Because Your Generation

November 11, 2012 12:39 PM

Why Doesn't MTV Play Music Videos Anymore? (SLYT)
posted by dumbland (117 comments total)

Heh.
posted by 2N2222 at 12:49 PM on November 11, 2012

Okay, that's fucking hilarious.

(That said — wait, what? This is a new thing? We were already making fun of the lack of actual videos on MTV back before Napster et al even existed. Has it gotten even worse since then?)
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:49 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

(That said — wait, what? This is a new thing?

Awesomely, he covered that, near the end: "that complaint is literally old enough to drive a car by now".
posted by gurple at 12:52 PM on November 11, 2012 [11 favorites]

Does anyone else find the framing at the end of the slow zoom incredibly uncomfortable?
posted by Strass at 12:53 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

You know, what I really do miss about old-school MTV is that it mashed all kinds of music up against each other. In an hour of watching you could see Metaliica, Michael Jackson, REM, Indigo Girls, Prince, and The Cars.

So many of the current services, like Pandora, don't allow for that kind of casual exposure outside of one's comfort zone. But it's actually through that kind of cross-pollination that I (and many many others) discovered artists which opened entirely new doorways of interest.

Seriously, the huge thing about MTV for its diehard fans back in the day was that you never knew what was going to come next, and while you were waiting for that great video from That One Band to come on, you'd encounter a lot of other things by a lot of other bands, and some of it would make you go *ping* and you'd end up completely outside of your expected sphere of desire but still really happy with what you had found.

Someone could probably do pretty well for themselves by designing a website which ran music videos from across the spectrum of music and across what is by now 5 decades of music videos being made, giving it just enough of a shaped program format for it not to feel completely random, but still giving it a lot of diversity and depth with its selections... Sell some advertising, hire some on-air talent to do regular short chatty segments about videos just played and videos coming up... I know I'd tune in. Hell, I'd probably buy an internet-capable television just so I could run it on a dedicated screen without eating up my computers processing time.

But yeah. MTV, the three letters, don't even have meaning anymore. They removed "Music Television" from the name and the logo of the channel years ago. We need a quality replacement. I'd be watching, and I know tons of people older and younger than me would be watching too.
posted by hippybear at 12:55 PM on November 11, 2012 [35 favorites]

No way man I'm gonna keep rocking forever forever forever forever
posted by The Whelk at 12:56 PM on November 11, 2012 [10 favorites]

also if tumblr is any indication their main demo for scripted original programing are 30ish women.
posted by The Whelk at 12:57 PM on November 11, 2012

(Oh, I see. I misread/misheard "mid-20s" as "20," and I couldn't figure out how anything had changed on this front since a 20-year-old was in high school.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:58 PM on November 11, 2012

I'm officially old. I don't like most new music. I don't want to see the videos that MTV would be playing these days.

I'm OK with that.
posted by asnider at 12:58 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ehh... I seriously doubt a music video channel would have any success these days.

I think people long for the days of monolithic music culture, but it'll never happen again. Why would it?
posted by hellslinger at 12:59 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

if MTV still showed music videos they could show mine!

Who among us mourned when Total Request Live was cancelled?
posted by The Whelk at 1:03 PM on November 11, 2012

I'm uncertain whether any mid-20-year-olds actually do complain that MTV no longer plays music videos. But, if such a person were to exist, they would probably longing for Carson Daly on TRL, not Headbanger's Ball, 120 Minutes, or Yo! MTV Raps.

PS: MTV does still play music videos. They're just on very early in the mornings. It's kinda their off-the-air filler.
posted by mhum at 1:04 PM on November 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

checking their other videos: this is what businessmen act like right?
posted by The Whelk at 1:08 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also, I don't know if I have any evidence to support this, but I seem to recall that people were bemoaning the decline of MTV's music focus ever since Remote Control went on the air. In which case, these complaints are not only old enough to drive, they're old enough to rent a car.
posted by mhum at 1:08 PM on November 11, 2012 [8 favorites]

"Channel" is now as likely to refer to those things people put together on YouTube that resemble playlists but are also kind of like blogs. There are lots of those that play music videos.
posted by LogicalDash at 1:09 PM on November 11, 2012

As a fellow 20something, MTV didn't show videos that often even then, the big exception was TRL [based on music videos, a music video countdown] was huge. Even as adolescents, we saw MTV's influence and their programming showing had declined from its peak.
VH1 on the otherhand, did spent several hours of their daytime programming on videos in the late 90s.

