MTV~PLAY MORE VIDEOS!!!

MTV might be sitting around wondering what’s happened to their ratings and their audience base over the last, um, lets say 15 years. Here’s a clue—Music Television has little to do with music and more to do with CRAP! About 90% of their programming is reality shows like The Hills, My Super Sweet 16—which gives American teens a bad rap as spoiled rotten, good-for-nothing brats—stupid dating shows like Date My Mom, Next, and shows that break up relationships and instill upon America’s youth that infidelity is okay.

The only time you can catch a music video is early in the morning with Wake-Up, and TRL, which interrupts most songs anyway with stupid comments from fans, and a few other 1 hour time slots that play a few videos. Does MTV even do a top 20 countdown anymore? Oh, wait! VH1 does that.

It used to be that 90% of MTV’s programming was music videos or music related. There was a smattering of frivolous programming like classic game shows like Remote Control, Singled-Out and great series’ like Daria, Beavis and Butthead, Sifl and Olly, and other great, creative shows. Even VH1, who seemed to not be selling out, finally bit the bullet and started showing more reality TV than music-related fare. Even the Real World used to be a great card up the sleeve of the network. I quit watching it after New Orleans, that’s when it stopped being “real.” Now if you want to watch more music videos you have go to the more obscure MTV channels that most basic cable subscribers don’t have access too, or download them off the Internet.

Having grown up on MTV and VH1 in their heyday, I have since quit watching, except on such occasions as last nights VMA’s that warrant a peek. After being embarrassed by watching Britney Spears’ comeback farewell performance, I quickly switched the channel to something more appealing. The Italian Job was on FX and I found that a lot more palatable than anything MTV had to offer.

At one point, I flipped back to see if I could catch some awards being given out, when I saw Justin Timberlake and Timbaland taking the stage accept an award. It was then that Justin made a comment that should have rocked MTV’s world. He said loud and clear, “Play more videos!” Yes! Yes! I started cheering from the couch in my living room some 2000 miles away. After all, that is what MTV is supposed to be about, right? The music?

Hopefully, MTV will take JT’s advice and change things up a bit over there. Though, I’m not going to hold my breath. You would think, though, that since Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, too are such power players on the music scene that they might be able to effect some sort of change over there.

It used to be that MTV was the place where artists and bands to showcase their acts. Now…well, they only get to strut their stuff a few times a year like at the VMA’s or in the wee hours of the morning when music videos actually play.

Anyone remember what MTV’s typical program schedule used to be like?