[BlueSky]

A few months ago, I stumbled upon VH1 Mega Hits, a commercial-free music video channel that plays, you know... music videos (as opposed to VH1 & MTV's parade of celebrity debauchery "reality" shows).

For me it was 100% consistently high quality, playing music such as:

Audioslave, White Stripes, Blink 181, Garbage, Beck, Radiohead, Oasis, Gorillaz, etc. plus artists you simply don't see/hear anywhere else.

Granted, to each his own, but the channel was also defined by what it didn't play, such as Ashley Simpson, Eminem, Britney Spears, anything hip-hop/rap, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, KELLY CLARKSON AAAGGHHH, Rob Thomas, blahblahblah.

Yeah I know, your mileage may vary. Just my druthers to make a point.

I was convinced that the channel was an anomaly, and that the head programmer would eventually be fired and replaced by Twinky Simpsonsucker and get in line with mediocrity as we know it.

Well, it didn't turn out THAT bad; but instead they just dumped it altogether.

At the moment, I noticed there are all of 10 or so people at their message boards commiserating. I'd guess the other 2 million or so don't know there's a message board. Or maybe 'cause it just went off the air this AM, I don't know.

The future of music isn't what it used to be.

[budster101]

MTV used to be cool. All music videos.

[OptimusG4]

I miss the days when 40 year old guys wouldn't give in to 12 year old girls and play whatever they wanted.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by budster101

MTV used to be cool. All music videos.

Wow, that was way WAY WAAAAAYYYYY back in the last millenium...

-t

[budster101]

Thanks for that. :/

[residentEvil]

Originally Posted by Bluesky

A few months ago, I stumbled upon VH1 Mega Hits, a commercial-free music video channel that plays, you know... music videos (as opposed to VH1 & MTV's parade of celebrity debauchery "reality" shows).

For me it was 100% consistently high quality, playing music such as:

Audioslave, White Stripes, Blink 181, Garbage, Beck, Radiohead, Oasis, Gorillaz, etc. plus artists you simply don't see/hear anywhere else.

Granted, to each his own, but the channel was also defined by what it didn't play, such as Ashley Simpson, Eminem, Britney Spears, anything hip-hop/rap, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, KELLY CLARKSON AAAGGHHH, Rob Thomas, blahblahblah.

Yeah I know, your mileage may vary. Just my druthers to make a point.

I was convinced that the channel was an anomaly, and that the head programmer would eventually be fired and replaced by Twinky Simpsonsucker and get in line with mediocrity as we know it.

Well, it didn't turn out THAT bad; but instead they just dumped it altogether.

At the moment, I noticed there are all of 10 or so people at their message boards commiserating. I'd guess the other 2 million or so don't know there's a message board. Or maybe 'cause it just went off the air this AM, I don't know.

The future of music isn't what it used to be.

I watch VH1 Classic now, mostly and then MTV Hits; the only two vdeo channels I have that still play vidoes (VH1 Country plays videos all the time too).

[AB^2=BCxAC]

I didn't even know it existed... if I had, I would have been taping it. Loving it. Yelling at bars to change the channel to it.

[Cipher13]

The only way to be satisfied is to be your own DJ.

[- - e r i k - -]

Is Blink 181 the good band that Blink 182 takes a piss at?

[Commodus]

Yeah, I was wondering why Blink 182 was lumped in with bands that are actually worth listening to. And even then, I'd say that groups like Audioslave and Oasis definitely have their off-days.

[wdlove]

That's too bad, time moves on.

[mitchell_pgh]

I remember MTV before it completely sold out.

[Randman]

I remember seeing a VH-1 special with Metallica and Lars made a joke about how ironic it was that they'd be on VH-1 and not MTV.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by Randman

I remember seeing a VH-1 special with Metallica and Lars made a joke about how ironic it was that they'd be on VH-1 and not MTV.

Aren't they all owned by the same company?

[Don Pickett]

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh

Aren't they all owned by the same company?

Yes – Viacom. The offices are on different floors of 1633 Broadway, along with Showtime and other Viacom properties.

[CreepingDeth]

Originally Posted by Randman

I remember seeing a VH-1 special with Metallica and Lars made a joke about how ironic it was that they'd be on VH-1 and not MTV.

I fail to see the irony.

