What
happened to the M in MTV?
Angela
Burke
It’s
been over 20 years since “music television,”
better known as MTV, first graced our television
screens. The purpose of this innovative
television station was to bring us visual
interpretations of songs in the form of
the music video and expose us to anything
music related. But since then, MTV has become
less music related and more pop culture
related.
MTV
realized that simply playing videos would
be monotonous and developed several shows
that incorporated music videos such as “TRL”
and “Direct Effect.” In the
early ’90s, MTV pioneered the reality
TV revolution we experience today with shows
like “The Real World” and “Road
Rules.”
Since
then, not only has MTV become the home of
many reality shows, but a station dedicated
to anything celebrity. Shows like “Diary,”
“I Want a Famous Face,” “Punk’d,”
“Newlyweds” and “The Osbournes”
fill the time slots of everyday programming
at MTV. With the minimal time left for music
video airplay, pop, hip-hop, top 40, and
other mainstream bands and artists dominate.
“Every
time I turn on MTV, I see the same videos
from the same people on,” Chrissy
Algarin, a student at Long Beach State said.
“Even though I like mainstream artists,
I like a lot of indie music that isn’t
really represented on MTV. Its supposed
to be ‘music’ television, so
more genres of music should be represented.”
Artists
like Britney Spears, Eminem, and *NSYNC
control the video airplay at MTV, keeping
the station from being true music television.
The
truest form of music representation on a
music based television station is FUSE.
The FUSE network is the American version
of Canada’s music based television
station Much Music.
On
FUSE, you’ll find nothing but music
video airplay with the exception of a few
shows that incorporate music videos like
“Dedicate Live,” and “IMX.”
“IMX” is similar to MTV’s
“TRL,” only you’ll find
mostly music artists as guests and the top
ten videos to be more eclectic and less
mainstream.
“I
like that ‘IMX’ on FUSE always
has bands and artist that aren’t as
mainstream,” Alysa Kuhn, a junior
at Long Beach State said. “You’re
able to get to know and put a face to bands
and artists who aren’t in the public
eye.”
FUSE
also dedicates time slots to many different
genres of music, such as, marcha, indie
rock, underground hip-hop, punk rock, and
heavy metal, on a daily basis.
MTV does dedicate time slots to underground
music, but airs these time slots really
late at night or really early in the morning.
This doesn’t give fair representation
to lesser-known types of music, nor does
it expose it to a large audience.
The
FUSE network has proven to be truer than
MTV to the type of television station they
are labeled: music television. MTV, in recent
years, has become a television station dedicated
to pop culture and has become a vital element
of pop culture. Maybe MTV should re-evaluate
what it stands for and re-name itself to
PCTV (Pop Culture Television.)
Angela
Burke is a public relations major at Cal
State Long Beach.
|
