MTV Drops 'Music Television' Tag, End of the Glam Era
Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 12:01AM 
MTV has a new logo. Basically, the powers-that-be dropped the "music television" tag line. It's about time. Hell, if the network isn't going to play videos, then why be "music television?" At this point they might as well be the "cheap, youth driven reality show" network. But whatever.
MTV execs didn't exactly shout the logo change from the rooftops. They sort of buried the news. I mean, why wouldn't they? Changing of the logo and dropping "music television" just affirms what everyone has said for years and years now. The good news is that with the Internet, there's no reason for bands to spend a ton of cash on videos and then ship them to a network where they'll never get aired. At least with YouTube, bands can scratch together a few thousand bucks, do a video and shove it online and force their own buzz. The days of MTV making or breaking a band are long gone.
I suppose MTV officially changing course really is the end of an era. After all, I'm a member of the MTV generation. The bands we all love and discuss here daily were a huge part of the music network. Video really did kill the radio star. Then again, Internet killed (or birthed, depending on your opinion) the modern rock star.
The question remains: do we even need MTV anymore? I say no. What's the point? I've got a zillion channels thanks to my satellite. I rarely - if ever - watch MTV. It's just not necessary for a music lover anymore. In fact, MTV is about as current as Myspace. Truth.
Reader Comments (22)
Myspace is definitely more relevant than MTV these days.
Though I'm not a big fan of the reality programming format, we know it is successful because everyone loves a train-wreck and that's what they are always looking for when they watch the lousy half-a*sed reality programming on the channel.
At least MTV Cribs made sense conceptually in terms of content because it originally was about going to a musical performer's home where they could show it off, etc.
Now you can see why they would ditch "Music" as a descriptor in the name of who they are now, though, right now, they don't stand for anything because the "M" in their name duzn't stand for anything, at the moment.
We should have a contest to give it a new name but still using the letter "M" for smoother transition. How about "Motherf*ckah Television" or "Muzzle Television" since that's what they should put on everyone that goes on it. Or how about "Mopey Television", since thats all kidz seem to do on the shows on the network is mope around half the time.
But here's the bold move which would be just the ticket especially for us. Keep the network on all it's present numbers, don't change anything except the name.
Change the name to "STV", as Rob Rockitt suggests, but have that mean "Social Television", since that's what it's all about now, really.
Then start a new network but with the old call letters, calling it MTV for... drum roll, please... you guessed it...
Metal Television
Just imagine the programming...
9:AM -- Wake Up! hosted by Sharon and Ozzy
10:30 -- Morning Metal with Ricky Rachtman
12:00 -- Lunch with Slash Cooking Show (he's into cooking shows so he could and probably would host it)
1:00 -- Metal Newz with Allyson B. Crawford
2:00 -- Around the World with Metalboy! Travelogue showin' me travel to all theze great Rock Fests all over the world. Just kiddin' folks, but it would be cool to have a show like this hosted by one of the more competant Bringbackglammsterz or somebody in the Metal Know, if ya know what I mean. Maybe Snoot should do this show cuz he alwayz knows where the Metal is.
3:00 -- New Metal Stew... New Metal Vids
4:30 -- Metalk... Lita Ford and Jim Gillette host a Metal Talk Show
6:00 -- Metal Music for the Dinner Hour. This could be stuff like the old Deep Purple movie with 'em performing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra or Metallica and Orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen, etc...
8:00 -- Metal Show... Two Hour Concert in it's entirety, live and in person, simulcast on their web site, etc.
10:00 -- Metal Movie... A cool Metal movie, whether it's documentary or a film where Metal music figures prominently in the soundtrack, etc. a la "Maximum Overdrive" with AC/DC's soundtrack or "Prey For Rock & Roll" starring Gina Gershon, Lori Petty and Drea De Matteo or "Foxes" starring Cherie Curie or "Rockstar" starring Mark Walberg -- Youch, but you get the idea. Hey, it duzn't have to be good it just has to be Metallic, hahaha! Or, you know, Freddie Movies with Dokken and Vinnie Vincent Invasion in the sountracks, etc. And, let's not forget, "Shocker", featuring the best Glam Metal soundtrack ever...
12:00 -- Metal Shop... Late night talk show with Nikki Sixx and Allyson B. Crawford.
