Music Videos on Television

I have to agree with Justin Timberlake--MTV needs to put music videos back on television again. I think he is too young to remember the beginning of MTV, but I'm not. It debuted during my high school years--continuous music videos around the clock. At first, artists were clamouring to make the videos--few existed and it was a brand new medium. Soon, every song on the radio had a video to accompany it--and MTV was the channel to view them. I remember sometimes feeling disappointed once I saw what certain singers actually looked like--some of the romantic ballads were sung by some not so attractive people! I also remember being blown away by the amazing videos that told a story--yes, even though MJ is really strange these days, no one can deny the amazing talent shown in videos such as "Thriller." The 80s were the heyday of MTV--I remember eagerly anticipating the debut of the latest videos from the top artists--it definitely rivaled today's current debuts of things like Harry Potter or the latest and greatest video game consoles. Alas, things have changed drastically for this generation of teenagers. Where have all of the music videos gone?

My daughter still manages to find SOME music videos on television--I THINK that MTV even has a small portion of the day, every now and then, dedicated to music videos. It may be TRL that she watches--I think we saw J-Lo debut her latest the other day (of course, everyone was speculating about the possible pregnancy more than discussing the video). MTV--an hour or two a day of videos is not enough. Yes, SOME reality shows are good, but dominating "music television" with them is NOT good. I know teens are getting their music videos from the internet now, but it would be nice to have at least one channel on television that is truly 24 hours of the latest hits. My teens don't know what they are missing! Of course, I could not have even imagined having access to the technology they have when I was a teen--maybe they are giving up 24 hours of music television, but at least they have 24 hours of music on the internet or on their I-pods. Either way--teens LOVE music--and, since the 80s, teens LOVE music videos. I think MTV could really rejuvenate itself if they went back to their roots as "Music Television." Until then, I guess my teens will catch things like TRL every now and then, then go to the computer to see the latest and greatest video debuts. Man, I feel old!