For those who grew up watching music videos on MTV, there were a few moments with familiar faces at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards. Yes, as out of pop culture as I am at this age, there were about a dozen artists even this old fart recognized! And it made me feel less old for a few seconds.
“But MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore”
People my age make the same comment on social media every year… when’s the last time MTV actually played a music video? Quite frankly, it’s gotten old. MTV stopped playing music videos because there was more money to be made airing dumb reality TV shows. MTV doesn’t target the 50 somethings like us who watched the channel’s early days. They target the same demographic they always have… like when you and I were young… teens and 20 somethings.
And that’s really it, isn’t it? Most of us didn’t watch the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards because they’ll just make us feel old. We know Stevie B… not Cardi B.
Why music videos left MTV… it’s actually all our fault
There’s a big reason music videos were flushed down the toilet on MTV. You stopped buying music. Yes. You. You discovered Napster and Limewire in the 90s and all those other nooks and crannies of the internet. You could fire up AOL with your modem and steal all those songs for free and burn ’em to a CD.
It wasn’t a big secret… music videos were just 4 minute ads to get you to buy an album. When you stopped paying for music, it didn’t make sense to make the ads, sorry, music videos anymore.
The familiar faces at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards
Yes, 40 years later, MTV is still presenting the VMAs. And even though the show was dominated by today’s big artists…as it should, the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards did have a few moments where us old farts like me could rejoice, point at the screen and say “Hey I know that one!”
Here were the dozen or so musicians, actors and … a statue that took me back to the days when David Lee Roth, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson and Prince dominated MTV. Back when MTV stood for music television.
