No MTV VMAs Awards Thread??

Forgive if it's a DB..

Janet Jackson sounded like Bob Dylan.

 

I'm DVRing it.

That may be the saddest thing I've ever typ...oh who am I kidding?

 

How can MTV have a video music awards show? Shouldn't it be the pseudo reality TV awards?

You'll see more music videos during a day of watching ESPN/ABC college football than on MTV.

 

I promise, I won't try to spoil everyone's fun like I did last year, but before I leave, what was The Thing That Everyone Will Be Talking About Tomorrow this year?

 

Uh, it's only been on for 45 minutes.

 

OK. Maybe I'll watch so I won't feel left out of any conversations tomorrow.

 

Now's as good a time as any to float my theory that MTV, rather than being the unwitting butt of "ha ha they call themselves music television and they don't play videos!" jokes that have replaced airline food as our generation's low-hanging zingers, may have shown an underrated savvy by phasing out videos.

Put simply: if MTV showed videos 24-7, brought back Adam Curry from whatever DJ company he's working for in between shifts at Budget Barney's Buick Barn to revive the Top 20 Video Countdown and got back to their roots, would we dutifully wait for our favorite video like we did in the 80s? Or would we just look it up on YouTube and watch it right then?

MTV may well have realized that playing mostly videos wasn't going to fly in a world where broadband internet is pretty common, so they changed their focus to remain relevant. See also: Western Union, which transitioned from telegraphs to money wiring. Do NOT see also: newspapers.

 

According to the link I just saw: it will be Kanye cutting off Taylor Swift to be an asshole.

 

Well, it wouldn't be the VMAs if Kanye West didn't act like an asshole.

 

I think you're giving MTV waaaaaaaay too much credit.

I figure it was cheaper to produce pseudo-reality shows that drew the same number of viewers, rather than paying licensing fees to air videos.

 

That's a good thing.

 

That certainly didn't hurt, but if there was a market for videos on basic cable, they'd be crazy to give up their obvious market advantage of their own volition, even with the fees. But in the last 10 years, video on demand and the internet has made the MTV we knew an anachronism.