Chapter: MTV

MTV, it began broadcasting August 1, 1981. It's initial purpose was to play music videos that were guided by on-air hosts called VJs. (Interesting name.) It was devoted entirely to music, something like a mainstream where fans could listen to their favorite music, watch interviews of recording artists and even hear what other fans thought of the music. But, now nearing 3 decades of being on-air, MTV has evolved into a pop culture & reality TV bowl of turd. Even the logo has been changed. They dropped "Music Television" completely and the M even appears to be shorter. Tina Exarhos, a spokesperson for MTV's marketing team, explained the change to "The New York Daily News": "If you watch the channel, you've seen that it's definitely going in a new direction. We really wanted to see the logo featured in a new way, and this was really meant to be able to house all the great things that are happening at MTV at any given time." Sigh. I'm losing my MTV.

I mean, it's still great and all, and it still shows music and stuff, but "Teen Mom"? Really? Or "Is She Really Going Out With Him?", "Date My Mom" ? Get outta my face, c'mon. I used to love just watching music videos, or just leaving the channel on and letting the music soothe my soul. But now? I feel like my IQ decreases as soon as I put the channel on. These shows are so unnecessary, and worse, stupid! Over the years MTV has morphed into a channel that is less focused on it's original intention. It's now focused on targeting a certain teen/young adult audience, and ditching it's roots to giving the audience what the network believes they want. What a shame. Way to follow the crowd MTV.

"The MTV brand, to me, stands for such an irreverent groundbreaking brand, and unfortunately I feel a little underwhelmed when I look at this," Hamish McLennan, global chairman-CEO of advertising powerhouse Young & Rubicam, told Ad Age. With shows like "Jersey Shore", MTV is farting out celebrities overnight. And it's clear that people are more swayed by a show like this, rather than old-school music video blocks like "120 Minutes".
Let's retrogress and take a look at MTV back then...

MTV's first promo featuring public domain images of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Let's get back to music MTV.

But, I'm not gonna hate, I do love me some ABDC. (STATIC NOYZE!!)