Disregarding the snark, they actually did a pretty good rundown of why it's not even in mtv's interest to show videos anymore:

- music videos aren't as much of promotional tools as they once were.
- mtv no longer has a monopoly on displaying music videos
- mtv no longer has the musical influence that they once had.
- music videos have smaller budgets that they did in the 90s.

"if we show videos all the time, we might as well change our name to iTunes music store tv " - truth.

As a 20something, I couldn't care less if they showed videos or not.

(Was looking at the infodumpster real quick to see if it was possible to determine whether the amount of mefi posts on music videos have decreased, but many of them were about music videos that weren't current (not made with the same year of the post),
posted by fizzix at 1:09 PM on November 11, 2012

It's because television hasn't been the way to get young people to buy records since like 1992.
posted by Sphinx at 1:11 PM on November 11, 2012

Sphinx: "It's because television hasn't been the way to get young people to buy records since like 1992."

Really? What's the new way to get young people to buy records?
posted by Bokononist at 1:17 PM on November 11, 2012

whats a record?
posted by The Whelk at 1:18 PM on November 11, 2012 [6 favorites]

the way is twitter

spike jonze has been exchanged for a bald person who writes 140 character blurbs about shrek boners and dog farts

your welcome
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 1:23 PM on November 11, 2012

Sigh.

I'm 44 years old. Popular culture kicked me to the curb a long while back, I guess.

I understand that the game has changed, and there's no money in it for the greedy bastards that run the music business, such as it is, to show music videos any more.

Still. MTV, back in the day, was a good thing. And no smug asshole mouthing off his sneering realpolitic will change that.

And yes, I understand this was just a comedy sketch, but man, I'd like to find that guy and force him to watch Jersey Shore, Clockwork Orange style, until his eyes melted out of their sockets.

On preview, what hippybear said.
posted by KHAAAN! at 1:24 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

That was pretty brilliant.
posted by gwint at 1:27 PM on November 11, 2012

Because MTV no longer has the power to do this. (Hey, look, a tumblr link!)
posted by Hactar at 1:27 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

spike jonze has been exchanged for a bald person who writes 140 character blurbs about shrek boners and dog farts

don't talk about @gregerskine that way
posted by The Whelk at 1:28 PM on November 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

As if that weren't enough, remember that guy from The Real World? He's a congressman now-- a Republican congressman.
posted by The White Hat at 1:29 PM on November 11, 2012

Actually, as I said elsewhere as well, the whole premise of this video is wrong: MTV could care less if videos don't sell records, as they are not in the record selling business, MTV had dropped videoclips long before Napster (early to mid-nineties at latest) and the reason was always that you can't sell commercials for an hour of videoclips, but you can do so for two thirty minute tv shows.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:29 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I just have to say, that even though I am 23, I recall the days before Napster, DVRs and mainstream Internet, and while I honestly never actually shared stuff like this, a way to preserve music videos for yourself off of MTV or other programming from other channels was through the VCR.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 1:30 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

remember that guy from The Real World?

How much you wanna bet Montana is on metafilter RIGHT NOW?
posted by The Whelk at 1:32 PM on November 11, 2012

I, for one, am relieved that MTV doesn't play anything from a group called Owl City. Whatever that is.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:37 PM on November 11, 2012

video from 1984
posted by eustatic at 1:40 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

video from 1984

If anyone else wants to join in on the feeling old pity party, when that video was taped I didn't exist.
posted by The Whelk at 1:42 PM on November 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

Girl: Why no music videos?
MTV execs: Because we're doomed, we know it, and we're fighting it with every ounce of our rapacious, greasy little souls.
posted by underflow at 1:42 PM on November 11, 2012

I need to go smite The Whelk.

When that video was taped I was 15.

I FEEL REALLY GODDAMN OLD AND I WANT TO HIT SOMEONE WITH MY CANE.
posted by mephron at 1:49 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

When that video was taped I was 18. Cane fight at 20 paces!

Or we can both just smack up The Whelk.
posted by jeanmari at 1:58 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

if MTV still showed music videos they could show mine!

Mine too!

So, was this clip a deleted scene from the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip DVD? This character is totally like an Aaron Sorkin bad guy, spewing all this witty yet sinister self-justification and setting up a perfect opportunity for the hero to take him down with a self-righteous, 5-minute rant that culminates with something like, "You, sir, are the reason American pop culture sucks."

