TVSquad

I think the last time I actually cared about MTV was around 1991, so I'm not really invested in the latest Kanye West drama/hype that happened at last night VMAs. But I do think this picture was bizarre enough to post. It pretty much confirms that this is a world I have nothing in common with anymore. Thankfully.

[via The Awl]

The stunning news yesterday about the death of Michael Jackson conjured up many memories of the singer for me, as I'm sure it did for most people. For many of us, there was never a time when the Jackson Five and Michael were not part of pop culture. Little Michael and his brothers on The Ed Sullivan Show, their funky outfits when they sang on The Flip Wilson Show (much cooler than the Osmond Brothers!), Michael as the Scarecrow in The Wiz (a hideous movie, but he was quite good).

Well after leaving his brothers to become Michael Jackson, solo superstar, Michael hooked up with Paul McCartney for a couple of songs, "Say, Say, Say" and "The Girl is Mine." The latter was okay, but the former was terrific. They co-wrote it and it reached #1 on the charts in 1983. Those were the times when MTV really showcased music videos and the artists and labels invested in top-notch productions. It was, if you will, the golden age of music videos!

The death of Michael Jackson is a stunning blow to the entertainment medium. You'd think upon someone's death, the media could forget all the negative stuff for at least a minute and focus on the positive of their life. But apparently not. So when I got sick to death of Fox News and everyone else going on and on about the child molestation charges and the plastic surgery and all the other weird stuff we already know Michael Jackson is infamous for, I thought I'd check in with MTV.

Surely, considering his importance in the music video format, MTV would have a response. And it would mean a break from their glut of reality crap. What a pleasant surprise to see a marathon of Michael Jackson videos. This is how I want to memorialize a music legend. No matter what he did or didn't do with his life, the music will always be his legacy. Thank you MTV (I can't believe I'm saying that) for eulogizing Michael Jackson in the only way that truly matters. With his artistic genius.

For a few months now, MTV has been showing AMTV, morning music videos with a range of old and new. Let's ignore the repetitive nature for a second. The biggest flaw is that MTV HD shows the videos in the same quality as its non-HD entity, leaving those annoying black side bars. Why aren't any of the music videos on MTV or VH1 in HD?

In a weaker economy where even television programs get budget cuts, music videos are a great alternative to showing programming since the station doesn't pay for them. It's shameless advertising for the musician and a cheap way to put things in HD.

As a child of the '80s, I remember when MTV was just music videos 24 hours a day. We had veejays to love and the different "shows" were just ways to package genres of videos. Times were good and MTV spurred album sales as we discovered music we loved. But all that went away for a long time. But recently, MTV made a big deal about bringing back music videos. Sure it's on at like three and four in the morning, but that's what DVRs are for.

So I record AMTV and AMTV2 (MTV2 got into it as well) for a few weeks and it's even worse than my local pop station. Eminem's "We Made You" was played every single hour on the hour for four hour straight. It was almost as bad for Britney Spears' "If U Seek Amy" and "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa Okay, I get that. New videos and the like. But then they showed me something called a "Video Flashbacks" and I got excited. 30 years of videos to choose from, alright! How can this not be awesome? I can put up with new video repeats for glimpses of videos past!

Did you watch MTV this morning? If so, you were probably surprised to see what some of us aging hipsters used to call "music videos" airing in between all those Proactiv commercials and MTV News breaks.

The network, now known for pseudo-reality shows like The Hills and The City, is finally going back to devoting a good chunk of airtime to music -- that's what the "M" in "MTV" stands for, kiddos! The network kicked off "AMTV," a six hour block of music videos and news, early this morning. "AMTV" will air from 3 to 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday and will mix celebrity interviews, taped live musical performances, promos for shows like the revamped MTV Unplugged and, yes, music videos, among other segments.

I remember when MTV first launched, way back in 1981. I was in high school, and it instantly became THE MOST IMPORTANT TV STATION IN OUR LIVES. Looking back I guess that seems sort of silly, but when you're a teenager and you can come home from school and see your favorite songs all day long in video form, that's pretty cool.

I have no idea what MTV is like these days. I've watched it only a few times in the past several years, and even that was something like The Real World or maybe some special. People have been complaining for years that the network hasn't been showing videos like they used to. I don't know how true that is now, but if you're looking for a station completely devoted to music videos (and not reality programming), then check out MTV Music, the new web site that houses a bunch of videos old and new.

I guess the real news should be "MTV's Total Request Live is still on", because I -- and anybody else that is over twelve years old and/or doesn't listen to the Jonas Brothers -- had definitely forgotten about it. Really, what can be said about a program that started going downhill after Carson Daly left? The show will attempt to go out with some semblance of a bang in the form of a two-hour Saturday afternoon special next month. I'm not sure if anyone will cry, but I can almost guarantee plenty of unnecessary gyration and poorly-wailed lyrics.

