*Was it 1992, when The Real World debuted, which eventually lead to MTV creating more and more reality TV shows (which in return, got more and more exploitive), to the point in which it literally dominated the channel by the turn of the millennium?

*Was it around 1995, when "niche" shows like Yo! MTV Raps and Headbangers Ball were cancelled? I guess this became problematic in that the video catalogue became more homogenized and too "Top 40" looking (which became even more apparent around the time that TRL started and pretty much became the main if not sole music video outlet during the day).

*Was it around 1996, when MTV2 (or M2 as it was known at the time), which seemed to give MTV justification to not devote more time to music videos? Even MTV2 has severely suffered from network decay in recent years, but that's another story.

*Was it 2001-02 when, Daria ended, which was arguably, the last really "intelligent" MTV show that resonated w/ it's target audience.

*When The Osbournes launched and got huge ratings (I think some of the biggest in all of MTV's history), which gave MTV the notion that we wanted to see more "train wreck" type of reality-programming, which ultimately lead to stuff like Jersey Shore and 16 & Pregnant/Teen Mom. Even The Real World seemed to get more and more sleazy and exploitive in recent years.

*Was it around the time that YouTube launched (and that low-budget OK Go video w/ the treadmills became extremely popular, thus record companies perhaps no longer felt such a need to pay MTV millions of dollars to show their artists' videos), which kind of made the idea of waiting around all day to watch your favorite videos (when you have instant access on your computer) kind of passe?

*Was it when TRL ended (I've heard that a main factor in that show's decline in popularity was the rise of MP3s) in 2008?

I am guessing that a good deal of people would say that the station kicked the bucket when Michael Jackson did.

God bless you and his family always!!!

Holly

1993, when they ended Headbanger's Ball.

I am guessing that a good deal of people would say that the station kicked the bucket when Michael Jackson did.

They were on life-support and breathing their last long before that. For me, MTV was history when all the original VJ's were replaced by no talent wannabes like Kennedy, Adam Curry, Carson Daly, Pauly Shore, Downtown Julie Brown, Karen Duffy, Daisy Fuentes, Dan Cortese and that god-awful Jesse Camp. I know there were others but these were the only ones I actually watched long enough to see how terrible they were and that didn't take long at all. Also, most of the music from 1990 to the present I can't listen to without getting nauseas although there are a few exceptions.

MTV was still decent when The Real World premiered in 1992; they were still playing music videos and the show was not the sex and booze drenched hookup garbage it is today, it was about people from different backgrounds who didn't all look like models trying to make sense of each other. I think after TRL ended was when it all went downhill and they pretty much abandoned music for reality shows.

I always liked Much Music more than MTV.

http://i55.servimg.com/u/f55/12/85/36/14/movie_13.jpg

I think another part of MTV's problem in recent years is that they just simply had no real clue how to adapt/adjust w/ the times in regards to the ever changing musical landscape as well as technology like YouTube. MTV has always been I suppose, the central hub that you went to to check out what was going in terms of the latest trends (it was sort of like a Generation X & Y equivalent to CNN or MSNBC or whatever) or anything else in pop culture. Unfortunately, MTV has seemingly started to underestimate its audience and in the past few years, has really lost focus (it seems like MTV in recent years, doesn't have a whole lot of programming variety)/gone in "autopilot".

I've seen the FlannelBoy video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaOj-AW31t4), and he speculated that when MTV responded to the criticisms in the late '90s early 2000s of not focusing enough on rock music (in contrast to more "bubblegum" teen-centric pop acts of the era like Britney Spears, 'N Sync, Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys, etc.), MTV proceeded to focus on arguably the "wrong type" of rock music (namely, nu-metal acts like Limp Bizkit). I think a show like TRL or any other general top 10 countdown show, may not work anymore simply because the musical landscape as I've previously mentioned, has arguably gotten more diverse and complex since the hight of TRL's heyday.

