Should MTV go back to the 80's

[Jim Pez]

Do you think MTV should go back to the way it was in the 80's and early 90's. I mean with the Vjays and music videos. I miss the old MTV. I loved coming home from school to watch my favorite music video or see an interview with my favorite artist. the best thing about the old MTV is that you were exposed to music you might not other wise have listened too. Remember the beyonce song last year that was on the news ? Just imagine how much more popular it would have been if MTV were the same today as it was back in the 80's and 90's. It sucks that all they have now are fake reality shows. I feel sorry for all the teenagers who have to grow up with this crap.

[BeastCreatureTrapper]

I don't know if MTV can go back, but they should try something. I haven't watched MTV since the early '90s, and haven't missed it in the least.

I remember when MTV was NOTHING but videos. You might get a VJ with an introduction here and there, but it was basically just video after video after video, with an occasional MTV bumper.

Then they started having MUSIC-related shows, with the VJs doing interviews and promoting new bands. That was cool, especially the genre-specific shows, like Headbangers Ball and such.

But then The Real World came on and was kinda fun for a bit, but that was mostly because we didn't realize then how much the concept of "reality" television was going to expand and take over the television medium for the worse.

If MTV would go back to a mix of 80% music videos and 20% shows, I think it would be fine.

Get rid of the reality show crap and bring back cool quirky shows, like Liquid Television, B&B, Daria, etc etc.. Even a failed original concept show is better than uninspired, pandering reality tv tripe.

MTV was a brilliant concept from the get-go. They should have stayed the course, but they got too smart for their own good. It reminds me of when Playboy Magazine thought it was a better business decision to remove nudity from their pictorials, and to take away their cartoons and jokes. Totally backward ass logic from people who got paid big money to find a way to break what was never broken.

[kemcha]

I have to agree. MTV used to be my favorite cable station but ever since they ditched "music videos", I stopped watching their programming, since the early 90's. To make things worse, they even decided to chum the waters over what was left of their viewers and created that stupid "resolutions for white people" video. For me, it hasn't been MTV for more than 20 years.

[Moviefan2k4]

I was in high school during "the last days of old MTV", a.k.a. the late '90s pop boom. I remember seeing then-new artists like NSync, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, 98 Degrees, Jessica Simpson...you get the idea. They didn't play music videos 24/7, but you could still find them at night and during the early morning hours, plus Pop-Up Video and Total Request Live. They originally launched MTV2 as a "videos-only" companion network, but that idea was soon scrapped.

[kevin87]

I actually like some of MTV's shows... and really when they stopped showing music videos, all they played were the most popular rap/hiphop songs at the time and I don't like that so I never watched them anyway lol

They used to at least have an hour or two block of music videos, they could go back to that. I think the main reason they might have stopped was because they have MTV Hits and MTVu on cable, but now MTV Hits became Nickelodeon Music so it's still not good lol

[Buscemi]

The answer, pure and simple, is no. The reason? VH1 is already doing that and the 80's are so played out that it's ridiculous.

As for making it about the music again, YouTube already supplanted it. And besides, would you want a channel that only plays videos that appeal to sixth graders?

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

The answer, pure and simple, is no. The reason? VH1 is already doing that and the 80's are so played out that it's ridiculous.

As for making it about the music again, YouTube already supplanted it. And besides, would you want a channel that only plays videos that appeal to sixth graders?

There's songs from both the '80s and now, I'd never recommend to a sixth grader. Just sayin'...

[irighti]

I also stopped watching during the mid to late 90's. I enjoyed learning of new artists, and often times that first intro was through a video.

I did love my beavis & butthead, the cartoon 'The Head' which I think was part of liquid television, and The State still ranks as my favorite sketch comedy show.

[Bugg]

I don't think many people are going to sit in front of a TV channel showing random music videos when they can go to youtube and pick and choose what videos they watch. 30 years ago you could get kids to passively sit in front of the television for an hour, waiting to see that one Michael Jackson video. That aint gonna happen today.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by Bugg

I don't think many people are going to sit in front of a TV channel showing random music videos when they can go to youtube and pick and choose what videos they watch. 30 years ago you could get kids to passively sit in front of the television for an hour, waiting to see that one Michael Jackson video. That aint gonna happen today.

That's because kids today have about 10% the attention span of people my age...and I'm just 36. My nephew is almost 15, and he switches things so quick it drives me nuts. The current generation is probably the most multi-optioned yet indecisive one yet.

[Chiefy]

We got cable I believe in 1981, right when MTV was brand new. I was introduced to so much music, ROCK music, nothing else. Man those were the days.

[Ray Jackson]

The fact that, in recent years, they've based the bulk of their format on the exploitation of pregnant teenagers tells me that it's a lost cause.

...MTV is an embarrassment.

[JeffTheMovieGuy]

I miss their old programming. Real World, Road Rules, Music Videos. Animation. MTV's Spring Break. etc.

They lost me at Teen Pregnant and F**K White people with Francesca Ramsey.

[ElectricPeterTork]

As has been said... the boat has sailed on MTV.

In the 80s and 90s, they were all you had. Now? Why is anyone going to wait around hoping that MTV plays a video you want to see when YouTube is a click away?

Now, they could nuke the stupid reality shows and things might be better. Maybe turn into what VH1 used to be... Behind The Music and Pop Up Video and maybe try their hand at animation again and stuff like that. But the days of being just videos are long gone and never coming back.

...unless Michael Jackson dies again. I remember in 2009, we found out the answer to the question "what would it take to make MTV play an actual music video again?". It was Michael Jackson's unexpected death.

[JeffTheMovieGuy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ysyZF-DZFY

[Chloenator]

The only shows I actually watch on MTV now are Ridiculousness and Catfish. I pretty much have no interest in anything else. Teen Mom can pi$$ off!

[Canada]

Yes. So should Much Music (MTV of Canada) there isn't much music on Much Music anymore.

[Thomas Veil]

I would like to see the original MTV days again with enhanced picture. Just rebroadcast it.

To answer the question though, no its too late for that...kids today wouldn't appreciate it. Though I think the music industry missed the boat as back in the day I bought a ton of music because of MTV videos.

Its like the Twilight Zone episode The Walking Distance....we each get only one summer or in this case MTV of the 80s for those of us that were of age then.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by ElectricPeterTork

...unless Michael Jackson dies again. I remember in 2009, we found out the answer to the question "what would it take to make MTV play an actual music video again?". It was Michael Jackson's unexpected death.

When Prince died, they played his videos.

[Optimus-Prime-Rox]

Would love to see old school music videos back on MTV but it will probably never be. If your nostalgic for a artist or certain bands music video then look them up on YouTube or subscribe to free internet radio that plays the hits of the 80's and 90's.