MTV is at death’s door

NY Post ^ | July 23, 2015 | Richard Morgan

[oh8eleven]

Viacom is vulnerable in that many of its networks, including MTV, Nickelodeon and Spike, target youngsters — “the segment of the population that’s most rapidly and definitively abandoning linear TV,” according to the analyst.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Martha Quinn was a cutie in those days.

Oh yeah. I recall having some not quite "G" rated thoughts about her back in the day.

[mrsmel]

Well said, I have always believed that MTV, The Diva phenomenon, etc, killed rock.

[mmichaels1970]

“once dominant companies where the product that provides the majority of their profits (film; TV networks) is made obsolete by a digital world.”

Completely incorrect in my opinion. "The Real World" was the beginning of the end of MTV to me. It began the phasing out of music videos and phasing in of trash reality TV.

Now you can't catch a single music video on the channel. VH1 Classic, I believe, is the only one where you have half a chance of seeing a video.

My cousin and I were discussing this just a few days ago. I'd be willing to bet if they dusted off their old tapes from the 80's and simply replayed them on the air, their viewership would go up immediately. I would think it would be much cheaper to do as well. If they gave me the channel tomorrow, that's what I would do.

[mrsmel]

LOL, I never thought of that, but you’re right!

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Viacom is a lot more than just MTV.

[GeronL]

Yes it is!

and the artists get royalties from that too I’m sure

[massgopguy]

All that was left was Headbanger’s Ball on Saturday night after I’d get home from gigs that were becoming scant. Then these pukes in flannel shirts smoking clove cigarettes told me how they were protesting against me started showing up. My genre was dead. I hate Curt Cobain.

[Buckeye McFrog]

When the used to let Weird Al Yankovic take over the channel for a few hours...that was the best!

[mrsmel]

My older brother and I are classic prog rock dweebs, we still have those debates lol.

[fatez]

I saw them in Denver in February of 1983. Great show!!!

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I’ve been watching Palladia some. Some pretty good stuff on there at times.

[mmichaels1970]

It was all about the diva singer, and not at all about the band as an entity. Talented MUSICIANS who could play instruments were relegated to session players, or back up for a particular concert tour.

I agree that a lot of that happened, but I believe MTV still did a lot to showcase "the band" as well.

Duran Duran, Posion, Men at Work, Guns N Roses, U2, Prince and the Revolution, REM, Bon Jovi, Talking Heads, Dire Straits were just a few bands who's careers where strengthened by exposure on MTV. Man, that was a fun time!

MTV died because it wanted to get into the reality tv business and out of the music business.

[Red Badger]

Yeah, it’s what MTV USED to be.......................

[dfwgator]

Completely incorrect in my opinion. "The Real World" was the beginning of the end of MTV to me.

Before that, it was "Remote Control." Which I thought was a funny show (gave Adam Sandler his start), but it definitely was the first sign that MTV was phasing out music videos.

[Steve_Seattle]

I don’t know if I can blame MTV for the demise of rock bands and rock music in general, but it has been apparent to me for several years that rock music is dying and rock bands as I understood them are becoming an endangered species. What we have now are rap and divas (e.g., Beyoncé, Ciara) and singer/celebrities (e.g., Justin Bieber), not rock bands or rock music.

[dfwgator]

MTV started to lose my interest when grunge became the next 'big' thing. Gone were the 80's clothes, hairstyles, music, and party attitudes.

David Lee Roth, summed up the 80s the best, "The music smiled, the hair smiled, and everyone smiled".

[BlueLancer]

This was one of the last things that I saw on MTV, back in about 2005 ... and I only saw it as I was channel-surfing past it and it caught my attention ...

British Army Dragoons out in the Sandbox in an amateur video to the Tony Christie song, "Is this the way to Amarillo?" Pretty funny stuff. I still don't know why they were showing it on MTV ...

Is This The Way To Amarillo?

[oh8eleven]

Good! MTV was my deal in the 80s as a teen.
My kids were teens back then too, and the music/videos were actually fun to watch.
I even have to admit, I especially liked MJ's Thriller album.

[henkster]

That is a great video. Frank Zappa was a genius. My oldest brother was a big Zappa fan; “We’re Only in it for the Money,” the Sgt. Pepper’s spoof, was his favorite album.

I can still recite the lyrics to several of the songs.

[dfwgator]

Funny was that years later Sting played Billy Idol on the classic "Sinatra Group" skit on SNL....