MTV was still decent when The Real World premiered in 1992; they were still playing music videos and the show was not the sex and booze drenched hookup garbage it is today, it was about people from different backgrounds who didn't all look like models trying to make sense of each other. I think after TRL ended was when it all went downhill and they pretty much abandoned music for reality shows.

13 Signs That MTV Hates You (http://www.avclub.com/articles/13-signs-that-mtv-hates-you,2035/)

I think that another thing to take under consideration is that MTV more than likely no longer has much of a monopoly in terms of how stars are "made" or when a song/video gets the "seal of approval" (not just what goes on YouTube). I say this, since in the past 10 years or so, we've had American Idol, The Voice, The X-Factor, Glee, and even the Disney Channel.

Didn't watch too much MTV during its heyday. Watched it when Beavis and Butthead were on. Maybe MTV died in 2002 or 2003. I mean when MTV2 comes along, it waters down MTV plus MTV got a bunch of other channels as well.

When MTV stopped focusing on the music, that's when it died.

When MTV stopped focusing on the music, that's when it died.

this. and when youtube allowed you to select and watch your favourite music videos, as opposed to sitting through hours of random music videos on MTV, that pretty much killed MTV.

Link (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/22/vmas-2013-mtv-s-awards-show-once-crazy-is-getting-old.html)

VMAs 2013: MTV’s Awards Show, Once Crazy, Is Getting Old

MTV’s summer awards show, airing Sunday, is pushing 30 and struggling to please an older audience and younger demographic. Kevin Fallon on whether the VMAs can strike a balance between courting One Direction fans and respecting the Nirvana nostalgics.



We all remember the moments: Madonna rolling around in a wedding dress. Nirvana singing “Rape Me.” Britney Spears writhing in a thong. Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift. For the past 29 years, the MTV Video Music Awards, the latest installment of which airs Sunday, have successfully operated under an obvious mission: capture the pop-culture zeitgeist and create a Moment—capital “M.” That’s how the music-video awards show managed to stay relevant so long after the network all but stopped airing music videos.


Now, however, the VMAs are facing a bit of a midlife crisis. The show has a history and a future but there's an increasing tension between them. Older fans are enticed by its history as the “dangerous” awards show, the one responsible for those Moments, while a younger demographic, one that may not even realize that MTV ever even played music, is eager to see its own new class of pop stars on stage.

The VMAs of old were wild. They were crazy. They were unfiltered, sometimes foul, often a little bit slapstick, and always—even as bubblegum pop, rap, dubstep, what have you, gained popularity—rock ‘n’ roll.

Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera may have put out music that seemed sweet, but they were making out with Madonna at the VMAs. Lady Gaga may not be as edgy and unpredictable as ’90s-era Courtney Love, but she showed up at the VMAs in a dress made out of meat. Do a Google search for the Video Music Awards, and most of the results are lists recounting those wild, crazy, and insane highlights from telecasts past.

The generation that may remember watching David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper win Moonmen at the inaugural 1984 ceremony and cringing as Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic was beaned in the head by his own bass guitar in 1992 continued to watch the ceremony well into the mid-2000s, as long as Eminem kept starting fights with DJs and dog puppets, and Rage Against the Machine band members were scaling scaffolding in the middle of the ceremony.

Throughout that entire period, too, music videos, even if they weren’t getting as much airplay as they did when MTV launched, were still memorable: “Waterfalls” by TLC, “Hey Ya” by Outkast, “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé.

Now take a look at some of the big nominees and performers tapped for Sunday’s telecast: Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, One Direction, Katy Perry. Do any of these acts scream “danger,” or “wild,” or “crazy?” Then there’s the issue of the music videos they’re nominated for. While music videos are still well-produced and easily sharable through YouTube and Twitter, do people know what happens in Justin Timberlake’s video for “Mirrors” (four nominations) or Mars’s “Locked Out of Heaven” (three nominations)? Certainly not as many who did 10 or 15 years ago, when a video by Britney Spears, Will Smith, or the Red Hot Chili Peppers would be everywhere.

The VMAs’ calling card was always unpredictability and spontaneity, the idea that anything could happen and that’s why you had to tune in.