2:00 -- Headbanger's Ball... Reruns from the classic show in their entirety, everything in tact. The running order of the vidz, the interviews, everything. The only thing that changes are the commercial pods, other than that... a total pick-up of the old shows.
4:00 -- Metal Mix... combo of the new and the old... All Metal vidz from now and the days of yore all playlisted and continuitied out.
6:00 -- Power Hour... actually two hours of mellow (well, mostly) Metal Power Ballads and AOR-ish Metal, etc.
8:00 -- Metalworx... Morning Metal Work Out Show with Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne, who are now both fitness freax after nearly becoming chronically obese.
9:00 -- Starts all over again but with all new episodes.
The key to making this work is no repeats or reruns of stuff thats already run earlier in the day. So no daily repeats, in other words.
But reality is, they are wimps over at Viaconglomocom or wherever it is that owns MTV Networks.
Thank Gawd for VH1 Classic. That's where all the action or promise of action is...
Metalmania...
and...
That Metal Show...
plus all the classic Movies and Metal shows they put on...
AC/DC Goes To College...
US Festival '83, Metal Day...
Stuff like that...that's not really out as official releases...
Etc., Etc...
That Roxx! So let's at least be thankful for that!
Top of the Metal Mornin' to ya!
And that's "Top O' the Metal Mornin' to ya!", folks!
They can always call it "IRPFITV" for "Insipid Reality Programming For Imbeciles Television"!
Metal TV? Genius, pure Genius, i can see it now! PTI toss up Hagar vs Roth, Dio vs Ozzy, Crue vs Ratt, Wow, I'm excited just thinking about it!
As for Mtv's new name sh#t TV does sound enticing but i think WOFT tv is better (waste of F#$%ing time is better. or maybe they could take a page out of motley crue's handbook SOS tv-same old situation tv, 5 sluts 5 dumb jocks 1 house different city, every show is basically this.
So amp up and shred away Metal TV debuts today!
First off, I'm glad there are so many like-minded Metallerz here!
Tommy, great adds to the programming. Glad you and your advizorz have been on this project for a while now. Funny, I watch PTI and Around The Horn all the time, too, and it's perfect to lift that for our new station Al's gonna make happen for us.
And your $immon$ Financial Show idea?, priceless! (Sorry, Kenny O and apologies to Mastercard, too, for that incidental lift, by the by.)
"Only The Shadow Knows" and the boy knows his Metal, too! You are right on and your analysis of the former MTV Network, which you have so appropriately titled, "SOS" or "WOFTV" fit's their M.O. perfectly.
And I especially your observation of "5 Sluts, 5 Dumb Jocks, 1 House, Different City", fits the description of every show they greenlight is so dead on!
But Kenny O, I disagree with ya (which I'm shocked at myself about, really, since you and I agree on so much, especially all the stuff you've cued me into like Danger Danger, "Cockroach", no doubt, the killerest among killerz)...
I actually see "Smells Like Teen Spirit" quite oppositely from your point of view.
I was actually watching Headbanger's Ball on that fateful night when the song was premiered on the network via that show. They were interviewing the Cult, who were there at MTV Studios also that night to shuck "Sonic Temple".
And Adam Curry or whichever MTV V-Jaded automoton they had around to interview 'em, asked Astbury and Duffy right after showing the World Premiere of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" what they thought about it and they said they "Loved It", etc... And they would be right...
Kenny O... did you ever stop to think that maybe "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the last Metal to get out the door of MTV, actually, not the first Grunge, as you imply. It was also probably the first legit thing to get on in quite awhile since so much of the stuff comin' out of the Hair Metal Factories at Geffen, Atlantic, Capitol, Mercury and Warners, etc. was just becoming too sub-par after awhile as so many of our faves just got more and more by-the-numberz and just simply began "mailing it in".
But Nirvana helping to kill 'em, no way! It was the other crap out of Seattle like Pearl Scam, who Cobain despised and thought were a bunch of poseurz, that are really the culprits. Cobain loved Metal!
There was an article in Rolling Stone where he cited his favorite albums... AC/DC, "Let There Be Rock", "Powerage", "Highway To Hell", then Zep, "I", "II", "Physical Graffiti", "Presence", and also Aerosmith, "Rocks", I sh*t thee not!
