I Want My MTV Back!

By: Angelina Berube
Posted In: Opinion

Where have all the music videos gone? Where are the video jockeys? Simply, where is the music?

MTV is not the same without what originally made it great, the music. MTV is no longer “Music Television.”

To the audiences of MTV shows such as The Hills, Real World, and scripted dating shows such as Parental Control, music is only something that is heard in the background of scenes. The viewers get a small blurb on the bottom of the screen saying what band is playing and then the message to visit another site for more information on the band. MTV is sending its audience elsewhere to get music.

Although MTV has always had a few shows such as Real World and Road Rules throughout the years, reality shows now swamp the station.

MTV tries to integrate music into reality shows such as MADE when the teenager changing his or her life wants to be transformed into a ‘rockstar.’ MTV will sometimes get different bands to guest star on these episodes. This, however, does not amount to enough music on MTV.

As Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day said it best on MTV’s 2009 Video Music Awards, MTV should play more music videos. Watching the Video Music Awards this year did not seem right. The videos up for awards were barely, if at all, shown on MTV throughout the year. MTV no longer has programs such as Total Request Live, TRL, to promote music videos.

With TRL off the air, music has simply become background for the station’s reality shows instead of at the forefront where it belongs. TRL served as MTV’s last hope of keeping the music video alive. Although as the show progressed and gradually showed less of its top ten music videos throughout the years, it embodied what MTV should still be like. TRL gave MTV the chance to interact with its audience and play the music the viewers wanted to hear. The show showcased new bands and interviewed fan favorites. When TRL broadcasted its last show last November and ‘unplugged’ the lights to the studio set, MTV basically shut off the switch of music playing on the station.

I want my MTV back. I want my TRL. I want the excitement of turning on the TV at 10 p.m. to watch the premeire of my favorite band’s new video again. Mostly, I want music to become the staple of MTV again. MTV needs to plug back in the music and switch off the reality programming.