That’s where the tension lies. The VMAs are old enough to have two, maybe even three generations of fans, each wanting different things from the show. One demographic’s gleeful shock when Axl Rose returned to the stage with Guns N’ Roses in 2002 was rivaled by another’s blank stares: what is Guns N’ Roses? When One Direction took home three awards last year, including one for the whipper-snapper-friendly category Most Share-Worthy Video, the reverse scene can be imagined: a giddy tween set but clueless Gen X- and Y-ers.

Each age group has its own reasons for watching. For one, there’s nostalgia for the days when tuning into MTV was like turning on the radio, for when the network served as value-added musical entertainment. Not only could you watch the channel at any time of day and hear the most popular songs in the country, you could see the acts perform them in crazy, edgy, entertaining music videos.

For a group slightly younger, there are memories of Carson Daly and Total Request Live, a show founded on the idea that music videos still mattered. Once this group was the “young one” that MTV had to evolve its awards show to appease. The network bridged the gap between those two demographics brilliantly, but as the kids of the ’90s become the adults of the ’10s and a new audience emerges, the show appears to be struggling.

Last year’s telecast—which not only crowned One Direction as pop royalty but counted tween-friendly acts Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, and Carly Rae Jepsen among its big nominees—was the lowest-rated in five years. That was a year after the most-watched broadcast in MTV history. If the thinking was that catering to the younger set would help to win more viewers, the network was grossly mistaken.

Sure, some older audience members won’t be happy unless the VMAs mirrors a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert that includes music from their heyday, and the babiest of the ceremony’s viewers would happily see the telecast replaced by a screening of the upcoming One Direction concert movie.

But catering expressly to either group would be, as the Academy Awards producers have learned, a huge mistake. Target the young viewers—here’s Anne Hathaway and James Franco!—and hear the wrath of traditionalists. But make a reactionary move back to tradition—all right, how about Billy Crystal?—and get just as much flak about the show being dated.

What’s always set the Video Music Awards apart is how the show ignored tradition entirely. The VMAs’ calling card was always unpredictability and spontaneity, the idea that anything could happen and that’s why you had to tune in. That was the case when the headlining act was Van Halen. It was the case when it was Nirvana, Eminem, and Britney Spears. And it can be the case again with the likes of One Direction and Justin Bieber—they just have to make that happen.

Audiences have always embraced that aspect. If it’s smart, MTV will return to doing the same.


Link (http://www.salon.com/2013/08/23/how_the_vmas_died/)


How the VMAs died
Youth culture's biggest night now feels like an antique


MTV’s Video Music Awards, whose 2013 installment is to air Sunday night, is one of the most storied franchises in music. If the Grammys are best known for big collaborative performances featuring white men with guitars, the VMAs are perhaps best-known for over-the-top pop spectacles.

The ceremony is particularly associated with two pop stars, both of whose careers have been tracked by the evolution of the ceremony. The first is Madonna, whose best-known performance, writhing in a wedding gown, took place at the inaugural VMA ceremony. At the 20th ceremony, in 2003, Madonna restaged the performance, this time dressing as a groom and kissing Britney Spears, whose incarnations, from innocent-ish teen to raunchy adult to breaking-down ex-starlet to rehabbed and dead-eyed, have tracked with the latter-day development of the ceremony. As artists like Madonna and Britney — world-beating stars with sustained chart success recognized by more or less everyone — have gotten harder and harder to find, the ceremony has come to feel less like the provider of a single water-cooler moment and more like a mélange of parts that don’t quite fit together.