Dude, he was one of us! And his music trancended genre's. He wasn't going for formula. Nirvana's stuff just "was". IMHO, he was really the next Lennon and if you really think about it, there hasn't been anyone who even comes close to Cobain's talent and auto-authenticity.
That video frickin' ROCKED like nobody's biz, it waz almost shocking, as it just made everything else seem so shopworn and pat, kinda like when I saw The MONSTERS OF ROCK Fest in the Summer of '79 in Oakland.
AC/DC came out after St. Paradise, and Frank Marino but before Terrible Ted and Aerosmith, Schoolboy out front, and just blew everyone's soxx kleen bloody awff!!! I remember Joe Perry and Brad Whitford watchin' from the side of the stage with "Holy Sh*t" expressions on their faces, lovin' it but at the same time, realizin' the torch was bein' past, whether they liked it or not.
While AC/DC went back for their third encore after Angus for the third time sucked air off an oxygen tank stage left, from runnin' his a*s silly, Ted was gettin' ready for one of his last swings on his vine with a loin cloth and Aerosmith was shinin' their Gucci's and tuning their Les Paul's to play the dirge to their own funeral (they broke up like just a few weeks after that).
That's the kind of impact they had, but I really don't think they killed the scene. Like I said, you had all of that Seattle stuff and then the double-whammy of the Brit-Pop scene comin' into prominence and that was just the one-two punch that killed us.
But not Cobain. He transcended it all. I really think he viewed Glam Metal or the L.A. Hair Metal scene for what it was... I'm gonna guess he was thinkin' it was Cheeze-arama!
Yet, he did not like most of the other bands xcept for Mudhoney and a few of the others but Pearl Jam or sorry, folks, Soundgarden, he thought they were boring.
Same with Alice n' Chainz, I'm afraid, which I actually kinda thought were decent, with all that "Here Comes The Rooster" jazz, but he didn't really want to be lumped in with them and thought Staley kinda ripped him off vocally, too!
Regardless, no it wasn't Cobain & Co. that gave Glam Metal it's first initial early retirement, it waz clownz like Poison, who just wound up mailing in most of their stuff, and, as I said earlier, the whole Seattle Grunger thing and their Sominex Rock schtick spreadin' like the Bubonic Plague.
The h*ll with all that, Kenny O! We are gonna rokk!
"I want my, I want my, Metal TV!!!"
We'll get Michael Matijevic to sing it.
Instead of that Stung person, who's unbalanced delusions of grandeur and unwarranted false sense of self entitlement also brought down MTV, as his interviews have come across as just being plain out of touch with the viewing audience and , in turn, being out of touch musically and as a network. Stung was literally the voice of MTV, don't forget. Trubble is that voice no longer required their audience to listen and since his music really stopped getting through to people, neither did he. The Police's last truly great album was really "Outlandos D' Amour, their first album.
But the h*ll with him. He ain't Metal. And now, officially, neither is MTV.
Since they seem like such sellouts maybe they would sell their logo to us cheap, too.
And we'll go Metal TV with it, bigtime!
Time to hit the Lotto! I'll go play tomorrow...
We need to do this!, Al, c'mon! Surely you can go sell this to someone who gets it! Just make sure you give us all jobs there, too!
P.S. Disclaimer: Can't even begin to point out the typos and other stuff on here. Hopefully, it all still makes sense, at least, somewhat...
Thought of some shows for the network though:
Metal-Idol-judges Rob Halford, Don Dokken and Joan Jett
The Amazing Roadie Race
Ace of Bass- bass players compete for gigs
and a metal version of Don't forget the lyrics!
At least as far as your show ideas, go. Dude, this was actually covered on all the major U.S. major cable news networks every hour on the hour on the day they released the Press Release.
Your red flags about branding, i.e. what to rename it, what should the new logo look like, etc., are important, because you raise valid questions about what appear to be marketing miscues in how one should go about reinventing a major television network, image-wise.
But I don't think any of the corporate trained seals want to be anywhere near this one.
Dude, your idea of "Metal Idol" and the judges, Priceless!, as Kenny O and Mastercard would say. Absolutely unfrickenbelievably great and same with your other ideaz.