Seriously, MTV shows shit because shit is cheap and enough idiots (and schadenfreude junkies) watch it to make it profitable. That's the same reason why Arts and Entertainment is no longer artistic or entertaining, why Bravo is nothing to say bravo about, why The Learning Channel increasingly only teaches you just how low humans can sink, why SyFy is full of wrestling and ghost hunter crap, why G4 is becoming the all Cops network, etc. So many channels start off with worthy goals and interesting programming, and then they slowly (or not so slowly) turn into another channel full of awful "reality" shows.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:06 PM on November 11, 2012 [7 favorites]

"Because your generation stole music!"
fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyou

Also, the best part of the video was the crying about people "stealing" music being followed by the admission (regarding reality TV) that MTV does shitty things because they work. Amoral expedience is solely a convenience of the rich, and don't you fucking poor people forget it!
posted by IAmUnaware at 2:10 PM on November 11, 2012

TRL played what was essentially a trailer for a music video. They were never more than 45 seconds long.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:11 PM on November 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

Who among us mourned when Total Request Live was cancelled?

Replace that with 'Friday Night Video Fights' and you have a pretty good idea of my pre-teen existence.
posted by mintcake! at 2:15 PM on November 11, 2012

fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyou

Why? He's right, we did.

Also, the best part of the video was the crying about people "stealing" music being followed by the admission (regarding reality TV) that MTV does shitty things because they work. Amoral expedience is solely a convenience of the rich, and don't you fucking poor people forget it!

I don't think he was making a moral point in saying that our generation (I guess he means those were teens/young adults in the 90s) stole music. He was just explaining that it was that shift that made music videos worthless to the channel. Music videos are just tools to sell music, and if music isn't selling, no point in videos. I'm not really sure there's any "amoral expedience" in choosing to show reality TV over music videos because music videos don't make money. Music videos aren't some moral good. It's not like they're running sweat shops now, they just changed the programming.
posted by Sangermaine at 2:23 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm officially old. I don't like most new music. I don't want to see the videos that MTV would be playing these days.

It's funny. I'm three years older than you, and just the other day I was thinking how mainstream my musical tastes have become. When I was the right age for MTV, I considered myself too cool for it. Nowadays, I get really excited about Fun or Mumford and Sons being on Saturday Night Live.
posted by roll truck roll at 2:23 PM on November 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

The decline of Mtv is indeed old enough to rent a car at this point. Music videos are more expensive than in-house produced reality garbage. Music videos require music royalties to be paid to the writer of the music. Also, the fractional nature of the format meant people didn't really tune in for a half hour block of videos. Generally they tuned it for ten minutes while waiting for something else to start. The initial excitement of the channel peaked in the mid 80s and they had a huge drop in viewership. That's when the game shows started, and the end of the videos began. That's why no one else has bothered to make a replacement channel.

As the "studio head" points out, Youtube is far more suitable for music. If you want stuff you haven't seen, it's really better. Mtv usually played the most mainstream stuff after it's first year (outside of maybe 120 minutes).
posted by inthe80s at 2:25 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

TRL played what was essentially a trailer for a music video. They were never more than 45 seconds long.

For real? I could swear that back in the day when my little sister and I used to fight over whether to watch TRL or Gundam Wing*, it was about fifty-fifty between clips and full videos -- otherwise I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know most of the Backstreet Boys singles beginning to end. But I could certainly be misremembering.

*Yes really.
posted by Jeanne at 2:27 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Would someone now in their mid-twenties really want to see videos by "Pavement, REM, and Nirvana"? That would be like me, in my early forties, demanding videos by Steely Dan or the Ramones or Three Dog Night.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:27 PM on November 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

"When that video was taped I was 15."

You wern't even a teenager anymore when I was born,

LOL
posted by Blasdelb at 2:32 PM on November 11, 2012

It's funny. I'm three years older than you, and just the other day I was thinking how mainstream my musical tastes have become.

Yeah in High school I was all about the glam rock and like, sad cowboy music from the 40s. My musical tastes now are much more dancer and mainstream. ( It helps that chamber Pop/Brit-Retro became a thing so I coud reconcile my lush orchestration fetish with what was on the radio).
posted by The Whelk at 2:38 PM on November 11, 2012

For real? I could swear that back in the day when my little sister and I used to fight over whether to watch TRL or Gundam Wing*, it was about fifty-fifty between clips and full videos -- otherwise I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know most of the Backstreet Boys singles beginning to end. But I could certainly be misremembering.

Oh man, I wish we could go back in time so I could invite you over after school to watch Toonami.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 2:48 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

So if anybody is actually interested in a serious answer to the question in the video, I highly recommend this book, which I read earlier this year. It's an oral history covering the first 10 years of MTV, basically from its inception to the debut of The Real World. As somebody who spent 1983 - ca. 1988 consuming as much MTV as I possibly could, I found it fascinating.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 2:53 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I just came to say that I'm 28, and MTV never played me any Steely Dan videos. I miss Steely Dan.

