MTV, still clueless after all these years

The New York Daily News ^ | August 7, 2006 | Stanley Crouch

[.cnI redruM]

Last week, MTV celebrated its 25th anniversary, marking a quarter of a century after having conceived of the first actually new thing in popular television entertainment since "American Bandstand" and "Soul Train."

The music video became a big deal through MTV and not only updated the old "soundies" once shown in movie theaters to feature singers and instrumentalists. It also revolutionized the making of films by acclimating its audience to the extremely fast crosscutting that had been pioneered in television commercials, where the faster the message arrived, the better. In the process, the MTV audience learned to see much more quickly and recognize what sometimes quite surreal montages were saying or what they were alluding to - no small accomplishment.

Of course, that is not the whole story of MTV, which also came to project the most dehumanizing images of black people since the dawn of minstrelsy in the 19th century. Pimps, whores, potheads, dope dealers, gangbangers, the crudest materialism and anarchic gang violence were broadcast around the world as "real" black culture.

At first, far too many black people were taken in by the cult of celebrity and the wealth that came to these gold- toothed knuckleheads and mindless hussies to realize what was happening. The lowest possible common denominator was seen as the norm. The illiteracy and rule-of-thumb stupidity was interpreted as a "cultural" rejection of white middle-class norms.

It was as if these dregs had the same heroic position in our time as the largely uneducated Southern black poor of the civil rights movement. Those Southern black people, like the marvelous Fannie Lou Hamer, proved to this nation and to the world that they not only deserved their constitutional rights, but had something both noble and soulful to add to our American understanding of the richness of the human spirit. We are a much greater nation because of the success of the civil rights movement. As they emerged from beneath the bloody rock of segregation, those Southern black people brought to our national identity a compassion and a bravery of immeasurable value.

Unfortunately, the crabbed thug culture that was popularized through MTV brought nothing big with it other than some paychecks.

Twenty-five years later, Christina Norman is the president of the network - and a black woman with a new problem on her hands. Part of that problem is Lisa Fager, a black woman who is president and co-founder of Industry Ears (industryears.com). Fager is disturbed by an MTV "satire" called "Where My Dogs At?" which has a cartoon figure strongly resembling Snoop Dogg who enters a pet store with two black women walking on all fours with leashes around their necks. At the end of the "parody," they defecate on the floor.

Fager's problem is that the spot was shown at 12:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon and will, no doubt, perpetuate among younger viewers the misogynist and dehumanizing images we have become accustomed to in too many rap videos.

That's the way big money goes. We can be sure that Christina Norman will have a simplemindedly liberal justification for the material, but I doubt that Lisa Fager will want to hear it. Nor will the millions of black women who oppose this kind of material and are beginning to rise into the sorts of positions that will make them an influential special-interest group. I don't know how long it will take, but change is on the way.

[wardaddy]

That's funny.....I used to find Stiller so annoying Permanent Midnight...yuck.....but now....well, he's sorta endearing.....an introspective witty yet of course guilty Jewish-Irish guy....maybe I like him better now cause I like his wife and he appears like a normal family guy.

anyhow.....Denis Leary had something to do with that show at some point didn't he?

I can imagine it must have been quite a zoo.

Ken Ober....must be odd to be famous a while and then ...poof.

[longtermmemmory]

In passing I have the impression Mtv is a Rap music, homosexual praising, madison avenue wet dream.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Post #6 you nailed it. MTV was the place to be in the 80s.

[Hildy]

It was crazy because it was the first season. ORIGINALLY the idea of the show was that it was a sitcom about a guy (Ober), who was obsessed with Game Shows. So he decides to do one in his parent's basement. The Game Show was secondary. But then the suits came in and decided it should be a game show only.

I don't know if you you remember, but the first season end-game took place on a Craftmatic Bed. The winner would lie on the bed and there was like 12 monitors and he/she would have to guess the names of the artists from the videos on the monitor. Well, I was the first to test the endgame!
I started guessing the artists when a bunch of guys with long beards came on the screen...I guess I belonged more on VH-1 because I guessed THE OAK RIDGE BOYS when, in fact, it was ZZ Top. Everyone watching was in tears! One of life's embarrassing moments!

[Drew68]

It amazes me that the black community tolerates this.

Of course 50 Cent and Snoop wouldn't be millionaires if only black kids bought their CDs and clothes. The reason rap is so huge now is because it has been embraced by white suburban kids with disposable incomes.

[william clark]

... with two black women walking on all fours with leashes around their necks

Do they smell the glove?

[wardaddy]

that is too funny....that Oak Ridge guy still looks like that

I remember the bed indeed

that was my mid to late 20s.....NYC.....center of the universe ma!

for a MIssissippi lad anyhow

[Hildy]

One of my favorite memories was watching the taping in our offices. There was a category where they would give you a line from a song...and you'd have to give the next line. So the line given to the contestant was from DIRE STRAITS "MONEY FOR NOTHING:

You play the guitar on that MTV
That ain't workin', that's the way you do it

Here was the guy's answer:

Money for nothin' and your CHIPS for free

For those who don't know, it's money for nothin' and your CHICKS for Free!!!!

