On Wed, 10 Jul 1996, Lazlo Nibble wrote:
quoted 5 lines Is it living in the UK that make me put apsolutely no emphasis on MTV or
> > Is it living in the UK that make me put apsolutely no emphasis on MTV or
> > what?
>
> I think most of us Stateside wouldn't give two fucks about MTV if not for
> the fact that many of us remember when it was actually worth a damn.
I don't want to give them more credibility than they're due -- the fact
is that their music programming sucks by design. They do have tremendous
power to lead public taste. If they, of a sudden, decided that Glenn
Underground was the dogs bollocks, and Glenn somehow produced a visually
entertaining video, I've no doubt that GU would be on the mainstage of
Lollapalooza next year instead of Metallica.
Don't believe me? They broke They Might Be Giants, which are as resolutely
weird and uncommercial an act as you're likely to find. They liked the
video for 'Ana Ng' and the rest was history.
But you really need to understand how and why they program what they do.
They sell ads. Everything else is incidental. To the extent that anything
creative or interesting ends up on the air, it's because it either furthers
that goal, or doesn't detract from it.
They are definitely aiming at a demographic group OTHER than the average
IDM reader, so don't expect to have many bones thrown your way. When
my 11 year old son starts calling in and asking for Autechre videos, THAT's
when Autechre videos will show up on MTV.
Anyway, bitching about it doesn't do any good. Just enjoy the good stuff
(the animation programs, the weird MTV promos) and leave the rest. As
far as I'm concerned it's just another channel to surf through late at
night.
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