MTV's Message

[the G-man]

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.

Yeah, there was nothing wacky about that relationship. I admit that I didn't see what was coming, probably in no small part to the fact that Bateman is usually the "nice guy" in movies, but when his character had the heel turn not only was it 100% in character with what had gone before but it was deeply disturbing and even a little scary.

 

[JarodRussell]

Shouldn't boys and girls be married before they have sex? That's the real decline!

 

[KJbushway]

^Side note: nice avatar.

While I am waiting for that period of my life to come before I have fun, most teenagers see that as a rule, and therefor rebel.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

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.

Sure, in the very early years of the channel that was true, but when they saw the amount of viewers they could get with stuff like "Billie Jean" and "Thriller", it was mostly Top 40 music from that point on. And that was in 1983. I would guess the vast majority of people talking about how awesome MTV used to be aren't old enough to remember 1981-82.

 

[the G-man]

Michael Jackson may have been a mentally ill Jesus juice swilling child molester but I don't think you can point to Billie Jean and Thriller as examples of a slide in quality at MTV. By any measure those songs were quality stuff.

And, yes, Top 40 music dominated MTV pretty quickly but until at mid to late 80s they were still willing to take some chances and feature stuff outside of the mainstream.

 

[Gaith]

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.

Right, and the point is that that's by far the most difficult moment she faces in the movie. The pregnancy, OTOH, is portrayed as a total breeze.

 

[Thestral]

Must be something about Ellen Page and older dudes going after her. He's lucky she wasn't her other character in a somewhat-similar situation. And besides, that's a pretty serious difficulty to face, wouldn't you say?

Anyway, meh, I don't feel like getting into a long drawn-out argument about Juno's merits and demerits. It's the move that introduced me to Ellen Page (or was that X3?) which is enough for me. And, I dunno, it's good to see a high school pregnancy that doesn't involve massive amounts of slut-shaming, it not entirely realistic. What would you have rather seen, rejection at school? Unsupportive parents?

 

[Unicron]

How about the impending sequel to Inception?

Personally, I miss the MTV I grew up with - the one that was actually about music and stuff.

 

[Gaith]

Anyway, meh, I don't feel like getting into a long drawn-out argument about Juno's merits and demerits. It's the move that introduced me to Ellen Page (or was that X3?) which is enough for me. And, I dunno, it's good to see a high school pregnancy that doesn't involve massive amounts of slut-shaming, it not entirely realistic. What would you have rather seen, rejection at school? Unsupportive parents?

A smidgen of sustained drama directly related to her pregnancy would have been nice. And sure, I get that it's a candy-coated story rather than a realistic take, but I could have done without it winning the Original Screenplay Oscar... and I could have done without being forced to watch it for my screenwriting class, also.

 

[Vanyel]

MTV, I couldn't find it on my TV with out going through the guide. Back in the 80's, as a young teen I could find it, with out looking, on one of these:

And just watch it and do my homework with MTV on. Maybe I do see it through those rose colored glasses that older people remember the 1950's, but it is found memories. I remember waiting for Thriller to premier, and for Weird Al's parody's. I even remember watching Just Say Julie with my little sister.

Now I watch the History Channel, which is also slowly moving from its roots, no not Hitler and WWI, but History. What do loggers, crab fishermen, pawn shop owners and pickers have to do with real history?

 

[IndyJones]

Teenagers are growing up too fast, getting engaged to fast, its just different generations.

Of course none of that is true, either. The average age for a first marriage is going up, not down.

I swear I don't even know what that is.

 

[FPAlpha]

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.

MTV is also a business so they have to cater to the people who put money on their table and that's only going to happen if MTV plays popular music to attract the crowd.

However back in the 90s or so they had much more diverse shows for the more non-mainstream audiences.. Monster's Ball for hard rock/metal fan, Yo MTV for rap (true rap music and not the pop rap stuff of today) etc. Granted, they were usually played later in the evening or during times of day where nobody watched TV but these programmes still did exist.

Nowadays it's 70% stupid shows and the rest is divided up between something that's related to music.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Teenagers are growing up too fast, getting engaged to fast, its just different generations.

Of course none of that is true, either. The average age for a first marriage is going up, not down.

I swear I don't even know what that is.

A really, really old cable box?

 

[Vanyel]

Teenagers are growing up too fast, getting engaged to fast, its just different generations.

Of course none of that is true, either. The average age for a first marriage is going up, not down.

I swear I don't even know what that is.

A really, really old cable box?

Yup.

On the left was a switch with three positions. The center had the channels on three levels. To get a channel you moved the switch to the right level, then pressed the button. Right now it's set for channel 33.

To get to channel 6, you'd move the lever up to the top position, and press the button bellow the number 30.

The roller on the right, I don't remember it's function. Volume maybe, or tuning? It's been a very long time.

 

[KJbushway]

Teenagers are growing up too fast, getting engaged to fast, its just different generations.

Of course none of that is true, either. The average age for a first marriage is going up, not down.

I swear I don't even know what that is.

Really, its a lie. I have atleast three examples of people I know who Got engaged(not married) just a couple months after meeting or going out with someone, not only that but I know one that got a girl pregnant while he was in high school. So before you dismiss me, maybe figure that I wouldn't say that without seeing a lot of examples.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

Michael Jackson may have been a mentally ill Jesus juice swilling child molester but I don't think you can point to Billie Jean and Thriller as examples of a slide in quality at MTV. By any measure those songs were quality stuff.

I have no problem with either of those songs, but obviously they opened the door for MTV to start airing a lot more pop and R&B videos, until Top 40 stuff was the primary focus of the channel.

I think the people who say "MTV sucks now" are really just remembering the one hour a day when they played rock videos, and blocking out the other 23 when they played Whitney Houston, Billy Ocean, Rick Astley, New Kids on the Block, Paula Abdul, and Milli Vanilli.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

Really, its a lie. I have atleast three examples of people I know who Got engaged(not married) just a couple months after meeting or going out with someone, not only that but I know one that got a girl pregnant while he was in high school. So before you dismiss me, maybe figure that I wouldn't say that without seeing a lot of examples.

You do understand the difference between personal anecdotal evidence and actual statistics, right? In this case, there's this thing called the U.S. Census Bureau that actually tracks this sort of stuff.

Here you go: People are waiting longer to get married. There's even a nice chart on the article that shows you how the average age of a first marriage has gone up since the 1890s, particularly for women.

 

[KJbushway]

Trust me my generation is doing things a lot faster. I am not saying getting married that is what you can't separate from this, I said Engaged, which doesn't require divorce when separated. No I know marriage is lower It suprised me that it was woman more than anything. U.S. Census Bureau gets only answers from people who want to answer, I wouldn't say its always completely accurate, not to debunk what the statistics are, which I agreed with.

 

[IndyJones]

Trust me my generation is doing things a lot faster. I am not saying getting married that is what you can't separate from this, I said Engaged, which doesn't require divorce when separated. No I know marriage is lower It suprised me that it was woman more than anything. U.S. Census Bureau gets only answers from people who want to answer, I wouldn't say its always completely accurate, not to debunk what the statistics are, which I agreed with.

Are you messing with me?

You think your personal experience provides a better analysis of this country than the Census Bureau?

 

[KJbushway]

Your not getting it.
I am talking about the number of teenagers getting engaged. Not married, they are completely different things.
If you look at the last line you'll see that I said I agreed with the statistics, I just aired a word of caution of holding those numbers as completely 100% accurate.