[Lizavetta]

Real music videos. Real VJ's who didn't talk like they had just stepped out of the 'hood.

You're right - no politics, no vulgarities, just showing videos (lame as they were, though).

Who was that kind of quiet guy with black curly hair? He was quite pleasant to watch. However I never could get into the whole MTV thing - possibly cause I wasn't a teenager.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

While the toughest question posed to Bill Clinton was, "Boxers or Briefs?"

That he didn't answer "How dare you ask that of the President of the United States!" tells you all you need to know about that guy.

[Tribune7]

The first ten years of MTV were classic though.

Yeah, Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana.

[dfwgator]

I used to love watching "120 Minutes". And Martha Quinn. Once those were gone, so was I.

Martha was cute. But Kennedy (the one with the GOP Elephant tattoo) was the hottest VJ of all. Those glasses drove me crazy.

[hollywood]

There's a recently released song called "1985" (I think), about a middle-age mom who's stuck in 1985 culture, with lyrics like "music still on MTV." In essence, MTV is a parody of itself at this point; folks are even singing about it.

[hollywood]

BOWLING FOR SOUP LYRICS

"1985"

[Originally by SR-71]

Woohoohoo
Woohoohoo

Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all
One Prozac a day
Husbands a CPA
Her dreams went out the door
When she turned twenty four
Only been with one man
What happen to her plan?

She was gonna be an actress
She was gonna be a star
She was gonna shake her ass
On the hood of white snake’s car
Her yellow SUV is now the enemy
Looks at her average life
And nothing has been alright since

Bruce Springstien, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cuz she's still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985

Woohoohoo
(1985)
Woohoohoo

She’s seen all the classics
She knows every line
Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink
Even Saint Elmo’s Fire
She rocked out to Wham
Not a big Limp Bizkit fan
Thought she’d get a hand
On a member of Duran Duran

Where’s the mini-skirt made of snake skin
And who’s the other guy that's singing in Van Halen
When did reality become T.V.
What ever happen to sitcoms, game shows
(on the radio was)

Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cuz she's still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985

Woohoohoo

She hates time make it stop
When did Motley Crue become classic rock?
And when did Ozzy become an actor?
Please make this stop
Stop!
And bring back

Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cuz she's still preoccupied
With 1985

Woohoohoo

Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV (woohoohoo)
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cuz she's still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985

[dr_who_2]

Cats like bags. They're funny that way.

[taxed2death]

"MIDI turned music into programs"

Heck, MIDI just links one electronic instrument to another.....Not nearly as detrimental to music as sampling.

Sampling is to musicianship is what Mcdonalds is to food.

I saw the writing on the wall when sampling debuted. About the only thing worse to my ears is "smooth jazz" where a guy bleats out crap on a sax to a drum machine.

the horror.......... the horror.

[Orbiting_Rosie's_Head]

MTV....didn't the "M" used to stand for "Music"?

Once upon a time, yes. It now stands for mysogynistic, mindless, etc., etc...

[Captainpaintball]

The sad part is that for the first 2-3 years, a black artist was few and far between on that station. It took Michael Jackson's popularity, and the insistence of white artists like David Bowie, to get MTV to include black artists in the pre-rap days. Ironically, the emergence of black artists virtually shut out many established white artists, like Bowie from the network, as the medium declined into the cesspool it has become.

The first years of MTV were the best. Although I like some of the network's original programming, the, dare I say it, diverrrrrrrsity of music was far, far, greater than it is today. The first nightof music, for example, had one-hit wonders like The Buggles, Ph.D, Split Enz, Blotto, and established stars like The Pretenders, Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones, Styx, Pat Benetar, etc. It was fun.

[moe1green]

Just for the record I thought I would include some facts. Snoop Dogg did show up to the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards with two women wearing dog collars and leashes. The poop incident really did happen on the season 2 premiere of “Flavor of Love”. A woman named “Somethin” took a dump on Flavor's floor. This happened one month before the “Where My Dogs at?” episode aired. Neither Crouch or Lisa Fager bothered to complain about Snoop going to the 2003 MTV awards with women in dog collars even though it was viewed by 100 times as many people then “Where My Dogs at?”. Lisa Fager whose campaign single handedly cancelled the show listed “The Boondocks” as her favorite TV show on her Facebook page. The Boondocks aired an episode called “The Trial of Robert Kelly” which had a 14 year old black girl being constantly urinated on and enjoying it. This aired 6 months before “Where My Dogs at?” premiered. Stanley Crouch was pretty clueless when he wrote the article. No apology or retraction from the New York Daily News even though a lot of people lost their jobs because of it.

[Ransomed]

I knew someone who thought it was “chex for free”, as in chex breakfast cereal. Of course he was five at the time.

Colin Quinn comes of as pretty conservative at times. That tough crowd show was pretty funny, he had lots of comedians on who were fairly conservative, or at least not smarmy politically correct libs.

Freegards