MTV's Message

[Spot's Meow]

I'm torn about this show, but I have to say that it doesn't always portray the girls as well off and doing fine as you say. Case in point is Jenelle on the current season of Teen Mom 2, who lost custody of her baby to her mom, has nowhere to live, and spends her days using her financial aid money from community college to buy pot. Not exactly a pleasant thing to watch. There are some girls, however, whose parents have paid for pretty much everything and they are living quite a cushy life without having to work, just caring for their child every day.

There have actually been many custody battles on Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant, which reflects the reality of how unlikely it is for the teen parents to stay together. However there are still parts of the show that make me uncomfortable with how the pregnancies are being portrayed. In the end, for each girl that tries to get pregnant to be on the show, I feel like there may be many more who try to prevent a pregnancy. But it's so hard to gauge that sort of thing.

 

[Jetfire]

All you need to know is MTV sucks...it is for middle schoolers.

 

[Davros]

I have not watched Empty-V for years, and it looks like I made the right choice.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I remember reading somewhere (can't remember where, exactly) that the people running MTV had been planning for it to become a "youth culture" channel for a long time in advance. The current video-less, reality-TV approach was inevitable.

MTV always had a lot of trashy output, but there was also a more left-field, experimental side that was completely abandoned at the turn of the century. At one point in its history, MTV played legitimate underground music (with a wide variety of other genres), made some cool and original animation, and had unnattractive presenters who were there because they were enthusiastic about music and music video. Almost impossible to imagine it's the same channel now.

I think MTV was already doing a good job of being a complete youth culture channel in the late-80's to early 90's. Not only were they running music videos, they had news shows, stand-up comedy, movie reviews, original animation and comedy shows(which truthfully many did suck), and specials. While most of their videos were mainstream rock and pop they had shows devoted exclusively to rap, metal, dance. As a counterpart they had VH-1 for the older crowd which even had a jazz show. MTV was an important part of the pop culture of Gen X. Now it is a B-level reality TV channel. Pretty sad for those of us who remember the good old days.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

I find the people who complain the most about MTV not showing music videos are the same people who complain the most about the current state of pop music.

If MTV went back to showing music videos, what kind of music videos do you think they would show? It'd be Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, and Justin Bieber on an endless loop. You should be thankful they don't show music videos anymore.

 

[Shurik]

In the age before Youtube, I watched MTV in hopes of seeing a video by some band that I like (I like metal, so that means looking for videos at very late hours). It was kinda cool, watching Megadeth, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse and such on TV.

But what's the point of this channel now and what's the point in complaining that it doesn't actually show music? If I want to see some Slayer video or their live performance, I'll just go to Youtube and find it in about 2 seconds. Mission accomplished ...

 

[bigdaddy]

Teen pregnancy is on the rise, but yes. some do. Americans can be that stupid.

And some go on killing sprees in their schools.

Doesn't mean we should stop everything because .00000000001% of people are idiots.

Teens have sex, I missed out on a lot of sex I could have had if I pushed guys who came out many years later.

Sex is nice, teens like sex and the teen pregnancy rate is the lowest it's ever been.

But don't let the facts get in the way.

As the nation continued to struggle in the recession in 2009, the rate at which U.S. women are having babies continued to fall, pushing the teen birth rate to a record low, federal officials reported Tuesday.

"The decline in teen births is really quite amazing," said Brady E. Hamilton, who helped perform the analysis.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/12/teen_birth_rate_hits_record_lo.html

 

[scotpens]

make mine VH1C

Even they hardly run music videos any more, just Behind The Music & rock movies ad nauseum.

We need VH1 Classic Classic.

What we need is TNBSMVC — The No-Bullshit Music Video Channel. One that actually shows music videos. That probably wouldn’t be profitable today, though.

. . . At one point in its history, MTV played legitimate underground music (with a wide variety of other genres), made some cool and original animation, and had unnattractive presenters who were there because they were enthusiastic about music and music video.

Which unattractive presenters? I only remember the cute ones.

BTW, byron lomax, I love your username.

“The machines are everywhere!”

 

[Squiggy]

Kids these days! Back in my day we respected our elders and ate our vegetables!

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

People are really looking at MTV's past with rose-tinted glasses. The way some people talk, you'd think MTV used to play nothing but The Cure and Depeche Mode and The Smiths around the clock. The reality is, the channel used to be filled with the same Lionel Richie/Huey Lewis/Pointer Sisters/Hall & Oates bullshit that you could hear on every Top 40 radio station in the country.

Yeah, maybe there was a time when they played a lot of alternative rock, but that was back in the early '90s when alternative rock was popular. MTV has always been about glomming onto whatever's popular.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

But what's the point of this channel now and what's the point in complaining that it doesn't actually show music?

To point out how everything was better in my day.

 

[byron lomax]

make mine VH1C

Even they hardly run music videos any more, just Behind The Music & rock movies ad nauseum.

We need VH1 Classic Classic.

What we need is TNBSMVC — The No-Bullshit Music Video Channel. One that actually shows music videos. That probably wouldn’t be profitable today, though.

. . . At one point in its history, MTV played legitimate underground music (with a wide variety of other genres), made some cool and original animation, and had unnattractive presenters who were there because they were enthusiastic about music and music video.

