ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 6/23/2008
Posts: 14,330
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The shift away from music focused television was an absolutely necessary move on MTV's part. Yes, everyone who visits ATRL misses the music videos, but only because we are more invested and more interested in the popular music scene than the average Joe. Hardcore fanbases and music geeks aside, there's just not really a demand for these videos to be shown on tv. For one, the novelty of the music video has worn off. Videos were a fairly fresh concept when MTV was first conceived, but several decades later it's just a given that insert hit song will have an accompanying video and there's certainly a new perception that if you've seen one video you've seen them all. Furthermore, technology has rendered televised video broadcasts irrelevant. Who's going to sit around and watch TRL every day to see Lady Gaga's new video when they have the convenience of being able to go online and stream said video on YouTube or purchase it on iTunes (or access it via countless other sources) and watch it whenever they want? It made sense for MTV and other networks to broadcast blocks of videos and have countdown shows in an era before Internet domination, but that sort of programming would fail miserably in our current convenience obsessed culture. MTV has been adapting their programming and doing what is necessary to stay afloat since the early 90s and you can't really blame them for wanting to maintain their status as a successful network, even if you dislike with their programming changes. And for what it's worth the "Music Television" qualifier might have been removed, but the network's association with music will probably always exist seeing as how they still hold onto the VMAs, continue to promote artists in between shows, keep their web content very focused on music, and focus a large portion of their attentions on musical celebs. In that sense, regardless of how many pregnant teen reality shows they're whoring out that month we'll probably continue to think of them as the most prominent voice for music on tv.
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