There is no golden age of MTV, although a new oral history called “I Want My MTV” at least argues that there were better times to watch -- namely, during its first 10 years. But if you were to identify the true height of the network’s influence, you might well point to the early 1990s. It wasn’t just the time of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” -- it was Rock the Vote, Choose or Lose, Boxers or Briefs. Presidential candidates needed to sit down with Tabitha Soren, and through town hall meetings, a youth agenda emerged during the 1992 campaign, just as Gen X graduated into the first Bush recession.

Even then, however, MTV really wanted to sell “influencers” to advertisers. In the New York Times business section and other places they didn't think their audience looked, MTV ran a picture of an alternaguy with cool clunky shoes and the tagline: "Buy this 24-year-old and get all his friends absolutely free."

Continue Reading...

BILLY GIBBONS, ZZ Top: One night I got a phone call from Frank Beard, our drummer. He said, “Hey, there’s a good concert on TV. Check it out.” So a couple of hours went by while I watched TV, and I called him back and said, “How long does this concert last?” He said, “I don’t know.” Twelve hours later, we were still glued to the TV. Finally somebody said, “No, it’s this 24-hour music channel.” I said, “Whaaaat?” MTV appeared suddenly — unheralded, unannounced, un-anything.

STEVIE NICKS, Fleetwood Mac: I was living in the Pacific Palisades and I would sit on the end of my bed, watching video after video, just stupefied.

Continue Reading...

Judging from tonight's premiere (MTV, 10 p.m./9 central) -- the first new "Beavis and Butt-head" episode since 1997 -- the answer to both questions is "no."

Watching a '90s pop culture-dependent show try to revive itself after 14 years is a weird and vaguely depressing experience, like revisiting your old high school as an adult and failing to feel nostalgic. For whatever reason, creator Mike Judge decided not to age his adolescent blockheads. They're still gawky, zit-faced teens, but instead of stumbling and blithering through Clinton-era suburbia and goofing almost exclusively on '80s and early '90s music videos, they live in 2011 suburbia and make fun of the new MTV staples, "Jersey Shore" and "True Life."  (They make fun of music videos, too, but the jokes feel slightly off because they're watching them on MTV, which all but banished videos as a programming mainstay over a decade ago; for some reason it reminded me of seeing Don Rickles in concert in the late '90s and feeling sad when he joked about Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., then ended each bit with "God rest his soul.")

Continue Reading...

I live for those times when an album explodes throughout American society as more than a product -- but as a piece of art that speaks to our deepest longings and desires and anxieties. In these Moments, an album becomes so ubiquitous it seems to blast through the windows, to chase you down until it's impossible to ignore it. But you don't want to ignore it, because the songs are holding up a mirror and telling you who we are at that moment in history.

These sorts of Moments can't be denied. They leave an indelible imprint on the collective memory; when we look back at the year or the decade or the generation, there's no arguing that the album had a huge impact on us. It's pop music not just as private joy, but as a unifier, giving us something to share and bond over.

Actually, I should say I loved Massive Music Moments. They don't really happen anymore.

Continue Reading...

And we weren't certain which was stranger -- the dangling umlaut in the title of the song Gaga performed ("Yoü and I") or that she continued to appear as the Calderone character for the rest of the evening

Continue Reading...

Best pop video nominees:

Adele, "Rolling in the Deep"

Continue Reading...

You know that producing a definitive piece like this is every music nerd's biggest dream, and that he or she already has that list ready and waiting to go, so I just imagine the conference room of NME probably looked like a battlefield of broken bottle glasses and mangled EPs. How all the editors got together and finally found their 100 picks is beyond me, but you can't deny that their number one pick – Johnny Cash covering the Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt" – is a solid choice. It's not too fringe, it was the last song Cash filmed (and the one he made right after his wife died, though she appears in the video), and it's filled with some of the rawest emotion ever caught on tape from the Man in Black.

Continue Reading...

I guess that Italy really did put a curse on the cast of "Jersey Shore." Not only have more than half the self-proclaimed Guidos been injured during the filming abroad, but now MTV is putting the kibosh on the kids after they finish up shooting the fifth season back in New Jersey.

To the rest of us, this tragicomic experiment has already gone on too long. Why do these poster children for bad ideas need another 13 episodes back on the shore once they've returned from their failed European vacation? Although the jury is still out on whether car accidents, fistfights and carpal tunnel syndrome count in the "con" column to MTV producers, the fact is that any real dramatic tension on the show is usually leaked months ahead of time by the paparazzi, and Italy has been relatively quiet on that front. Not a good sign about the narrative arc this season.

Continue Reading...

Fun bonus fact: Outside of America, Chet Haze is kind of a big deal.

Tom Hanks en Univision 'Despierta America' (34)... by jenpokro

2. Britney Spears is a comedian now

The singer brings the gift of laughter (along with auto-tune) to her latest single "I Wanna Go."  I'd tell her not to quit her day job, but she doesn't have one.

Continue Reading...

Some critics are blaming the Parents Television Council for calling the show "child pornography" and scaring off all the advertisers.  Some are claiming that Bryan Elsley's show was just too racy for American audiences and/or Viacom. Other say it wasn't racy enough to compete with actual reality television. My contention? The American version of "Skins" just wasn't good enough to warrant a second season.

Continue Reading...