I'll be on Youtube mourning the lost youth I never had.
posted by saysthis at 2:57 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I seriously remember listening to this when I was 15 and looking forward to the day when it applied.

http://youtu.be/ipc9pL27krs

Steely Dan - Hey Nineteen
posted by saysthis at 3:01 PM on November 11, 2012

WHAT? ALL THIS TIME I THOUGHT IT WAS EMPTY TV!

MIND BLOWN!
posted by srboisvert at 3:05 PM on November 11, 2012

The "M" never stood for music, it was all about Marketing.
posted by Renoroc at 3:11 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyou

Why? He's right, we did.

Also, the best part of the video was the crying about people "stealing" music being followed by the admission (regarding reality TV) that MTV does shitty things because they work. Amoral expedience is solely a convenience of the rich, and don't you fucking poor people forget it!

I don't think he was making a moral point in saying that our generation (I guess he means those were teens/young adults in the 90s) stole music.

You guys do know that this is a satirical video and not an actual presentation by the head of MTV programming, right?
posted by Think_Long at 3:30 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

The actual head of MTV programming.
posted by hippybear at 3:36 PM on November 11, 2012

Also, the fractional nature of the format meant people didn't really tune in for a half hour block of videos.

The Nielsen Ratings for television, set up in the 1950s, don't credit a channel with viewers unless they watch for a proper half hour time chunk. It didn't matter how many kids spent time on MTV videos after school unless they viewed from 3:00 to 3:30, switching away to another channel only on time block boundaries.

This is the same reason The Weather Channel has Storm Stories instead of weather forecasts nowadays. A broken ratings system makes their popular channel look bad to advertisers who make their decisions by ratings share, so even a poorly-watched one-hour reality program scores better than something lots of people watch for 15 minutes.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 3:42 PM on November 11, 2012

I remember when every cool kid in 1985 was shouting along with "MTV Get Off The Air!" by the Dead Kennedys. It seemed like from the moment it was born rock fans wanted it dead. Now it is, and everyone's mad.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 3:50 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also, the fractional nature of the format meant people didn't really tune in for a half hour block of videos.

That's funny. When I was younger and MTV played music videos, it was just ON. Often for hours at a time. It was on after school while I hung out with friends. It was on at parties (often with a "hey, $THAT VIDEO is on" call and everyone flocking in to stand around and watch). It was on while doing housework. I would tape entire 6-hour VHS tapes of it overnight and fast forward trying to find things I hadn't seen before or wanted to see again.

I can't remember there ever being an environment where you would tune in the channel, watch 2-3 videos, and click away.
posted by hippybear at 3:53 PM on November 11, 2012 [7 favorites]

Even if you where staying up at a friend's house waiting for the video you wanted to come on (they said midnight why would they liiiiiiieeeee) you didn't turn to it to watch one video and leave, you just kinda kept it on like a tap in case something cool came on.

It served the same function as a fireplace, if you didn't want to talk to or engage anyone you could just look at the glowing shapes.
posted by The Whelk at 3:58 PM on November 11, 2012 [7 favorites]

That's funny. When I was younger and MTV played music videos, it was just ON. Often for hours at a time. It was on after school while I hung out with friends. It was on at parties (often with a "hey, $THAT VIDEO is on" call and everyone flocking in to stand around and watch). It was on while doing housework. I would tape entire 6-hour VHS tapes of it overnight and fast forward trying to find things I hadn't seen before or wanted to see again.

I can't remember there ever being an environment where you would tune in the channel, watch 2-3 videos, and click away.

This. I would even keep MTV on while I slept, and every now and again I'd wake up to that really awesome song I was totally into at the time, then roll over and go back to sleep until they turned off the night time segment (I can't remember what it was called, but it always had a moon) and an infomercial woke me up. Then I'd turn it off.

My friends and I would record tons of videos, and later TRL, on VHS and just play them when nothing else was on, too.

Maybe our kind was a minority but MTV ran all the time when music videos played.
posted by Malice at 4:04 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

My family didn't get cable until 1990... so I probably missed MTV at its Zenith; even in the early 90's I remember it seemed like there was a lot of drek that wasn't even remotely music related.

But late enough at night they did show a lot of videos, and there were a few years where 120 Minutes and Headbangers Ball were prime sources of new music for me. But I know a lot of the wistfulness I have for those days is overall nostalgia; long gone are summers where I could stay up until 2:00 AM drinking Jolt Cola with my friends.

