Remember back when MTV used to be cool?
Yeah, I don’t either. But that might be because I didn’t get to grow up in the era when they WERE. After finding a tape of the “Top 20 Videos of 1984” special, I’ll have to say I’m insanely jealous of Generation X right now. It’s just sad that music videos as an art are confined to their generation. Videos are still around, but barely. No one really cares about them anymore, so there’s no effort to make them showy or impressive.
I did get to experience a little bit of the golden age, though. Back in the kindergarten days of my youth (1988), Mom would have the radio on in the apartment…..but on weekends, she’d turn on VH1. MTV was too hip for my mother, and too teenage-skewing for me to understand, so we went with the “fogier” version. But they were still videos. It was a real treat to see all the images and colors flashing about in a glorious chaotic splendor….
By the way, Mom dropped cable in 1990 and I haven’t had access to it since. I imagine if I ever wanted to come back, I’d have this conversation with the cable guy:
“So, I can get music videos on MTV with this?”
“No, they don’t do those anymore. They do supercheap reality programs.”
“Oh……What about VH1?”
“They show nothing but I Love The __’s shows now.”
“But that’s an even bigger niche than showing only videos! How could that possibly be more profitable?”
“Dunno, but it’s their station.”
“How about Tech TV?”
“They changed their name to G4 and their focus to video games.”
“So they cover game news?”
“No, they buy repeats of male-centered shows and run them.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m sure it does to somebody.”
“What are they running on Nick At Nite?”
“Nothing made earlier than 2000.”
“TLC….does that still stand for The Learning Channel?”
“Yes, but you couldn’t learn anything from it now if you tried.”
“What’s on the Disney Channel?”
“Nothing even remotely related to Disney.”
“How about Cartoon Network?”
“They’re showing live-action movies.”
“Er…..is there anything on this cable package that actually does what the name says it’s supposed to do??”
“The Home and Garden Channel still does….but I hear they’re shifting their focus to Mexican wrestling in three months.”
Sad.