The last truly great VMA ceremony was probably the 1999 one, at which the performances included Lauryn Hill, TLC, Jay Z, Eminem and Britney Spears with ‘N Sync. It was the very center of an exciting pop music scene. I would hear arguments in favor of 2000, which featured Janet Jackson, Britney Spears solo, Eminem, ‘N Sync and Christina Aguilera. But both of these ceremonies — and the ones preceding them — benefited from a climate in which stars were truly massive. Each year’s awards ceremony was like a pop music trade show, at which one could check out what one’s favorite stars were up to this year.
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By 2003, the show was relying in no small part on performances by nostalgia acts. Madonna, whose white-hot relevance on the pop scene had faded a bit, returned that year; so did Metallica. But they beat the alternative — here are some of the acts that performed at the 2004 show:

Hoobastank
Yellowcard
Ying Yang Twins
Jessica Simpson
The Polyphonic Spree

They can’t all be Janet Jackson and Jay Z, it seems.

The show, which had been known for simple, high-concept performances by stars whose magnetism turned the performances into events, grew baroque, moving to Miami so that low-wattage stars could arrive by yacht, then to Las Vegas, where the performances took place in small suites and were cut off for commercials. One of the few performances at the 2007 ceremony that was allowed to run its natural length was by Britney Spears, who, in the throes of a prolonged breakdown, performed a famously terrible lip-sync to “Gimme More.” It was the bad sort of provocation; the pop scene had once had room for clever or at least competent attention-getting, but now it was merely trolling its audience. The next year featured the triumphant return of Spears to the ceremony as an apparently mood-controlled but upright pop star, as well as performances by Christina Aguilera and Pink, two pop stars from an earlier part of the century. She won a lifetime achievement award in 2011.

The meta-narrative of Spears’ redemption, completed without ever having to perform live, became what the VMAs were good for. Rather than being an exhilarating slice of what was going on in a vibrant pop scene, the show’s own narrative had little to do with what was going on outside the arena. The most famous event from the awards ceremony in recent memory was Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift as she accepted her award in 2009; it has been referenced endlessly, with both stars performing songs about the incident the following year. (In the ceremony’s defense, 2009 brought a very good and conversation-starting performance by Lady Gaga, but performances that good used to happen every year, sometimes multiple times!)

The stars we have today inspire so little; with a couple of exceptions, they’re amiable but not provocative, and none seem to have universal appeal or name recognition. And so the ceremony alternately plays up narratives it creates itself (Taylor vs. Kanye, Britney’s journey that ended with Gaga in male drag hitting on her onstage) or mixes performances with a heavy hand toward nostalgia acts. Last year’s ceremony featured Pink (again!), Green Day and Alicia Keys, all acts whose best days fall between 1996 and 2005.

This year may break the trend. The performers so far announced, though none of them Madonna, are to a one successful current pop stars: Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Robin Thicke, Kanye West. But the news that ‘N Sync is to reunite at the ceremony is discomfiting.

The broken-up boy band that launched Justin Timberlake feels like a relic not merely of the early 2000s but of the unitary youth culture that allowed for a single group to be that popular without a gimmick. Since that time is forever gone, MTV could still make a great show by allowing Gaga or Kanye or Justin simply to perform — and create something actually worth talking about.

Well, Miley Cyrus certainly proved she was wild and crazy last night...

Well, Miley Cyrus certainly proved she was wild and crazy last night...

Viacom's Van Toffler Addresses Miley Cyrus VMA Backlash, Talks 'N Sync Reunion (Q&A)

Link (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/viacoms-van-toffler-miley-cyrus-614531)

"Miley definitely brought a different bit of energy to the live show," Toffler tells THR of Cyrus' controversial performance.


From racy performances to an anticipated boy band reunion, this year's MTV Video Music Awards had everything.


Featuring live performances from Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, among others, VMA viewership jumped more than 60 percent from 2012's mediocre outing, averaging 10.1 million viewers in its return to Sunday night.

"It was a wonderfully chaotic mess of unforgettable performances — everything you could hope for as a producer of a live music show," Van Toffler, president of Viacom Media Networks Music & Logo Group, tells The Hollywood Reporter a day after the awards show, later deeming the VMAs "a huge success for us."


Known for its surprises and frenetic energy, the VMAs stayed true to character, with moments such as Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's risque team-up, Daft Punk's "unexpected" appearance and 'N Sync's historic reunion lighting up social media.