How 'bout a Golf Show with Alice Cooper (xcellent scratch golfer) with different guests comin' on. Turnz out there'z a fair amount of Metal Golferz in our Metal Midst!
Also how about a reality show (yikes!) following the band Crucified Barbara on their first American tour.
It's funny, cuz most of the stuff we're thinking of is all reality based and even though it's Metal, we really need to make sure we keep the live Metal musical performances going throughout a typical day's programming.
That said, how about The Jimmy Page Show! Let the guy do whatever he wants, as, no doubt, this would automatically be the #1 watched show on the network.
Another show could be a la "Austin City Limits", but called "Live From The Strip", with live performances of bands like "Wildside", that have reformed and you have 'em play in one of the classic venues up there on the Strip, like when they are playin' there, at the Roxy, comin' up.
Other movies to show could be, "The Decline of Western Civilization", which you never see anywhere and has never come out on DVD, and "River's Edge" that wack super realistic movie about disenfranchised teenz with a blase attitude toward murder, played by Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves and hottie Ione Skye with a cool Heavy Metal soundtrack, etc., etc....
What we should not ever do is air that crap of an excuse for an animated film, "Heavy Metal". Man, is that thing some Gawd awful grassgrowin'...
In the meantime, I'll keep playin' the Lotto (with double Power Ball option in full force) and prayin' one of my highfalutin' deals goes through in order to finance Metal Television and of course, to pay all of this incredible and passionate talent on here. Metal People who are so devoted to our Metal Way Of Life...
"I like smokin' lightening,
Heavy Metal Thunder!"
-- John Kaye, Steppenwolf, 1968
That's...er...um...uh...
John Kaye wrote in 1968 and thus, coining the phrase "Heavy Metal"...
"I like smoke and lightning
Heavy Metal Thunder"
You mean you weren't a tossin' n' a turnin' like the rest o' thissy here entire Metal God fearin' tarnation, aworryinz about what to rename MTV n' figure out what kind of symbule to brand on her hide?
Man, you should have seen the streets that night. Mayhem, and unfortunately, not the Metal kind. Peeple a carryin' signz sayin' "Life For Everything Except Metal!" or "Don't Change Anything, Especially Not The MTV Loco!" or "Snookie For President!".
The most bizerk thing was they had tea bagz a hangin' from thare straw hats, which I did nert unnerstand at all, n' they were a wearin' overallz n' carryin' torchez n' chewin' tabackee!
Now I KNOW why "Only The Shadow Knows"!
You are one of dem dare smawt people!
Unlike merself, who ain't never had no dangin' college, well, real college, experience xcept for when me n' some of the other cutterz used to infilteroute your faculities and done stole all your womminz while yer kind were a studyin'....
Puleez, Shadow, we need ya ta gradurate and get on in thare in help save dis here Metal God lovin' country n' also, if'n you could also help ta Heavy Metalize it for us, all the gosh dern better!
You are a great Merkin!... Your ideaz are right and so is dat Heavy Metal Knowledge yer bringin' to the pantry here...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/02/mtv-drops-music-television-from-its-logo.html
- Allyson
And like the corporate line in the article touts, I believe 'em, they keep it "MTV" cuz they do touch on music with some of their shows and of course, all the shows do have music in the background.
It just works tighter when they do a reality show like "The Osbourne's" cuz it's a dysfunctional family train-wreck show but with a Music theme cuz of the family's background being in music. It would help the MTV brand sustain better if they peppered in more stuff like that...
Guess we'll have to come up with another name for the channel. How 'bout GTV? Glam Television... Good thing I gotta crash now, or I'd start wantin' to program that to, and what the hey, you could see how it could be more wide-open with the shows... Lady Ga Ga could do... Whoa! Must Sleep... Happy Valentine's Day, All!
p.s. Shadow, you really are up on it, bro, Yer comments are alwayz spot on. I was just kiddin' ya on the logo, mon... Peace Out!
And yes on "I" know! ha!
Wild that you are going to that Catholic school in Steub. You gotta play Stryper and Shout as part of your playlists, the latter being just an awesome Christian Metal band that's right up there with the top of the heap of that genre and then some!
I'll think of some other bands you can probably get clearance for and I will post them also soon!