I know it's sick and wrong, but whenever I'm watching an old TV show on Netflix and a commercial break zips by, I sometimes wish that I could watch the commercials that originally aired with it.
posted by usonian at 4:07 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

One good thing about MTV no longer endlessly repeating the same 20 videos day in and day out is that there's way less of a chance now that I'll accidentally see part of a U2 video while channel surfing.
posted by item at 4:11 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I knew MTV was in decline the first time I walked into a store and announced that my name was Cornholio, but no TP was immediately on offer. Despite years of repeated attempts, my bunghole remains forlorn.

And itchy.

So very itchy.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:18 PM on November 11, 2012 [13 favorites]

If that's where the bleeding is happening, see your doctor.
posted by hippybear at 4:26 PM on November 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

The first time I ever heard a Sepultura song, it was on MTV.

Reflect on that for a moment.
posted by 1adam12 at 4:33 PM on November 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

I knew MTV was in decline the first time I walked into a store and announced that my name was Cornholio, but no TP was immediately on offer. Despite years of repeated attempts, my bunghole remains forlorn.

Sir, I told you that if you'd only get off my neck that you happen to be standing on I'd be very happy to oblige you. I realise that's a bit direct but if I'm wrong please just correct me.
posted by Talez at 4:37 PM on November 11, 2012 [9 favorites]

On one hand, modern MTV brought us 16 And Pregnant.

On the other hand, wofls.
posted by The Whelk at 5:08 PM on November 11, 2012

The Whelk: "checking their other videos: this is what businessmen act like right?"

Holy shit - that cabinet he sets his phone on. We used to have one of those. I think it's an RCA audio system with an LP, radio and perhaps 8-track(?). I remember as a child, running my hand across the front of the speakers, the fabrice had an interesting texture. Oh man. Now I wonder what that thing was called.
posted by symbioid at 5:35 PM on November 11, 2012

One thing music videos brought us was an understanding of how absolutely smokin' Debby Harry was c. 1979 (e.g., Heart of Glass).

Also, little people. Lots and lots of little people in videos, which, if you think about it, is pretty awesome--or pretty awful, depending if you think it's good-natured or simple exploitation.
posted by maxwelton at 5:39 PM on November 11, 2012

I didn't think anyone was still asking this question. YouTube, duh.
posted by benbenson at 5:51 PM on November 11, 2012

I remember when every cool kid in 1985 was shouting along with "MTV Get Off The Air!" by the Dead Kennedys. yt It seemed like from the moment it was born rock fans wanted it dead. Now it is, and everyone's mad.

"Allowing it to sink as low in one year as commercial TV has in 25!"

Actually I'm not going to post all the quotable lines from MTV Get Off The Air because it'd be like 90% of the actual lyrics.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:22 PM on November 11, 2012

MTV died when Mojo Nixon didn't do promos for it any more.
posted by delfin at 6:29 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

MTV. The VJs. Martha Quinn. And Duff. And Downtown Julie Brown "wubba wubba!"

They made a difference. For some reason, I only listed the women, but the guys were good too.

I watched Asia MTV for a few years in the mid-'90s. David Wu (The Wu Man!) and Nonie.

The personalities made it fun. And the fact that the videos were, let's face it, fucking excellent. Even when they were made of cheese. "Der Kommissar"? "99 Luftballons"? "Puttin' on the Ritz"? "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe"??

Music videos were the greatest promotional device ever conceived of to push product. With Warner Bros. loss leader albums in second place. There are so many songs of the '80s and early '90s for whom the video is the image that immediately pops into my head. "Jeremy." "The Safety Dance." "Been Caught Stealing." "Express Yourself."

Kids don't know what they've missed. Sucks to be they.
posted by the sobsister at 6:47 PM on November 11, 2012

"Say No Go." "She Blinded Me with Science." "Vienna." "Rio." "Hot for Teacher." "Whip It." "Mysterious Ways."

Another possibility is that music today sucks balls. And that no amount of videography could distract viewers from the rather obvious ball-sucking on the audio track.

I think it's six of one and a half-dozen of the other.

Now, if you would kindly step away from my lawn, I would be most appreciative.
posted by the sobsister at 7:13 PM on November 11, 2012

but the guys were good too.

OH GOD I HAD SUCH A PROTOCRUSH ON JOHN NORRIS WHEN HE WASN'T BLONDE
posted by The Whelk at 7:20 PM on November 11, 2012

In Canada, Much Music's broadcasting license still requires them to play music videos; it must account for 50% of their content. They tried to get that requirement lifted a few years ago but were denied.

So they run music videos from 2:00 AM to 10:00 AM each day. Then it's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Jackass, and Saved By The Bell reruns the rest of the day.
posted by i_have_a_computer at 7:36 PM on November 11, 2012

2025: Does anyone remember when YouTube used to show videos?
posted by mazola at 7:37 PM on November 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

whatever grandpa I get all my media by inhaling holographic memory spores.

