I can think of two distinct and discrete times in my life when MTV was almost culturally essential and a few others where it was certainly worth watching. But that was long ago.
Once reality TV took over, that was pretty much the end. Ironic because creating reality TV might the most culturally impactful things they did unfortunately
But yeah it has been at least 20 years since MTV mattered. Jersey Shore was it's death rattle. Ridiculousness is gas coming off the corpse
Something I think about a lot is I saw this compelling doc short at Sundance about moped gangs that I later found out was fake and the reason the filmmakers made this fake doc is because they worked for MTV reality shows and HATED how they were not allowed to interfere, just film. 2 things...
First of all that is the worst complaint I've ever heard from someone filming a documentary I've ever heard and the desire being expressed there is why reality TV is so far from actual documentaries and secondly it's just bizarre to think MTV used to have standards that strict
Non stop reruns of Road Rules vs Real World was the first signs of the reality show infection becoming terminal. It just kept eating more and more of the schedule...then Jersey Shore happened and it all ended pretty fast after that.
Heh
My kiddo knows what TV is, but they associate it with “that thing Grandma watches news on” and “that thing that’s been shoved in a corner and never turned on since before I was born”
Their childhood media experience is SO different from mine
