Me Trying interView

I truly despise what happened to MTV. Do I really have to explain this?  Squeezing remote control in my hand, I was quite sure that with turning on the TV  I would encounter Justin Bieber singing ‘baby’ , ‘I love you’, ‘I need you’ and other ambitious lyrics with his girl-like sounding voice and shiny lip-gloss on his juicy lips.At least, I expected  to see Lady Gaga showing off in her brand new meat suit.  OK, I would just watch any video clip –read it like this- ‘artists’ smoking weed, driving the most exclusive cars, plastic but sexy girls having more exposed than covered doing ‘naughty things’... Uhm. Don’t forget about “Yo, Nygga” in the background.

That is what my generation understands as “having something to do with music.  And then… I pushed the button. MTV Polska.
To my surprise, I came across unusual picture. A couple of intelligent people  sitting on the couch and examining boys (is it a job interview?)- Why do you think you should date my daughter? - -Cuz, Iev tha biggest penis inda world, bitch- Mother’s reaction - genuine smile. 

What the hell is this?

The program called ‘Parental Control’. The parents, dissatisfied with their beloved child’s girlfriend/boyfriend, organize a casting for a brand new  ‘boo’ and arrange a date to convince their son/daughter that she/he may be involved with someone way much better. 

This is the music for my ears.

Quite confused , I  turn off the TV  and open the door to greet my guest, a 34-year old 'audiophile' Bartłomiej D. who’s going to acquaint me with  his memories of MTV from the times when I used to be wrapped in swaddling clothes. 

M:  I suppose you know that I have no recollections of MTV’s beginnings , so tell me how it all started.

B. D. : It was about ’90 or ’91…just when the cable television started to gain its popularity in Poland. But, as you should know, it all started in the glorious country of America in 1981. MTV Europe “was born” in UK, as far as I remember, in 1987. Hm.. then your generation appeared and everything started to get worse.

M: Thanks. Let’s move on to reminiscences. What was “the normal” MTV like?
  

I remember that I had my Saturday evenings  reserved for the charts, the so -called ' European Top 20’.

I assume that  it does not sound like MTV to you- 20 brilliant songs one at a time. Furthermore, imagine what was the mainstream then – Pearl Jam, Nirvana, U2, R.E.M, Green Day, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers…

What I  personally liked the most was the Paul King’s program  with alternative music at 11.30 P.M. 

  http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/31040321

He presented the alternative genre from the U.S., U.K. and Europe.  It was unique and special, you couldn’t have heard such music anywhere else…even on the radio.  

There was also extremely gripping  live series called “MTV’s Most Wanted” by Ray Cokes. 

It was a kind of talk show with over a dozen people as the audience  arranged in a cozy room. Not only was  Ray chatting about THE MUSIC  and the bands but also he played brand new video clips, sometimes long before the single could be heard on the radio. He had a great taste as a VJ  (video jockey). He was also exceedingly entertaining as a presenter- he answered the viewer’s calls in the studio , he organized some contests and he even arranged some  live performances by  e.g. Radiohead. 

M: And then in 1996…

B.D.:  In 1996 MTV started to lose its prestige.  It was a gradual fall determined by many factors.

 1. The exchange of the old VJs. 2. The appearance of rival stations such as e.g. VIVA resulting in the reality shows’ heyday 3.The birth of the INTERNET. 

MTV used to be the first-hand source of the information about the brand new singles, bands, gigs and festivals. It was like this- you heard it on MTV , you loved it, you went to the market and bought a cassette or CD.  Now you can just …“google” it.

M: How would you describe MTV nowadays in two words?

B.D. : Massive Television

 M: The painful truth. Now, let’s talk about yourself. What is 'audiophilia'  all about? 

