine all the possibilities for using it!
Posted by: KarinNH | September 15, 2009 9:02 AM
Where are music videos featured? In the hospitality and entertainment industries-it's the new muzak. Hotels, casinos, restaurants. A lot of the stage-screen videos are produced on casino stages. I notice similarities between many videos, they will actually use the same backdrop, or visual interpretation (for example the female singer in an orange dress lying in a pool of gerber daisies). This is done in several videos, but you'd have to be exposed to them time and again to realize how canned they are. Often the entertainers are on the venue circuit, so you have the added effect of selling tickets.
Basically the video screens are a compromise between espn and muzak.
Posted by: lilorphant | September 15, 2009 9:04 AM
I'm going to be REALLY stodgy, well beyond my years, and ask what the attraction of music videos was in the first place, when there are so many good books to read, and great films to see, and so little time as it is to read and see them.
Posted by: steppenwolf | September 15, 2009 10:02 AM
Although I am about the same age as you, I never really got into MTV. We were mainly into classical music at my house, though I was exposed to pop culture via the radio and my friends. Lately I have been following a site that occasionally posts videos of the songs I remember from the late 1970s through mid 1980s, and it's interesting to see some of those videos for the first time.
Most popular music is trash. It has always been thus and always will be thus. The problem is that I am less willing to spend time listening to the trash in an effort to find the stuff I actually like, and I don't have reliable sources (e.g., teenage or college-age relatives) to help me filter out the trash. One reason why people tend to idealize the songs of whatever decade they were teenagers is that much of the obvious dreck falls down the memory hole. Case in point: "You Light Up My Life", which was the #1 song of the late 1970s but which hardly anybody will admit to liking today. It's the same process that resulted in Mozart being part of the classical canon while Salieri, who was actually more popular back in the day, is someone you've probably only heard of if you've seen Amadeus.
Posted by: Eric Lund | September 15, 2009 11:42 AM
I have never, ever understood or recognized artists on MTV. I'm 21. I don't have cable or public television (because of where I live, we just get really bad service).
I don't like popular music. I grew up listening to Holst on a record player. (I was raised by my grandmother and father. So I guess that explains the record player. But not really.) I loved Mars. I'd go to bed listening to classical radio. My favorite CDs are all soundtracks to movies like Pirates of the Caribbean.
Every time some douche (for a lack of better word) will play rifts on his guitar and I want to tell him to quiet down. It sounds horrible. Guitar is my least favorite instrument; people just slam the strings a lot, making meaningless noise because they think it sounds cool.
Posted by: ~L.K. | September 16, 2009 12:00 AM
I'm pretty sure L.K. is just all of our parents pretending to be a 21 year old.
Hi Mom/Dad, I'm impressed you know how to post a comment on a forum :p
Posted by: JohnV | September 16, 2009 9:30 AM
Getting old is only in our mind.
Age never prevented people from doing things:
http://www.whatwasdone.com/
Posted by: What was done | September 16, 2009 2:27 PM
Getting old is only in our mind.
Age never prevented people from doing things:
http://www.whatwasdone.com/
Posted by: What Was Done | October 2, 2009 1:10 PM