I'm one of the many people who laments the "channel drift" that has affected MTV. A network that started out as, well, "music television" has clearly become "anything but music television." There's even a graph now on GraphJam the depicts how The Real World caused the downfall of MTV. The graph shows how the airtime for music videos has decreased as The Real World grew in popularity. Perhaps it should also measure how the cast of The Real World became more attractive and subsequently less intelligent.

The graph posits that by 2010 music videos will be nonexistent on the channel. Also, interesting is the rise of what the graph calls simply "other crap" that coincides with the rise of shows like The Real World and Road Rules. I assume "other crap" refers to shows like The Hills, My Super Sweet Sixteen, and Made -- shows that have replaced music videos in primetime (and replaced music videos with their incessant reruns in daytime).

Despite the fact that I'm part of MTV's target demographic, I don't really watch the network. I only tune in as I'm getting dressed in the early morning and MTV's running its morning music video block. For the rest of the day, MTV seems to avoid actually playing full music videos like the plague. Instead, they fill their programming schedule with awful reality shows about spoiled pre-teens and dating shows so depressing that contestants are even willing to pee all over themselves to get out.

Now, please allow me to frolic about in my own fantasy world, in which I create my idea of MTV's perfect programming schedule. There are only five -- FIVE -- MTV shows that I would keep. That's right. Everything else should be full-on music videos. In my own MTV, there will be no Laguna Beach, no Pimp My Ride, and certainly no Yo Momma (how did they manage to pitch that?!)

MTV is really getting into this whole idea of TV viewers also becoming TV content providers. First they add a new viewer video category for the MTV Movie Awards, and now they're looking for guest hosts for Total Request Live.

Fans of the show have to answer six questions to enter, including which celebrity that they'd pick to star as in a movie about their life, who they would pick for the ultimate TRL guest list, and how they would describe TRL to someone who has never seen the show before (that last one is easy: they play music videos, a celeb comes on, and the kids in the audience go nutso). MTV and Acuvue will pick four winners who will each host a day in May.

You also have to upload a picture of yourself. So please, make sure you're attractive.

[via TV Guide]

American Idol's oh-so-brutally-honest judge Simon Cowell wasn't always quite so brutally honest. In fact, back in the 1980s, Simon was so intimidated by mega-star Eddie Murphy, that he didn't have the nerve to tell him that the songs he had written were complete and utter crap.

Simon recalls how he went to Eddie's home, expecting it to be "just the two of us and one hi-fi." Instead, he found himself in "a recording studio with about 20 nodders; a nodder is someone who gets paid to agree with the person paying him."

I caught the video for Paul Simon's "Call Me Al" on VH1 Classic the other night, the one in which Chevy Chase lip syncs to the song, and it got me thinking about other funny music videos. I thought it would be a great idea for one of these "The Five" lists we bloggers love so much, and as I was racking my brain I realized I could just simply list five Weird Al Yankovic videos.

But no, Adam loves a challenge, so Weird Al is off limits. After the jump, check out the five videos I came up with, along with a little help from my pal Wild Bill. Throw down some of your own suggestions in the comments.

Let's rock:

Christmas came early at my house. An online casting call has been posted for a continuation of R. Kelly's hip-hop opera Trapped in the Closet.

In the summer of 2005, Kelly released the first five chapters of Trapped in the Closet as music videos, each ending with a cliffhanger, on MTV and BET. Unable to contain his genius, Kelly introduced a sixth chapter for the MTV Video Music Awards in 2005 and an additional six chapters on DVD in 2006.

Next to K-Fed's rap career, Trapped in the Closet is one of the greatest acts of unintentional comedy to be unleashed on the music-listening public in the past several years. His commentary track is comedy gold, and the chapters have been parodied by Jimmy Kimmel, South Park, SNL, MADtv, Upright Citizens Brigrade and Weird Al. Even his fans have referred to the "hip-hopera" as the "Plan 9 of music videos."

Wouldn't it have been hysterical if on its first day MTV couldn't afford the rights to any songs, so the entire day was nothing but videos for public domain songs like "Happy Birthday" "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?" I'm sure a few strobes and a fog machine would have added a whole new dimension to "Three Blind Mice," as performed by Alice Cooper: "She cut off their tails with a CARVING KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!"

But no, MTV launched in 1981 with a bunch of videos of regular pop and rock musicians, starting off with The Buggles catchy "Video Killed the Radio Star," a hit song that was later followed by other great hits from the band such as "Country Music Molested A TV Personality" and "Ragtime Was Convicted of Aggravated Assault."

Thanks to whoever runs the blog IZ Reloaded, you can now watch YouTube clips of every video that aired when MTV first jumped out of your cable box. There's also some REO Speedwagon songs for people like me who mock the band when around friends but secretly sings "Keep On Loving You" in the shower. I've placed The Buggles' video after the jump, cause I love that song.