THR jumped on the phone with Toffler to talk about the Cyrus-Thicke backlash, when the 'N Sync reunion became a reality, the repercussions of Stephen Colbert's Daft Punk spoiler, a major stage mishap and the biggest disappointment of the night.

The Hollywood Reporter: A lot of people have been talking about Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's racy performance. How did that come about? Was that something that came from their camps or was it something that you guys wanted to do?

Van Toffler: Well, really, both Robin and Miley have ginormous hits right now, so they were both natural for the show. We all saw that Miley actually covered "Blurred Lines" in her concerts and did a version of it, so we felt like why not have them play together as a transition from one to the other — as opposed to one performance, an award and then go to another [performance]. Just have them play off each other a little bit, and [then] Robin would go into his new song ["Give It 2 U"]. It seemed to work and create some buzz around each of them.

THR: How did the rehearsals differ from what we saw on the live show?

Toffler: Performers turn it up like athletes on game day. Did Miley do every move in rehearsal that she did the night of the show? No. We knew her performance was going to be provocative the way her video is. But on live TV, the performers turn it up a couple of notches. We didn't see Robin's costume or his suit before he got on[stage], but Miley definitely brought a different bit of energy to the live show. But clearly she's been making some provocative videos lately.

THR: Did you have any concerns heading into the performance? (The Parents Television Council criticized the Cyrus-Thicke performance, saying it "simply substituted talent with sex.")

Toffler: You have concerns always going into live television. I mean, this was our 30th one. We've had people climb onstage, we've had people interrupt winners and we've had people stage-dive when we've had pyro planned, so I think you've got to expect the unexpected. Not everything goes as planned. In fact, the stage actually broke a couple of hours before the performances so we weren't sure we could get the big bear on Miley's stage for the live show because of the step change. But we did. It was in a different position. We had to change a bunch of things leading up to it, but we knew it would be a memorable performance, just like Gaga's open and Justin Timberlake's medley.

THR: Another big highlight was Justin Timberlake's 15-minute performance. Is that the longest performance ever at the VMAs?

Toffler: I would say it's safe to say yes. He's had such an illustrious, wonderful career. He's arguably one of the best live performers in music now so more Justin, we need to do it.

THR: Was that always the plan to have him perform that long? Did it expand as discussions went on?

Toffler: No. I can say it wasn't always planned. We had a back and forth … I think this was his sixth or seventh time Justin's been on the show with [and] without 'N Sync, and we have such shorthand with him and respect, when he says "I wanna go from this stage to that stage. Can you help design something for me and potentially bring some surprise guests?" you really can't adhere to any strict rules about a performance or what you've done in the past. That's always our mantra, to continue to reinvent ourselves and our show, so that it's always full of surprises.

THR: When did talks about an 'N Sync reunion first begin?

Toffler: When we talked to Justin about the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, and how we could effectively capture his career and what the performance would be like. Clearly those 'N Sync songs are a big part of his musical history.

THR: Several months ago?

Toffler: Weeks, not months.

THR: When was that portion of Justin Timberlake's performance finalized?

Toffler: At showtime. (Laughs.) Just about when the show started at 9 o'clock, when they arrived to the building. We did something similar with Michael Jackson. He was performing at the Garden and we talked to him about doing a guest thing [with 'N Sync at the 2001 VMAs] and we didn't know [if it was going to happen] until Michael's car had arrived at the Lincoln Center [where the VMAs were held] that he was going to come on. Justin and I were talking about that. (Laughs.) He wished he had a little more rehearsal time with that. But yeah, we probably knew it was going to happen day of show.


THR: Daft Punk's "surprise" appearance at the VMAs was also a big headline leading up to the show. Did Stephen Colbert's VMA spoiler on The Colbert Report affect what the group ended up doing? Were they originally slated to perform?

Toffler: No, they were going to appear. We did an exclusive clip shot in 65 mm film to "Lose Yourself to Dance," which is their next song. They were always going to appear on our show and not perform.

THR: So his VMA spoiler didn't affect the plan?

Toffler: No, though he did have his way with me and my name. All for the sake of comedy.