*huff huff*
posted by The Whelk at 7:42 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

But yeah. MTV, the three letters, don't even have meaning anymore.

Same with how the "Scholastic Aptitude Test" and "Kentucky Fried Chicken" no longer exist, all that remains are the SAT and KFC. I don't understand what makes it worth the trouble of "officially" eliminating the long form in favor of these zombie abbreviations, it's such an odd phenomenon to me.
posted by eurypteris at 7:54 PM on November 11, 2012

In KFC's case, it's because people associate "Fried" with "unhealthy". They still serve the same shitty fried chicken, of course.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:55 PM on November 11, 2012

it's PFK in Montreal thank you very much.
posted by The Whelk at 7:55 PM on November 11, 2012

Because they associate 'chicken' with 'unhealthy' in Montreal?
posted by mazola at 8:04 PM on November 11, 2012

checking their other videos: this is what businessmen act like right?

I have the same tie as the guy in that video. I got it when I earned and then lost my first $5 trillion.
posted by asnider at 8:14 PM on November 11, 2012

symbiod, the generic term for what you're describing would be "console stereo." That's as opposed to a component stereo, with a turntable, disc player, tape deck, AM/FM receiver and speakers all in separate enclosures. The console stereo was the choice of many a (non-audiophile) suburban household in the 1950s and 1960s; component stereos originally were considered to be mostly for "hi-fi" aficionados, but gained more general popularity starting in the late 1960s, as more baby boomers starting hitting the age where they had money to buy their own audio gear.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 8:18 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

867-5309
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 8:23 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Fifteen years before I existed, Glenn Miller did.
posted by wallabear at 8:38 PM on November 11, 2012

You are soo soo old.
posted by hippybear at 8:43 PM on November 11, 2012

I think people long for the days of monolithic music culture, but it'll never happen again. Why would it?

That didn’t happen, but for some reason people in their 20’s keep insisting it did.
posted by bongo_x at 8:59 PM on November 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

RE: KFC, they actually changed the name because the state of Kentucky trademarked the word 'Kentucky', and they didn't want to pay royalties. [Snopes].

According to John Hamm AMC doesn't stand for anything anymore either.
posted by usonian at 9:12 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Whelk: Another possibility is that music today sucks balls.

Tempted though I am to agree, I think it's closer to the truth to say that the new music being foisted upon us by Clear Channel (AKA guys a lot like the talking sphincter in this satirical web video) is by no means the best music that's being made today. When MTV began, the intent was to bring you the best, most exciting new music they could find, and make a lot of money doing it. That was the goal for commercial radio, too. Nowadays most of the "cultural gatekeepers" truly don't give even a teeny-tiny crap about quality, they are total greedmonsters and they will do anything to get your dollars. They want a highly photogenic, obedient replicant to sing stupid, stupid earworms written by a couple of hacks in Simi Valley who hate themselves almost as much as they hate you. Youtube has plenty of good, new bands, but you gotta watch a lot of mediocre or just plain shitty bands before you find the good ones. When MTV gave up, we really lost something. Whenever one of these good channels gives up and lets itself be crap, we lose something.

The reason MTV sucks now is because it's easier to suck than to be good, and they can make plenty of money sucking, and they know you'll watch their shitty, unwatchable shows anyway, so they hate you, so why should they be good when their stupid audience will pay them for sucking? Jesus, no wonder they do so much coke.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:12 PM on November 11, 2012

"120 Minutes" followed by "The Young Ones"--MTV was pretty great.
posted by professor plum with a rope at 9:23 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am being misquoted.
posted by The Whelk at 10:03 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Video killed the video star.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:33 PM on November 11, 2012

the sobsister: Another possibility is that music today sucks balls.

No, just no. There is so much amazing music being made these days. Some of it is on the radio, but much of it is not.

As I'm in my mid 20s, MTV wasn't much of a "thing" during my adolescence. It was an afterthought, and I don't know that I've seen more than a few hours of music video programming, total, throughout my entire life. The way I discovered music during my teens was through downloading and sharing with friends, which, for the most part, unshackled me from what corporate America wanted to shove down my throat (although that doesn't mean I didn't voluntarily swallow some of it anyway). I'm not saying that turning on MTV and waiting for "THE SONG" doesn't sound like a fun experience. I understand why so many in this thread are savoring their tall glass of nostalgia. I am, however, thankful for the technological advances that gave me the same freedom of choice that doomed the era of the music video.

