Remember when Sting was begging for his MTV? “I want my MTV!” he cried mournfully on Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing. Well, it turns out that hardly any of us want our MTV because it’s shutting up shop at the end of the year, at least most of it.
I knew it was still going because during those times when my brain falls out, I search among the hundreds of channels and find nothing I want to watch. MTV is high on the don’t want to watch list. But now, with YouTube and social media platforms widely available for us to get our fix of music on the box, no one gives a toss about MTV and it’s being put out to grass. Perhaps, I should be surprised MTV lasted as long as it did.
MTV was never meant for me, the middle aged pop fan I used to be. It was for younger people. Not only that, until the last couple of decades, I was in a bit of a rut with my music tastes, listening solely to the stuff I used to listen to when I were a lad.
Back in the year of our Lord 1994, VH1 was launched and was more up my street. It featured mainly adult contemporary music (it says on wikipedia) and for a while it served a purpose. The trouble was there was a lot of shit on it, stuff like Queen and not an hour was allowed to go by without some ELO. I don’t mind a bit of Jeff Lynne, I have to say, but Mr Blue Sky became a bit overplayed, as did all the other middle aged rock I used to enjoy – or was it endure? – and by the turn of the century, I abandoned VH1, too. I consumed my music fix on the radio and by actually listening to the stuff I bought.
In noting the passing of MTV, I wondered what happened to VH1. Turns out that channel was put out of its misery in 2000 – a rare Covid benefit, perhaps? – and even by then its programming consisted not of adult contemporary music, but dross like Cruising with Jane McDonald, The Real Housewives of Orange County and Teen Mom. Not exactly ZZ Top, was it? It certainly wasn’t a music channel.
But then, from what I can gather, that’s what happened long ago with MTV, where shows like the Kardashians took over. I guess when you take the music out of MTV and VH1, you’ve got the same tat to look as you have on a million other cable channels. So, what’s the point?
But fear not, one MTV channel will survive MTV HD where fans will still be able to get their fill of Naked Dating UK and Geordie Shore, both of which are not, to the best of my knowledge, popular beat combo outfits. What a relief. Naked Dating UK sounds right up my street. Geordie Shore sounds like it could be about geology around Newcastle. I think I’ll give that a miss. I’m getting as old as the fossils you might find there.
