The Channel Formerly Known As.....

When is MTV going to rename itself? It has not been MTV since about 1990. When was the last time MTV played a video? Who was President? They should do what Prince did and call themselves the “Channel formerly known as MTV.” I grew up in the heart of the MTV generation. My home was the first on our block to get MTV back in 1981 when I was a rockin’ little nine year old C-Mac daddy. All my friends used to come over to watch it. We even had the TV rigged to the stereo so that when a good video (song) came on we could hear it full blast.

The early days of MTV featured ROCK N’ ROLL, remember rock n’ roll? They really had something for everyone. They had heavy metal, new wave, classic rock, punk rock, dance music, pop, rap, etc. It was just a cornucopia of music and they always introduced new artists, many of which made it big and still thank MTV for their success. MTV also ruined some careers, artists that were good singers but not marketable on TV. A good example of an artist that was ruined by MTV was Christopher Cross. He was HUGE in 1979-1981. He had so many top 10 hits like “Sailing”, “Ride Like the Wind”, and “Arthur’s Theme.” The problem with him was he was fat and ugly and wasn’t nice to look at….and boom! His career was over. That is also why Milli Vanilli did what it did. The “real” singers of those songs were not marketable so they needed to find “singers” they could market. In their case, they got caught. I have to admit, I liked those songs though and I still have the CD!

The videos were so great back in the 1980’s. They were cutting edge and the videos told a story. When you heard the song on the radio, you automatically pictured the video. On some songs, I still do! Now, videos are all big booty girls shakin’ their asses with cars bouncing, people drinking, and guys with tons of “bling” on. It seems that nobody has imagination or creativity anymore in the music business. I am a rap fan, I really am. I own so many rap cd’s and music, but I have a huge problem with the rap industry. The rap artists all start out rapping about their hard knock lives in the ghetto. Then they make it big and rap about being rich, having women, and cars, and all kinds of shit…it is kinda getting old already. Rappers also “sample” (which is another word for steal) other artist’s music and then put their own words to it. If I hear another 80’s song (music) with rap lyrics to it I am going to cry. Come up with your own shit! I don’t even think the pioneers of rap and hip hop are happy with how commercial it has become. You look back at rap songs from Pioneers like GrandMaster Flash with “The Message”, The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rappers Delight”, and Cutis Blow’s “The Breaks”, those were rap songs. They told a story, they were comical at times but they spoke about “real” stuff….not about guns, women, cars, and “bling.”

The music industry if falling apart right before our eyes. Lindsey Lohan??????? What the fuck is going on? I am such a big music fan but I’ve been disappointed year after year since about 1997. Give me some substance, give me a good video, give me an original song, write your own shit, give me an artist that will be around 10 years from now! Will there ever be another band like the Beatles? Will anyone ever have the longevity of The Rolling Stones or Springsteen ever again? Will people write songs that will be played 30 years from now? Right now, I have my doubts. I love all kinds of music, but the industry itself now is a joke and we need some more variety and they need to find some real talents out there.