It’s been 7 years since 120 Minutes went off the air, yet it took MTV until this year to drop its official “Music Television” tagline from its name and logo. In this update, we look at life in the post-MTV era. Is there any room for music television in 2010 and beyond? Let’s analyze the current situation and find out.
The beginning of this new decade also serves as a moment of truth for the art of the music video and music television itself. If you’ve read the last half-dozen or so updates I’ve written for The 120 Minutes Archive, you know by now, lamenting MTV is nothing new. This time, however, it’s different. It’s no longer speculation. MTV itself has made it clear: “Music Television” is gone.
It comes as no surprise. Even at the beginning of the last decade, in 2000, it was easy to see that MTV as the hub for music videos was already on the way out. That was the year 120 Minutes was scrapped from the main channel’s schedule, to be moved to MTV2 in 2001. The rise of high-speed Internet obsoleted MTV even further and ushered out the era of music videos on TV.
Through it all, however, MTV kept its identifying mark, the big block “M” logo with “Music Television” printed under it. Despite what was actually being shown on the channel, it was still known as Music Television. The channel’s name kept its status in limbo for many years, but now, that prolonged state of denial (and tradition for tradition’s sake) is finally over.
Yes, MTV finally admitted it on February 8, 2010, when “Music Television” was literally dropped from the logo. The entire bottom section of the logo has been hacked off, as you can see, along with the tail end of the “V” that once branched off. However, one characteristic remains: The adaptability of the logo. MTV’s logo has never been static, but this time, stars of the channel’s shows will appear within the logo, as opposed to the ever-changing patterns of the ’80s and ’90s.
Music still plays some kind of role in many aspects of MTV, of course, and there are still plenty of people working somewhere within MTV who truly care about music, but it’s clear that music is no longer the focus of their television channel. The morning program AMTV still exists today, but it doesn’t hold the same relevance or cultural impact as MTV’s music video programs of years past.
It’s clearly a different channel than it used to be (anyone could tell you that, even MTV itself), so I welcome the change. It’s just honest. There are some people out there who have been inexplicably waiting and wishing for MTV to return to its former glory and go back to playing music videos all day. Maybe now they’ll start to understand that it’s never gonna happen. The channel itself has moved on, and more importantly, the entire culture has moved on.
The other music channels have followed MTV’s lead. MTV2 is no longer “where the music’s at” by any means, VH1 still does the Top 20 Video Countdown out of habit but that’s about it, and Fuse is a mess. Meanwhile, mtvU is playing music on auto-pilot, but even that’s problematic. Even though mtvU plays music videos all day, it’s no longer interesting or compelling enough to watch. We have so many other choices for music that sitting at length watching videos on TV seems silly, especially when they’re uninspired and interrupted by long commercial breaks all too often.
Due to this, the music video as an art form has been diminished as well. There are still some great works of art that are emerging from the genre (Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck, for example), but such examples are now few and far between, growing ever further apart as time progresses. What will be left of music videos in 2020, in another decade’s time? I’m honestly not sure where the art form goes from here. The future of the genre is anybody’s guess.
Updates to the archive
Since we last checked in with you around the end of summer (seriously, 7 months ago), there have been several additions and changes to the archive. Quickly, here’s a summary.
There is an additional episode hosted by Chris Booker from early 2000, new comments on the last episodes of 120 Minutes on MTV later in 2000, a clarification about “American Jesus” back in 1995, some ambiguity regarding a video played during one of the last 120’s in 2003, an anecdote about Mojo Nixon dating back to 1987, and an unearthed clip of MTV VJ Carolyne Heldman (remember her?) hosting an episode at some point in 1988.
As always, if you have anything to add, feel free to contact us using the links at the bottom of the page. Speaking of that stuff, we have some site updates to talk about as well.
Feedback
Given the relatively static nature of the archive, updates like these don’t come very often. Further, given the sprawling nature of the archive (with over 500 episodes of 120 Minutes), there are many far-off corners of the site that never see much activity.
As a result, it doesn’t make much sense to utilize blog-like or forum-like feedback on The 120 Minutes Archive. However, that doesn’t mean we should be stuck in 1995 without a single way to interact, either. Given its popularity, it makes a lot of sense to begin using the power of Twitter, the always-connected hub of real-time information.
You’ll find new links labeled “Comment / Share” all over the site. You can click on any of them to be transferred to Twitter with a short URL for the page you were just browsing. You can use this URL to share that page with your followers and the rest of the world. At the same time, you’ll be able to reply to me on Twitter if you want me to see your comment. The choice is yours.
If you prefer, you can always contact me directly via e-mail with your thoughts on the site. What’s more, e-mail is still the preferred way to send me your contributions to the archive. E-mail links remain at the bottom of every page, so as always, I’m just a click away.
Looking ahead
Even though these updates don’t come very often anymore, you should know that The 120 Minutes Archive is here to stay. I’ve been running this site for over 7 years, and it’s such a treasure chest of information at this point, I couldn’t imagine ever removing it from the Internet. As long as there’s still anybody out there who remembers 120 Minutes, this site will be around. Please don’t hesitate to contribute any additional playlists or information you might have.
Keep supporting the cause! I hope you continue to enjoy The 120 Minutes Archive.