Which unattractive presenters? I only remember the cute ones.



BTW, byron lomax, I love your username.

“The machines are everywhere!”

Thanks. I was wondering when somebody would recognise that.

As for presenters, I can't name anybody specifically (I barely remember any of them) but I do recall a lot of normal-looking ones. Terrible answer I know.

Granted, MTV has always primarily been about what's popular and what sells. But the late hours often allowed place for other, less popular genres and songs.

 

[Thestral]

she has a wacky flirtation with the potential father figure,

Wacky flirtation? Did you miss the whole oh-shit-oh-shit-crrepy-boundary-violation?

 

[Gaith]

she has a wacky flirtation with the potential father figure,

Wacky flirtation? Did you miss the whole oh-shit-oh-shit-crrepy-boundary-violation?

I found it creepy, sure, but I wasn't at all sure that the movie did. In the basement scene, Juno skeezes out, leaves before anything too off-color happens, and Bateman oh-so-conveniently disappears with little to no further mention. It didn't affect her character at all in the long run that I could tell; it was just sort of there, with no apparent purpose or thematic depth other then to take up some screen time - because the romantic tension between her and Cera obviously can't be resolved until after she gives birth, because then there'd be absolutely no drama left, and the narrative momentum would just peter out, so hey, let's waste some time discussing oh so wacky! Italian horror movies and indie bands with some dude until such time as it's convenient for the plot to ditch him as quickly as possible.

The result? Her pregnancy looks like one big picnic.

 

[KJbushway]

Teen pregnancy is on the rise, but yes. some do. Americans can be that stupid.

And some go on killing sprees in their schools.

Doesn't mean we should stop everything because .00000000001% of people are idiots.

Teens have sex, I missed out on a lot of sex I could have had if I pushed guys who came out many years later.

Sex is nice, teens like sex and the teen pregnancy rate is the lowest it's ever been.

But don't let the facts get in the way.

As the nation continued to struggle in the recession in 2009, the rate at which U.S. women are having babies continued to fall, pushing the teen birth rate to a record low, federal officials reported Tuesday.

"The decline in teen births is really quite amazing," said Brady E. Hamilton, who helped perform the analysis.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/12/teen_birth_rate_hits_record_lo.html

Well where I live, I haven't seen a decline. Maybe in the northeast states its lessened, but I had 20 pregnant girls in my graduating class alone. The class before me had 15. None of those girls are the same. There was double digit pregnant girls in all grades, in what is a none poor school district, it Dallas, Ga one of the fastest growing cities in the south. So down here there is a lot more than 000001% of idiots. In the nation as a whole that number is a lot higher.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Have you been personally observing high schools for the past 50 years? I don't see how you can use your personal observations of now as evidence for a decline. You can say they're too high, but that's not the same thing.

 

[KJbushway]

All I said is where I am, it hasn't been on much of a decline. My high school is a year older than I am, with some teachers even coming back from the graduated class. Ask them, they even had high numbers of pregnancies, single digit. But hey, decline or not. Teenagers are growing up too fast, getting engaged to fast, its just different generations. But being a decline is much better news, but that show still doesn't send the best messages all the time, a true life special is one thing, they actually had one.

 

[bigdaddy]

There was 15 pregnant girls or girls that had abortions in 8th grade (300 in the class) when I was in senior year when the normal was less than one, doesn't mean anythnig besides they are slutty and stupid.

People act like Tv and movies and music has destroyed this perfect little country we used to have, like Leave it to Beaver was the real world. It was NEVER the real world. People have always loved sex, people always cheated, there were "bastard" babies and teens got knocked up. The only difference is we are now talking about it when before you were hidden in a closet.

 

[Thestral]

she has a wacky flirtation with the potential father figure,

Wacky flirtation? Did you miss the whole oh-shit-oh-shit-crrepy-boundary-violation?

I found it creepy, sure, but I wasn't at all sure that the movie did. In the basement scene, Juno skeezes out, leaves before anything too off-color happens, and Bateman oh-so-conveniently disappears with little to no further mention. It didn't affect her character at all in the long run that I could tell; it was just sort of there, with no apparent purpose or thematic depth other then to take up some screen time - because the romantic tension between her and Cera obviously can't be resolved until after she gives birth, because then there'd be absolutely no drama left, and the narrative momentum would just peter out, so hey, let's waste some time discussing oh so wacky! Italian horror movies and indie bands with some dude until such time as it's convenient for the plot to ditch him as quickly as possible.

I found it creepy and sad from the beginning cause I knew where this was going (even if the character didn't, being a self-confident 16 yo), and i think by the time of the basement scene the movie wanted us to as well. I mean, she berates him and drives away in tears.

 

[the G-man]

Yeah, maybe there was a time when they played a lot of alternative rock, but that was back in the early '90s when alternative rock was popular. MTV has always been about glomming onto whatever's popular.

Actually, in the early days of the channel (and even up to the mid 80s) MTV did a pretty good job of finding and promoting alternative music, in addition to the fluffy pop stuff I remember seeing Elvis Costello, the Pretenders, Nick Lowe, the Blasters, Warren Zevon, Los Lobos, Mojo Nixon and Frank Zappa.

In part that was because there weren't that many videos around and so they had to be more willing to take a chance on an artist.