THR: What are your thoughts on that particular Colbert Report segment?

Toffler: You know, it's all in good sport. Stephen's a funny man. I wish he used a better picture of me, but I'm all good with it.

THR: How did Lady Gaga's open, which had five costume changes, come together?

Toffler: We knew there would be numerous costume changes, but she had rehearsed for quite some time off-site — and she's always a memorable performance, either as her alter ego Joe Calderone or with five or six costume changes. We were shocked that she was going to try to pull that off but were amazed at the way she was able to do it almost off-camera, so you didn't really see it happen in the course of three or four minutes. We said, "Please open our show and you take the rest from there."

THR: If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?

Toffler: Well, I wish the stage didn't break so we didn't have to change things around in the format. We had some minor audio issues and I personally would love to do a four- or five-hour show — I'm not sure if that's the best viewer experience — and let everybody go long. But I think you always want to leave them wanting more, and I think if you can leave enough room for those combustible moments that happens when Kanye walks up onstage [during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech] or Billie Joe [Armstrong] jumps into the audience, that's all we hope. We clearly had some memorable performances last night.

THR: What was the biggest disappointment on the night?

Toffler: That it ended. I always want more disruptions and chaos than everyone else does in the trucks, so I could use more chaos. That's about it. Otherwise I thought it was probably one of our best VMAs with some of the best performances we've had in our 30-year history, to tell you the truth.

THR: What was the most surprising outcome given the reactions and results of the show?

Toffler: (Laughs.) I didn't know that Gaga and Taylor and Selena [Gomez] were such big 'N Sync fans. You talk about how critics attacked them when they were in their heyday, and then everyone gets up on their feet, everyone talks about 'N Sync. By the way, Justin's sales have gone up like a thousand percent, 'N Sync sales have gone up hundreds of percent in 12 to 24 hours. To see Gaga standing up singing the words to their song, I was overwhelmed by the response to them.

THR: While Kevin Hart made a few jokes that he wasn't hosting the VMAs during the evening, why go hostless this year? Will you go hostless again?

Toffler: We've done it in the past. I think when you have so many set changes and wonderful performances and collabos like Miley and Robin, and Gaga on the front end and Katy [Perry] on the Brooklyn Bridge at the end, you don't need a host. It would just have taken time away from those killer performances.

THR: Was it a logistical nightmare planning Katy Perry's Brooklyn Bridge closer?

Toffler: It's not our first exterior performance. We've worked with Brooklyn for a while and we just couldn't really promote it as much as we wanted to because it would have been more mayhem. It actually turned out well. They had closed the Brooklyn Bridge — not for us, but for construction — so we just had to light it and it looked great in the background.

THR: Were there things we didn't see or segments that were cut out at the last minute for time or other reasons?

Toffler: The odd thing is we actually had to add time. We were thankful that Jimmy Fallon gave a sermon up there [prior to presenting the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award] where he broke into a sweat introducing Justin, because the set didn't turn and the loading time took a little bit longer. We were worried about getting Bruno [Mars'] pyro on the stage, we had to change Drake's [set] changing a bit. There was definitely chaos and mayhem behind the scenes, but I don't think the viewers noticed a lot of that.

THR: Are you looking to return to Brooklyn or are you looking at other locations for next year?

Toffler: Definitely, if they'd have us. I don't know if we'll go back next year but we loved it. We had a great experience.

Miley Cyrus was disgusting at the VMAs. She didnt have to glom on to Robin Thicke's " "Blurred Lines" like she did. Honestly, she can't carry Madonna or Lady Gaga when it comes to shock value. And why does she keep sticking her tongue out? If I'm Liam Hemsworth, would you marry her now?

1993, when they ended Headbanger's Ball.

^this^

MTV died for me when they changed then cancelled 120 Minutes.

I'd say 2003...

I never watched MTV when I was growing up since that channel wasn't allowed to be seen at my house, but I watched VH-1 a lot.

Shortly after the last episode of Daria.

Whenever Nirvana became the next "big thing".