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Archive for November, 2011

MTV. Music Television. That’s how it was introduced to the world in 1981. The words “Ladies and Gentlemen, rock and roll” were heard. And the first music video ever shown was The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”. So what killed MTV?

Before MTV there were teen magazines. These magazines were the portal to your music idols. You could see pictures of them, read about their personal lives, and get as close to them as you could without being at a concert. Then MTV came along. It was a whole new world where you could watch your favorite singer or band badly lip-synching to a silly, more often than not cheesy, music video. But they were as live as you could get without front seat tickets.

Then along came the internet and reality TV. On the internet you can pop up any music star you want, hear their songs, watch them in concert, or just stalk their lives and find out everything you want to know. Reality TV gave people a chance to watch “real” people living their every day lives in front of the camera. How could a fake music video ever live up to that?

The 80′s were a time when hearing your favorite song was not the same without seeing the video that made it so exciting. The videos were what made the songs popular, sadly many that should not have been popular in the first place. But everyone watched just the same. Even if you were watching the same videos over and over, as was the case when MTV started.

At least the often asked question of “How can they call it Music Television when they don’t play any music?” can finally be put to rest. MTV has, sadly, removed the “Music Television” from it’s logo.