MTV Grows Up


July 28, 2001


BROOKE GLADSTONE: We're back with On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. Twenty years ago the miracle of converging self-interest created a television phenomenon. It was called MTV, a cable network that got free programming while record labels and artists got free promotion and American teenagers got free of the linear sitcom sensibility that had informed their parents' TV-gorging idleness. But what has 20 years wrought? Michael Nesmith, the ex-Monkee, country rock performer who imported the music video concept from Europe is unimpressed with the monster he created.
MICHAEL NESMITH: MTV is in its fading days and will slowly drift off the map. It served its purpose. Its time has come and gone. It's not global. It doesn't embrace, you know, the, the world village, so-- I, I look at it as a, as a fading star!
BOB GARFIELD:Whether or not the network will enjoy another two decades, MTV has undeniably had an impact. Ann Powers, pop music critic for the New York Times joins me now. Welcome to OTM!
ANN POWERS: Thanks for having me!
BOB GARFIELD: Michael Nesmith just got done telling us that he believes that MTV is over; that it is a falling star.
ANN POWERS: Hmmmmm. Well, Michael Nesmith was always an artiste of the form, and it is possible that on some level the jiggle videos of hip hop and the sort of fashion displays of teen pop have made it harder for artistic video to happen.
BOB GARFIELD:We're 20 years into the MTV age. The original MTV generation, you know, some of them are having stents implanted [LAUGHTER] in their coronary arteries. As we look back and take stock of the first two decades, what ultimately is MTV's contribution to the culture?
ANN POWERS: Well, one word: Madonna, for one thing. The great blockbuster artists of the '80s, Madonna and Michael Jackson, would not have had the same kinds of careers without video - without MTV. That's one specific thing. The shift from music as something you listened to in your room and made up your own story to music coming with a story -- that's something that I think is not that positive. But on the other hand it's allowed for a new form of visual creativity, a new way of looking at film. It's probably been better for film and television than it has for music, frankly.
BOB GARFIELD: To what degree do pop artists of 2001 depend on the video as opposed to their innate musical talents to sell their records?
ANN POWERS:Well that's the huge bone of contention among artists. I think, you know, rock & roll was always the place where you could be a freak, you could look weird -- it's not really been that true for women, but you would have a Janis Joplin for example who wasn't particularly photo-or video-genic but had such charisma and such a voice that she could be a star. Now I think often people, and especially women, are picked out because of their looks! Many kids are getting their primary source of music from MTV. They're not getting it from the radio. They're getting it from coming home and turning on Total Request Live. So looks matter much more, and I think the pressure for artists, especially women artists, to conform to a certain look, has just grown much more extreme.
BOB GARFIELD: Is there any chance that the next ten years will see MTV going back to its more experimental, conceptual roots?
ANN POWERS:Well you already see the--that happening on M2 - the other station that tends to show more innovative videos. For example, the number one nominated video this year at the video awards is this Fat Boy Slim video starring Christopher Walken which is just Christopher Walken dancing. [LAUGHS] It's very bizarre and compelling -- and that's the one that people liked the best! You know? So I think there's an interest and a hunger for that, and like most media outlets, MTV feels itself having got into a rut, I think, and that's why M2 turns toward videos; MTV itself is experimenting with lots of different kinds of programming and never quite knows what to do. I think desperation will lead them back toward innovation as it does every media outlet that survives. And I do think MTV will survive for better or worse.
BOB GARFIELD: Very good! Ann Powers, thanks for joining us!
ANN POWERS: Thank you!
BOB GARFIELD: Ann Powers is a pop music critic for the New York Times.