Who killed the video star and when?

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Written by Matt Willford

Friday, 05 December 2008 10:16

Over the Thanksgiving break, I had the honor of spending some time in Wellington, Colo., not for enjoyment, but for family-related purposes. Since I was spending time with family that meant spending time down at one of two bars in the town, because that’s how my family spends time together. The lack of bars a town has shows that you’re not in Wyoming anymore. In Colorado, people don’t need that many. But in Wyoming, it’s a requirement that you have at least three bars in a town: one for the old people, one for people who like to have a good time and one for the people that got kicked out of the other two.

I noticed the bar had a discjockey for the night, but not some ordinary DJ that would have been more suitable for this setting. This DJ also had the music videos playing along with the song. One word of advice: don’t ever hire any videodisc jockeys that have worked in Wellington, Colo. This particular jockey could really feel what the crowd (all 12 people) wanted. Nothing says “Play some Kool & The Gang, Beyonce and some Ludacris” more than Wellington, Colo. Every once in a while there would be some country songs from the early nineties, which oddly enough were the only songs that anyone danced to.

Then one music video came on that I forgot existed. It was John “Cougar” Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good.” This music video actually drew my attention to the screen; it was really weird. This is a music video that really hinders the actual music being played. Remember that video, the one with all the cool bikers packed into the little café while the “Cougar” danced around on the bar?

As I sat watching the legendary video playing to 12 hardcore Mellencamp fans, I started to wonder: what happened to music videos? They used to be a pretty big deal. I think they even started a channel for music videos and the people that made the music. Oh yeah, MTV. It even has music in the name. I mean there was also VH1, but come on, nobody really liked VH1 except for when “Behind the Music” was on. VH1 was kind of like the nerdy neighborhood kid who had all the cool toys that you never had but every time you went over to his it was so awkward that you couldn’t enjoy playing with the cool toys.

MTV does not play music videos anymore. They used to, but they just got rid of the only show that played videos. That’s odd because they left the music part in the name. If you want anything that resembles MTV, you have to watch MTV2. Even there you only get a couple hours of music videos, and it’s usually just one type of music, maybe two if you’re lucky. You used to be able to hear a wider range of music. Some that was awesome and some that you never wanted to hear again, but you still kind of appreciated it a little because their video was cool. That was the beauty of it.

What happened to the experimental MTV that used to exist? MTV used to take chances with shows that you wouldn’t see anywhere else and still kept it framed by actual music-related programs. Similar to the present, there were shows that weren’t music-related, but it wasn’t like the stuff you see on other channels. It’s where the ugly social rejects would hang out. But after a while those social rejects became really cool and then just invited the other cool people.

A good chunk of those experimental shows broke through and became a hit. This is great, but because of that MTV has latched on to those shows and do not do the experimental things they did in the past, like the stories you heard about how crazy your dad was in college and did a lot of experimenting. But he doesn’t do that now; he has a job, kids and a mortgage. Now the dad is a dull person that nobody likes anymore. People used to like him, but not anymore.

With all of the new kinds of programs, it was more exciting. There were good shows and bad shows, but they were all different. Nobody takes chances anymore. There are other channels that show cool stuff that MTV used to show, but sometimes you can’t afford to get those channels, and they don’t even show that cool stuff all of the time. When it comes to music on television, there is definitely not a lot of it. I’ll just have to accept that the days of the music video are over; just don’t tell any Wellington video DJs that.

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