That same march of technology now lets me open Spotify and listen to almost any song I can imagine. I have found so much amazing music since it was released in the US, and I easily listen to five times the amount of music these days. I've developed love for whole new genres that I may have never really given a chance had it not been so easy.

hellslinger mentioned upthread that people miss the monolithic music culture in the US. If "music culture" means everybody listening and talking about the same music that is being fed through their television and radios, then yes, that's gone. If music culture, however, means making music a constant part of our lives and celebrating the joy that it brings, I would make the argument that technological change has created more of that than ever.
posted by Defenestrator at 10:37 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Some of it is on the radio

Ha ha ha ha "radio". Yes, I like to discover music on the "radio", and then I go to the "record store" and pay money for the "phonograph record" of it, and then I bring it home and play it on my Victrola! Ha ha ha ha ha. Radio. Ha ha ha ha ha.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:56 PM on November 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

My brother's college roommate allegedly had a "thing" with a VJ one summer when he interned there. Once they were back in school that fall, the guy called their place a few times and my brother answered once or twice. Totally weirded him out in what was described to me as, "I'm unexpectedly talking to a famous dude and it's kind of awkward and also he is boning my roommate" kind of way.

That's all I have to say about MTV.
posted by WASP-12b at 11:43 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don't care what any of you say, "The Young Ones" was brilliant and we should all bow to their greatness.

Plus Lise Mayer is my dream woman!! So there!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 12:23 AM on November 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'll be go to hell, usonian, I always thought it was over the fried thing. How dare Kentucky be such a complete asshole? Now I'm tempted to market toilet paper with each square marked "Kentucky" and claim that it's fair use under the parody standards.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 2:16 AM on November 12, 2012

Don't worry, Purposeful Grimace. Usonian (and now you) just got trolled by one of Snopes's False Authority pages. Kentucky's not an ass. Well, not about that, at least.

Click the "More Information" link at the bottom of the Snopes page for, well, more information.
posted by LEGO Damashii at 2:39 AM on November 12, 2012

Yeah, the real reason is that the FDA wouldn't let them keep "Chicken" in the name after they switched to vat-grown meat substitute.
posted by radwolf76 at 3:07 AM on November 12, 2012

Back when this complaint was only about kindergarten age, I remember an article with a real executive, talking about the challenges they had on getting ratings info. That all the ad sales were based on ratings, and the systems for collecting ratings required 30 minute blocks of time. So they created 'shows', to help figure out how to price ads. Some of the shows were music, but The Real World and The State and Liquid Television were a direct attempt to figure out how to price ad sales.

(caveat, this is my memory, and I'm both human and not young. I know how flawed memory is!)
posted by DigDoug at 4:26 AM on November 12, 2012

That snopes page linked under the KFC name change page seems to be working awfully hard to convince its readers to never trust snopes; well at least with me its worked. I see the educational message its trying to get across, but that kind of bullshit really makes it no different than the Weekly World News and other purveyors of bullshit taking in the vulnerable and gullible that it used to be aligned against. Trolling the vulnerable is no more becoming of them than it is of the fuckers who start chain emails with fantastical claims.

The real value of snopes used to be that it was an inherently trustable source that one could send the gullible and vulnerable to in order to check their assumptions and now thats gone. Fuck those guys.
posted by Blasdelb at 4:41 AM on November 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ha ha ha ha "radio". Yes, I like to discover music on the "radio", and then I go to the "record store" and pay money for the "phonograph record" of it, and then I bring it home and play it on my Victrola!

I don't think we got any gram-o-phones, do we, granddad?
posted by MartinWisse at 4:50 AM on November 12, 2012

Trolling the vulnerable is no more becoming of them than it is of the fuckers who start chain emails with fantastical claims.

The real value of snopes used to be that it was an inherently trustable source that one could send the gullible and vulnerable to in order to check their assumptions and now thats gone. Fuck those guys.

Used to be? The Repository of Lost Legends (T.R.O.L.L.) has been part of the site for over a decade. And before snopes.com was even a thing, David Mikkelson used to post under the handle snopes on alt.folklore.urban and was one of the main originators of the term trolling there.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:34 AM on November 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

The real value of snopes used to be that it was an inherently trustable source that one could send the gullible and vulnerable to in order to check their assumptions and now thats gone. Fuck those guys.

:::sigh::: I knew Snopes had a few bogus pages but I seem to recall them being a little more clearly marked at the bottom, rather than burying the TROLOLOL in a separate page link.
posted by usonian at 5:47 AM on November 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

When I was a kid I dragged my parents to see Benny Goodman because hey, Benny Goodman. I was the only person under 50 in the audience but I didn't give a damn because the music was great, and he played my request because "I only hear one young voice in the audience!"

