It made Beck want to smoke crack. Gave its name to a generation. And, yes, tried to kill the radio star. MTV turns 30 years old this week, join Neil Walker as he celebrates the music channel.
MTV
Twitter killed the video star
From the company that invented the 80s VJ, comes the MTV TJ. The what, you ask? The Twitter Jockey. It may sound daggy, but it’s an infinitely cooler name than “social media expert”.
How MTV is selling Jersey Shore around the world
MTV is hawking its popular reality TV series Jersey Shore (it’s a “young people live in a house together” variant) to audiences around the world. Gawker has a fascinating look at the different ways it’s being pitched to different countries, from India to England.
MTV officially stops pretending to be about the music
MTV has given its logo a makeover for the first time in about 30 years, officially dropping the “Music Television” tagline to reflect the fact that the channel now mostly plays cheap reality TV shows.
Kanye’s outburst gives MTV.com solid gold traffic
MTV.com has spun video footage of the Kanye West Video Music Awards meltdown into record web traffic figures. Significantly, they managed to keep the video off YouTube.
MTV recruits Twitter correspondent
Remember when MTV was counter-culture? Ah well, this is a post-Newlyweds world, and the music channel is desperately chasing the zeitgeist by adding blogger iJustine as a “Twitter correspondent” for this year’s Video Music Awards. “OMGZ!! WATCH ME ON THE 2009 VMAs!!!!” she vlogs.
Australian indies and MTV
Last week, our music blog Johnny’s in the Basement published a guest post about a dispute between Australian indie music labels and the broadcasters MTV and VH1 Australia. Today, MTV has written a response.
Shock Records director on MTV, money and musos
A guest post by Association of Independent Record Labels board member and Shock Entertainment Managing Director Marcus Seal, explaining the problems independent Aussie artists face when trying to get a piece of the music video pie.
Has MTV lost touch?
One gets the sense that MTV is a bit nervous about whether it can stay in touch with the kids’ zeitgeist.