Now we have Avril Armbands covering "Fuel." When I saw that a year ago, I was like "…the world has gone to Hell…and Hetfield's enjoying it."

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by budster101

Thanks for that. :/

Bud, I still vividly remember "Video Killed the Radio Star," the first video they played. You ain't alone. Why do they even bother calling it "Music Television" anymore, anyway? It's more like "spoiled, self-absorbed kids screwing up their lives in public television" now. I watch Fuse (a Canadian music TV channel) sometimes, because they don't do anything like "The Real World" (what a horribly dishonest name!), but I depend on the satellite music channels for music. If they just had a channel that only did videos, I'd watch that a lot.

Back in the late '80s and early '90s, I got exposed to a large variety of artists and genres because they played music videos on MTV. I found out that there were a lot of artists out there that I'd never heard of that were definitely worth my time. And of course some of the videos were pure visual art-both in terms of abstract or at least abstracted images and in terms of plain old good acting (ever see the video for Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry?") Now, I really can't find that sort of thing. It's all genre specific, "top of the charts," even on Fuse.

Gee I miss Martha Quinn.

[Superchicken]

I have an iPod mini... I pick my own music

[Don Pickett]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Gee I miss Martha Quinn.

Only because she was seriously hot.

[Kevin]

Eh... she was cute.

Seriously hot?

No.

[mrfrost]

I miss vanessa warwick

[Don Pickett]

Originally Posted by KevinK

Eh... she was cute.

Seriously hot?

No.

It was the early 80s. You had to be there.

[Kevin]

I was there. I remember when MTV first came on.

[budster101]

It was awesome wasn't it?

I mean Adam Ant would never had any success without MTV.
The videos were very creative, and inspired people to go out and buy the music. I knew a guy who made msuci videos back then and he did very well, but then...

[Kevin]

Yeah.. see back then a lot of mainstream music artists weren't making videos. They were already getting hits and money from the radio.

It was the cutting edge bands that were kindy artsy that wanted exposure that had the videos at first.

That is why the first few years of MTV was neat.

[budster101]

Same reason I enjoyed Napster when it was "OK" and before Lars got his hands on it...

I discovered some cool music, and it prompted me to go out and seek these band's albums.
There should be a channel just for Music Videos, and now add links to download partial albums or singles to motivate people to seek them out...

[ghporter]

I miss Martha not because she was or was not "hot," but because she was bright, upbeat, knowledgable, and played some great videos. She had a playlist made up of the biggest and the smallest, the well known and the unknown-who became well known because of the airtime they got on MTV.

Budster101 is right; acts like Adam Ant were only capable of becoming what they were because of their MTV exposure. A whole lot of acts were able to become huge ONLY because they got airtime on MTV.

That was the era of linking visuals to the music, either through innovative concert-like videos, or through dramatizing some story linked to the music. Remember Ah Hah's "Take On Me?" Or Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight" with Ronnie Spector? Or David Lee Roth's "California Girls?" Or better yet, The Cars' "Drive." THAT was wonderfully dramatic. These were all before the "concept" video director. The video for Steve Perry's "Oh Sherry" was a great take on "concept" video directors...

[budster101]

Exactly!

There are so many great bands that just give up due to poverty and it's a hard life. Bring back 24/7 Music Videos! They can still create or recreat a model that works with this new age of Podcasting, etc..

Lots of cool behind the scenes for those videos too. I think VH1 had some pop-up show that as they played the video gave fun and cool facts about the video.

Is that still on? I don't watch much TV except the news these days...

-

[demograph68]

Music videos are just a different kind of commercial.

[budster101]

Yeah, one that entertains you.

Commercials on television are expensive, and this affords unheard of bands a venue to display their talent as well as lend more of a story to their songs.

Nothing 'just' about them.

[BlueSky]

I don't usually watch videos much, or even listen to music all that much. The cool thing about VH1 megahits is that I was being introduced to stuff I'd otherwise know nothing about.

One band that comes to mind is Garbage, featuring Shirley Manson.

Originally Posted by Commodus

Yeah, I was wondering why Blink 182 was lumped in with bands that are actually worth listening to.

I actually don't know much about them apart from their song "Miss You". That song alone qualifies them for excellence in my book.

[iNub]

MTV and VH1 could disappear today, and I wouldn't find out about it for at least a year. If all of their channels went off the air, the world would be a better place.