TRL 200o via GoBritney

If video killed the radio star, then MTV killed the video with reality television and mindless fluff.

Their lease will be up in about two months and guess what folks? MTV isn’t renewing their top-shelf spot atop the streets in New York’s Times Square. The windows, that view, the chaos – it’s all finished. Done. Gone.

*shocker*

In a recent interview with John Norris, one of the most memorable MTV veejays, he seemed to think that TRL was “lame” and that the show was overrun by teeny boppers and new wave grunge artists who made crap music post-Nirvana. That, together with, the demise of the music video and the rise of reality television has killed off what the network used to stand for.

I completely disagree.

Seems to me like Mr. Norris is a Gen-X, stuck in a the same mentality MTV was built on, but couldn’t grow out of. But unlike Mr. Norris, who ignored them all together, MTV paid attention too and then bypassed the newly 20-something Gen-Ys that sustained the MTV brand and, rather, moved into bed with pre-pubescent Disney. Literally.

{TRL 1999}
I feel like 8th grade all over again.

Boys Bands & the Disney Star

In an open letter I wrote to MTV after watching their 2009 Movie Awards, I was highly irritated and thought I lost brain cells watching a show that clearly wasn’t aimed at anyone over the age of 16.

When did that happen? When did MTV become Disney 2.0?

Talk about #fail.

Here’s the thing: when I was a teeny bopper, Britney Spears had just come out with “Baby One More Time,” she was on tour with ‘N Sync, Justin Timberlake had peroxide hair that Tom Felton does better, and the Backstreet Boys were dominating the charts. There was a girl swiveling her hips to “Genie in a Bottle” and the Spice Girls were on their way out…

Well, for today’s teeny boppers, my Britney Spears is their Miley Cyrus. But the major difference is so critical and so obvious, again, I feel like I’m the only person on the planet who seemed to have noticed The Disney Star.

That’s right – the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and those brats from High School Musical.

MTV has spent the past five (or more) years trying to compete with Disney and the Disney “audience.”

Let’s get one thing straight, there is only one rat in this world, his name is Mickey and no one can compete with the power of his high-pitched, more Minnie than Minnie, voice of power.

So I would love it if someone could explain to me, why MTV even tried?

Let me break it down for you one step further – while, MTV was chasing after the Miley Cyrus wannabes, the Jonas Brothers crushings and whether or not Vanessa Hudgens was ever going to be dumped by Zac Efron – they completely neglected Gen-X and most of all, the now grown-up group of Britney’s “Oops” Gen-Y.

Those two audiences were the ones that made MTV what they were, gained them the success that they had enjoyed and ultimately MTV left them hanging with absolutely nothing to watch on the network.

Reality television and Total Request Live

While, four million people may have tuned in to watch The Hills, I’d like to draw your attention to two specific things that are so obvious, they’ve been overlooked…again:-

• The Hills is on in prime time television. Unlike it’s early years, TRL was on in the early afternoons in the last leg of its run.
• The Hills may have had four million views, but there are over 80 million Millennials in the United States and come 2010, Gen-Y is expected to be the largest population generation in the country.

So why is any of that important?

TRL 1998 for Hanson -- Image by Vic DeLucia of The New York Times

It’s important, because when I was thirteen, Hanson was on top of the world, Carson Daly used to host TRL and it was on after 5 p.m. Housed in a small room, lit by fairy lights, with Carson sitting in front of a computer, on his own – no guests, no blitz, no flashes; it was something to be built upon.

In retrospect, I can think of at least four different ways TRL could have saved itself and MTV could have STAYED music television.

When it looks to the naked eye like CNN played more music videos the day that Michael Jackson died than MTV has in all of 2009, you know something is terribly off-center.

Carson & Damien by MTV

Millennial Meltdown

MTV started with “Video Killed the Radio Star,” it was embraced by Gen-X, loathed by the Boomers and it tried to relate to Gen-Y.

My 20-something friends would still be watching MTV if we weren’t bombarded by Heidi Montag, the vampires from Twilight with bad makeup jobs and a serious lacking of Chris Rock.

Have we simply out grown MTV? Is this what the underlying issue really is?

It’s been said over and over again – Gen-Y is smart, they are quick, they want things right now and it’s true. You are dealing with a generation who wants to know WHY – you can’t tell them WHAT.

Whatever happened to Rock The Vote? I don’t recall it ever being as “in your face” as it was back in 2000 or 2004. And what about all those investigative reports MTV used to do?

Suchin Pak and Gideon Yago on the CBS Early Show

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember the days of Suchin Pak and Gideon Yago talking to soldiers in the Middle East, homeless people on the streets of New York and having hour long “personal” interviews with Madonna.

That was the MTV I remember, that was the MTV I would watch today. It used to give me something I couldn’t get online or anywhere else. And while YouTube plays music videos — it was MTV that made the music video what it was.

While, Ryan Seacrest might have replaced Carson Daly in interviewland, E! News could never replace the content MTV used to offer and that’s probably where MTV got their eggs mixed up with oranges.

When I can get the same content MTV is providing me with from Twitter, Cinematic, Disney and Perez Hilton – why would I watch it?

Especially, when – guess what?

*shocker*

I don’t want that content. I want my old MTV back.

Like I said, if video killed the radio star, then MTV killed the video with reality television and mindless fluff.

What say you?

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Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida (’07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami(’08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima.

Copyright © 2009 SashaH. Muradali. All Rights Reserved