On my way to work this morning I listened to some tunes that were brand new in 2011, and enjoyed them immensely, including some tracks from Holy Fuck--a band name that was unthinkable when I was born.

The insistence that "the music now sucks" just doesn't fly with this veteran of nearly every recording method invented, and I reject the LOLoldster comments out of hand.

There's been good music all along if you look for it, every single decade. I loved the mix of stuff 80s MTV threw at me, but now get my new music from other sources. There are so many, and there are more insanely talented people available for listening than ever before.
posted by kinnakeet at 8:53 AM on November 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

I am being misquoted.

WHELK SAYS OLD PEOPLE SMELL AND THAT HE IS TOPS
posted by elizardbits at 9:23 AM on November 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

ONLY HALF OF THAT IS AN UNTRUTH
posted by The Whelk at 12:49 PM on November 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Whenever I hear Mumford and Sons I'm reminded of the tv show Hootenanny. (YT trailer). No, I'm not that old, I watched that show on my Dad's Beta-Max tapes.

The funny and cool thing about MTV is that after 30 or so years it's still relevant to its target audience(s). I think there are 6? MTV channels on cable now ranging from what seems to my old man eyes to be the MTV Rob Dyrdeck Channel to the MTV Teens Doing Weird Stuff Channel to the MTV Hard Fucking Rock Channel hosted by the same Riki Rachtman of old.

While it would be fun to be all indignant and grumpy about being left behind by popular media, anything that is even remotely responsible for my kids starting their own vinyl collections can't be all bad!
posted by snsranch at 3:01 PM on November 12, 2012

More to the point: Why does MTV exist?
posted by Smedleyman at 4:50 PM on November 12, 2012

Apparently my previous comment is already out of date. MTV is getting a new head of programming.
posted by hippybear at 7:42 PM on November 12, 2012

Am I the only insomniac on here who realizes that MTV still plays videos in the wee hours of the morning? As in, at the precise moment I'm posting this?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:54 AM on November 13, 2012

JoeXIII007: ... a way to preserve music videos for yourself off of MTV or other programming from other channels was through the VCR.

I still have my old VHS tapes of AMP. I should digitize them at some point, and see if there's anything not already on Youtube.
posted by Pronoiac at 6:44 PM on November 13, 2012

I have the first season of Liquid Television on VHS still. One of these days I'll have to work on getting that digitized and uploaded someplace.

Sadly I won't be able to tell any of you if I get it done, because self-linking is a bannin' offense.
posted by hippybear at 7:00 PM on November 13, 2012

KFC is still called Kentucky Fried Chicken here in Japan.
MTV still plays music videos.

But, you know what? No Pandora here. No Spotify, either. No Hulu. Pretty much none of that "listen to new music or watch new TV the way you want" stuff you Americans take for granted. It's either YouTube (yay!) or listening to whatever limited slice of music / TV content companies want to push. Y'all don't know how good you have it.
posted by Bugbread at 7:52 PM on November 13, 2012

hippybear: "I have the first season of Liquid Television on VHS still. One of these days I'll have to work on getting that digitized and uploaded someplace. "

Here, let me save you some time.

(Now if you have VHS of the original airings of The Maxx, go ahead and upload those, because unlike the later video releases and what's been uploaded on the site I linked to there, the original airing had the real version of Erika Eigen's song "I want to marry a lighthouse keeper" and not the we-were-too-cheap-to-spring-for-the-licensing-rights sound-alike that they dubbed in instead.)
posted by radwolf76 at 8:20 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Here, let me save you some time.

That doesn't save me any time. That's not the actual episodes as originally aired in all their glorious weirdness.

You fail to understand what I and other Liquid Television fans really want.
posted by hippybear at 8:40 PM on November 13, 2012

Agreed: Liquid Television was the full experience, including the interstitials. Much better when you didn't know what was coming next. Also you never knew if you were going to get a new installment of Aeon Flux, so as the time ran out (it was always the last thing if it was on at all) that venus flytrap eyelash sequence was pantswettingly thrilling to see. (And I doubt I'm the only one who feels that AF was at its best at the very beginning when it was short and had little or no dialogue.) Dogboy, Stick Figure Theatre, Psychograms, Winter Steele... somehow it's not the same when you can watch them a la carte.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:05 PM on November 13, 2012

For me the big thing on MTV was The Maxx, which hit a sense of... call it adventurous melancholy that really resonated at the time. I remember buying a bootleg VHS tape at a comic store around 2001 or so, which I'd do again in a heartbeat.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:46 AM on November 14, 2012