In the event that you are one of the few people who still turn on an actual MTV channel (like…with a cable box) to catch those classic 1990s music videos—like Usher’s “U Don’t Have to Call”—Paramount has some bad news for you: the music is officially dying on MTV.
According to Rolling Out, the company plans to permanently shut down five of its music video channels by year’s end: MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live.
Now, it’s highly likely that you aren’t relying entirely on cable television music video channels to catch The Whispers or Whitney Houston early videos—our phones and sites like YouTube and Spotify, etc. gives us access to any music video we want to see 24/7, 365 days a year. But the nostalgia of cable television video stations would make me a little misty if I hadn’t cut the cord on cable years ago. To be honest, I was today years old when I learned that MTV still had music video channels. I’m old school, so when Vh1 stopped telling me that “Soul music is life…” with the lady with the natural hair and the “soul” belt buckle, I thought it was a done deal then.
Fret not if you just like the feel of grabbing that remote control and hitting “guide” to see the lineup for the day, MTV’s main channel is still sticking around and will continue airing all of the reality television content that MTV has to offer, which I imagine at this point is mostly “Catfish” and re-runs of “The Real World” or “Road Rules.” Wow, I think I just dated myself; I can still remember season 1 of “Real World” where Heather B and Kevin Powell were out in the NYC streets grinding. And shouts out to Tammy on season 2 in Los Angeles.
According to Rolling Out, the writing has been on the wall for years. As all of us haved moved towards phones, iPads, tablets, etc. and immediate access to the music and video content we love, television networks have had to scramble to meet the demands of the consumers whose tastes continue to change with lightning speed. The shuttering of the five channels is part of that scramble.
MTV, which first aired on August 1, 1981—egads, I’m older than MTV—has been a lynchpin of culture for, at least, the first 30 years of its existence with popular video shows like “TRL” and being the home for dropping new, blockbuster videos, and then changing the games with reality television (like the aforementioned “Real World”) and its dedication to Spring Break programming. Even MTV! News was often the space to get the latest in pop culture news; I learned of the death of The Notorious B.I.G. by watching Kurt Loder, one of MTV’s famous news anchors, in 1997.
The loss of the channels does indeed invoke a sense of nostalgia, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go watch David (Broom) from “Real World New Orleans” sing “Come On Be My Baby Tonight” and have a good ole laugh for old time’s sake.
