The problem is that MTV (who deserves credit for starting the reality show concept) has hung on for deal life to these shows replacing actual music.
Now granted, when they started these (and I am a Gen Xer and watched MTV from the day it started on until I got married-including LOVING the first season of The Real World and Beavis and Butthead) types of shows, the animation and reality show/contest, they were cutting edge. Now they are giving up valuable air time that could be used to attract teens by playing music and giving them a chance to glance at their teeny poster on the wall crush. Instead, they produce garbage (and I don’t say that because I’m an old fuddy duddy, but they have to get more and more outrageous to be considered ‘cutting edge’ and now are bordering on absurdly ridiculous) that is competing with 30 other channels showing stupid reality shows.
MTV, you want to be “cutting edge?” PLAY SOME MUSIC!
Oh, and the dumbest thing MTV EVER did was to start MTV2, supposedly to be the ‘music channel’ and within months they had moved to an all reality channel. So now they have TWO “music television” channels devoted to stupid reality TV. And we won’t go into VH1 and the Flavor of love stuff. (Although I do have to admit that I got kind of caught up in the hot mess that was Rock of Love)
All this being said... back in the day (God, I’m getting old) the ONLY way we had an opportunity to see (not just hear with a record or cassette) our favorite musicians was through MTV. With the internet, the video can be seen in the blink of an eye. So I have to give them that. However part of the awesomeness that was MTV was an exposure to new bands and new genres that you hadn’t heard before.
One last thing, they have a show called “16 and pregnant” which is obviously about teen pregnancy. Now at first I was upset about this show and especially that my 13 and 14 year old daughters heard about it and wanted to watch it. I have MTV blocked, so had to ask me. Well, I watched it and now I want them seeing it. They can see how unfun being a teen mom can be. I repeatedly tell them that the joy of being a mom is the same, if not better in your 20’s as it is in your teens. But you can’t get your teen and early 20’s back. So if you wait, you can have the pleasure of experiencing both.
Right on autumnraine. My 16 and 17 year old boys actually did not mind when I blocked it years ago. They said it was nothing but filth. Same with BET, E, and PBS
“(who deserves credit for starting the reality show concept)”
Wrong. Remember “Real People”? Or “Cops”? “Battle of the Network Stars”? “The Real World” deserves credit, I guess, as the oldest still-running reality show. But it was not the original, and it predates the current craze—which was started by none other than “Survivor”—by about 8 years.
The reality show thing began around 1970 with a series on PBS. It was later parodied by Albert Brooks in Real Life.
I saw reruns of the PBS series in the 1990s.
Beavis & Butthead had video segments in the episodes (not included in the DVD releases). Mike Judge used it to get some artists on MTV that wouldn’t have gotten exposure there otherwise. It also enabled him to mock some other artists. And sometimes a little of both.
The music labels started demanding payment for the music videos that were originally given on a promotional basis.
Also, the reality shows that MTV creates can be aired again later in syndication on Viacom’s Paramount network and released to home video. It’s about revenuable programming.
Same as when NBC got away from cartoons (which had a limited time schedule for syndication) to sitcoms on Saturday mornings. Now they air news and sitcoms. Yawwwwn.
That's because SNL and the Tonight Show and the Grammys and Solid Gold and... programmed older artists for an older demographic (one that still dominates the marketplace only not as much as before).
Generation X was the baby bust between two booms. MTV hasn't programmed for Gen X since 1994.