Ok, so topic of the day unfortunately was not the Patraeus Report, which outlined, if any, progress in Iraq. It was not the conversation that we are a day away from the 6th anniversary of the September 11th attacks and it definitely wasn't the death of Jane Wyman, thefirst Mrs. Reagan.....It was this craptacular performance.
I truly don't where to go with this one. I have chatted about this all day....with strangers on the street, coworkers, friends. Hell I am shocked my grandma didn't ring me up so we could discuss it. All I have to say is thank you to MTV for making it easy to dissolve the long standing relationship we have had. After years of going back and forth, I think it is safe to say you and I will no longer be doing business together. My interest in your programming about spoiled rich kids, spoiled celeb kids, horny college kids and the all around parasites on culture you manage to build your franchise is done. And I believe if it safe to say I will not be the only person you spent much marketing cash on that will jumping the MTV ship. You have been replaced as TASTE MAKER OF AMERICA'S YOUTH. Your goal to spread mediocrity has succeeded and unfortunately, damaged yourself during the process.
I think about your all too important presence on my adolescence, where it was your station that brought me images and information on music and bands that I loved. It with the help of your channel, I first figured out the conformity was not a necessity. It was there where I saw people with dyed hair, tattoos, playing guitars, spitting, living in LA and I was enthralled. Now for all the naysayers, I am aware that MTV was about marketing back in the early 1990's as well, but it was selling a view point I never saw before that. I grew up on Long Island, in a middle class family, with no brothers, sisters or cousins within 25 years of my age to lead me down an informative path when it came to music. MTV helped through this dilemma and many others throughout the US. In the mid -90's, MTV spread underground and alternative music, both on the rock and hip hop side, and brought a different feel to the business. I saw videos from Jane's Addiction, Tribe Called Quest, Chili Peppers, Butthole Surfers, De La Soul and others and I became excited about music. They also continued the social experiment, The Real World where you saw cast members deal with real issues, such as alcoholism, AIDS, religion, race, etc. and when The State and Idiot Box were programs on the channel. (I know they cancelled both of them, so settle down.) As the nighties wore on, MTV changed directions again and reverted to the bubble gum pop machine of yore and kids ate that up too. But in the past five years, MTV has been on steady decline. Show after show focused on uninteresting brats, slutty college girls and rich jerks. There were a few highs- Jackass, although talk about celebrating mediocrity and the lows, pretty much all of the casts of reality programming since 2002. But the disappearance of the core of MTV - music videos - has been the biggest low. When MTV does play one of the five videos on it rotation, they play it to death to the point of nausea. Its a joke that MTV even held the VMAs this year. The VMAs of the past were celebrations of artists who were all over the network and for promotion of Fall movies. But at least before you knew what videos were nominated because you actually saw them on the channel. I am not sure who told MTV executives people wanted less music on one of the only stations dedicated to music, but let's just say they were misguided. In the past two years, Myspace and YouTube have been taking over the job as trend awareness for the ages 14-35. MTV has lost its relevance each year and has official become the joke of the industry. With last night's programming, MTV stooped to a level I didn't think they were bold enough for - they really thought we were dumb enough to like what they shit out. These type of programs take months in the making and this is what they came up with - really? I mean do you really have that much distaste for the people that sign your paychecks? I know you have been grasping at straws recently, since your only program doing anything good ratings wise has as much drama as a six grade fight, but this is really what you thought might bring the people back? I know there have been months of discussions of re tooling your efforts and I really thought you started understanding your audience, the ones who have left and lost interest and you were going to go back to showing videos and promoting music. And then I saw the never ending promos for this shit can and I realized, you don't give a crap about your past, present or future viewers. You are a company who has no problem selling your customer crap and here is the proof one last time that any salvageable credibility you had is lost.
And I would like to say a final fuck you to you too!
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