A lot has been said for years, especially on angry blogs and message boards about MTV (and their sister networks) abandoning music. But now MTV is officially dead. How do I know this? Well, take a look at this list of artists:
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, Snoop Dogg, Smashing Pumpkins, Shakira, Pharrell Williams, Chris Cornell, Pussycat Dolls, Black Eyed Peas, Ludacris, Kelly Clarkson, AFI, Alicia Keys, Akon, Rihanna, Taking Back Sunday, Bloc Party, Wolfmother, M.I.A., Joss Stone, Kasabian, & Xzibit
And also consider these VH-1 acts:
Madonna, The Police, Dave Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, John Mayer, Roger Waters, John Legend, Lenny Kravitz, Duran Duran, Genesis, Jack Johnson, Crowded House, Keane, James Blunt, Enrique Iglesias, Snow Patrol, Damien Rice, David Gray, Macy Gray, Melissa Etheridge, KT Tunstall, Corrine Bailey Rae, & Spinal Tap
All of the above artists are set to play the Live Earth concerts today, and MTV, VH-1, and all of their satellite stations are airing ZERO coverage! I thought I read it wrong, but here it is on my cable box: Bravo & the Sundance Channel, with a 3-hour highlight show tonight on NBC. Where the fuck is MTV?? Well, all their coverage is relegated to a special corner of their website, claiming that "If you're looking to see Madonna and Metallica light up the United Kingdom's Wembley Stadium, Linkin Park rock Japan or Pharrell throw down in Brazil, you know who to hang with — us." Riiiiiiiight, but if you switch over to them, they're airing marathons of America's Next Top Model, Real World, Cribs, & Wildboyz!!!! MTV Hits at least has videos. VH-1's playing random nothing, while VH-1 Classic has the outdated One Hit Wonder countdown from like 5 years ago. YES, MTV execs, all these things are more important than global warming AND dozens of live sets by the biggest musical artists on your networks. Good show, assholes! Actually, it's kind of fitting that MTV should die just before its 26th birthday, since that's usually how old people are when they lose interest in the channel's programming.
I remember when MTV forced kids to care about their world, and now that those kids have grown up are doing something worthwhile about it, MTV turns their backs because they figure today's children are too young to care; they'd rather watch idiots be rude and selfish (that goes for all 4 of those aforementioned shows, and on down the schedule).
Of course, that doesn't mean that it'll be good - not all artists are good live (I'm looking in your direction, Shakira), and ex-MTV jocks Dave Holmes & Karen Duffy's hosting skills are definitely rusty. That being said I just watched Snow Patrol being adequate enough, Linkin Park tearing through "Faint" (still their only great song) while Tokyo fans go apeshit, and Damien Rice & David Gray playing an excellent acoustic set together, and I wonder who wouldn't want to see this? This is music. And MTV just isn't anymore. It's dead, so pour out a little liquor.
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