MTV : Music TV or Reality TV?
On August 1st, 1981, MTV was launched & a new concept of ‘music videos’ was introduced. At that time, the entire music industry looked to MTV to promote their music. The 1st music video to be aired on the channel was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. The channel decided to call the people who hosted the shows VJ’s (Video Jockeys).
MTV never failed to help musician’s to get their music out there. Artists were ready to pay a lump sum to have their video produced by some expensive producer & aired on the channel. Shows like Headbangers Ball, MTV Hits, MTV Unplugged, Total Request Live (TRL) etc made MTV what it is. But something went wrong 
. All of a sudden,every channel I watched was showing reality shows 
. From Star world to AXN, from Zee café to MTV, everything was reality television 
. Its not that I don’t like reality televison , I just think that too much of it may not have a great influence on you.
I was trying to figure out why MTV, Vh1 & Channel V had started producing reality shows instead of promoting music videos & musicians. I mean, when your watching a music channel, you expect to see music videos & hear music not watch some bald men (Raghu 
& Rajiv ) scold people & then tell them “You are not a Roadie” (& what is a roadie anyway 
)
Once upon a time, I actually liked a few reality shows like Roadies, Pimp My Ride 8) , Yo Mamma & then these channels over did it by introducing My Super Sweet 16, The hills, Paris Hilton’s My New BFF, Laguna Beach, Snobsvilla etc. which just illustrates a bunch of dim-witted snobs being paid to be even more idiotic then they actually are. 
Channel V had Launchpad which supported the Indian music scene 
. At one point of time, I actually thought Channel V was going to stay with the music & not sell out like their rival MTV but guess what, they decided to compete. They have recently introduced a few new shows eg: The Player (the bald guy appears on this show too), Kidnap, Dare to Date & Exhausted which are not very different from the other reality shows on television.
I have begun to lose my interest in reality television as they have lost their entertainment factor. I hope these so called music channels get their viewer ratings & enjoy selling out. They have certainly disappointed most music enthusiasts & musicians who need to find other ways to promote their music.
Thank you MTV for killing the music 
& making me realize that I have better things to do rather than watch people commit 7 deadly sins. 
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[...] firebeastm wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptEvery channel I watched was suddenly showing reality shows. From Star world to AXN, from Zee café to MTV, everything was reality television. Its not that I don’t like reality televison , I just think that too much of it may not have a … [...]
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[...] John Ortved & Alex Littlefield wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOn August 1st, 1981, MTV was launched & a new concept of ‘music videos’ was introduced. At that time, the entire music industry looked to MTV to promote their music. The 1st music video to be aired on the channel was “Video Killed the … [...]
I absolutely could not agree with you more. Research indicates that most people are now using the web to watch and download music. I still think that there are a lot of people like me who want to watch music on TV. The only show that I like on MTV is True Life.
Great post, great info, great review, great layout of your blog, I don’t know why it take me so much time to reach this post. really great post.
5 star rating from me.
@ Hari
Every1 wants to watch music on TV but that option seems very dull at the moment b’coz of the outburst of reality shows & so they look to net for their source of music !!
& “True Life”? .. I dont think we get that in india
@Shrikrishna Meena
Thanks man !!
& even dont kno y its taking so long… I’ll probably remove some widgets !!