B.D.: To simplify, we can divide the 'audiophiles' into 2 groups.The first group are hobbyists who seek high quality audio reproduction, in other words, who try to find the closest  to the real instrument’s sound imitation via the special high-end audio electronics. The members of this group are ready to spend fortune on preamplifiers, digital-to-analog converters, amplifiers, etc. They’re shopaholics just like the women in the shopping centers with that exception that the' audiophiles'  want to reach the perfection of… the sound. 

M:  The second group…

B.D:… are the people who care much for the kind of music they listen to. Apart from that they tend to pick up the differences in sounding of various pieces of audio equipment, but on the contrary to the first group they're keen on listening to and feeling the music as a whole- not  paying  attention to particular instruments. 

M: Deducing that you’re in the second group, what bands/singers would you recommend as an 'audiophile'?

B.D.: Piotr Rubik (laugh). There was nothing worth mentioning since the times of Ich Troje (laugh)

M: What was the best music that you found on MTV?

B.D.: I remember when the Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” appeared in the charts for the first time. I was amazed. It was at the grey end of the charts, however, I decided to share my predictions with my  friends at  secondary school …. They were quite skeptic, but I knew that this band was going to be legendary… and in fact, it was!  After a couple of weeks it reached the top and stayed there for a long time…

M: Commercial music? 

B.D.: Armin van Buuren …hm… we don’t have time to enumerate… just turn on the MTV.

M : Now... take me on a worthwile voyage to the old MTV. I want to hear that MUSIC. 

B.D. : Here you are.

And for those who want spend more time investigating the music of the old good times when the mainstream was somewhat closer to the alternative  ... Check this out!
BANDS: The Cure, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Mazzy Star, Catherine Wheel, Jesus and Mary Chain, Pavement, The Smiths, PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins, Faith No More, Sonic Youth, The Breeders, Pixies, etc.

I hope you enjoy it :)
D.(investigatorka)

Once upon a time when MTV lost its 'music television' label..

What would happen if you add too much glitter to your fancy party outfit? It'd probably spoil the whole effect and you'd look like a christmas tree decoration. What would happen if you eat the two whole chocolate cheesecakes? Your level of sugar in blood would instantly increase and you'd probably feel sick. It is what exactly has happened to MTV of our times - it's all glitter and shiny, but at the same time it's sugary and makes you want to throw up.

I remember the times when I used to sit with my sister in front of tv and watch really good music videos on MTV. But those times are gone and since there are more dumb tv series and reality shows, the word - MTV -  has stopped to be an abbreviation for music television, but started to mean a tv filled with all that 'junk' shows - you name it. Several years ago the era of popular television has started and actually, we did have to wait long for the company to change its logo. Los Angeles Times posted an article informing that it's not surprising that this week the 29-year-old network bowed to the inevitable and finally scraped the legend "Music Television" off its corporate logo (Feb. 13, 2010). 

At first I found it ironic that they decided so willingly to cut off the part of the logo that was an integral piece of a MTV community for all these years (actually it has been created on August 1, 1981!) But then we learn from Under Consideration site that MTV realized being 'music television' was too limiting," and "MTV is not about music anymore, and its new logo dispenses with the hindering description of 'Music Television'.

To cut the story short - what happened with the missing part of the logo? It has probably landed in the trash icon on a desktop of a skilled IT expert who had tested his talent of using CTRL+X command. But let's face it, with the moment of the decision, MTV was already missing the sense of music television. Was it a commercial manipulation or just a need for changes (one logo for 29 years? come on, everyone could have got bored with it), now it does not matter.

The visual example of this inevitable change you can see at the top of this blog. Actually I borrowed this image from one of the multitude of blogs, which are commeting the MTV phenomena. It occurs to me that there are a lot of disappointed MTV lovers, who (for the sake of their brains' good) have stopped to watch it. They skip this sugary shows (often sexually offensive and brutal) and substitute MTV with their mp3 players or various music videos that they can watch on the Internet.


the MTV logo looks like an old friend who just got unflattering plastic surgery, one tuck and one pull too many that have left a memory of what used to be there.* And none of the known stiches would be useful here.