The Death and Rebirth Of MTV

I’m tight for time today, but I wanted to throw a quick thought out:

The lack of music videos on modern MTV is the stuff of legend, or at least second-rate stand up comedians. While they took a lot of flak for it at the time, I think what we unknowingly witnessed was a media transition that many industries – I’m looking at you especially, Print Journalism/Cartooning/Real Estate – need to consider in the age of the internet.

My guess is that it was increasingly tough to turn an advertising dime in the mid-to-late ’90s due to the plummeting ratings brought on by the ever-cheapening VCR, and teen proficiency with the record button. Today, between band DVD releases and youtube, pressing on with a straight video platform would be suicidal.

I’m certainly not suggesting that journalists should start following around spoiled teens or that real estate agents should start creating ‘cribs’ styled videos for their clients, but I think it says something that, while it brought on quite a bit of criticism at the time, MTV looked to their core (e.g. Brand T(w)een) and pivoted to catch the wind – instead of panicking, throwing up their hands, and blaming everything on the internet.