The funny thing is they made MTV2 strictly for music...and now are straying away from it slowly like the original station.
<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XJq-K4zR_as?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XJq-K4zR_as?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"> </object> Suddenly this merry chorus of voices is invaded by a sound that resembles the screeching of car brakes that they consider music. We are growing suspicious. It turns out that these youngsters who loiter in shady alleyways behind the GUM instead of going to school are here to peddle a product of their own making. Foxtrot on x-ray plates that, instead of intricate anatomic details, capture a crude image of their intellectual poverty. Listen, Zhenya Garkun, what does the world look like to you through the tiny hole of x-ray rock-n-roll? It's a small, cramped world of shadows exchanging furtive looks. Shadows whose nickname is fartsovshiki (smugglers) selling old junk with fancy foreign labels. They are little more than shadows even though they have names, like Gennady Baranov. And you, Gena, do you really believe that this is life? - I don't actually live, I'm more like waiting for something. - And what exactly are you waiting for? Do you expect hydroelectric dams to erect themselves or the desert to flourish without your efforts? But when your peers perform miracles, you won't be able to stand by them. - Ah, yes, by the way: when I was a Young Pioneer, back in primary school, I used to pick wheat heads. Wheat heads? And all your knowledge of bread is limited to a bun? And your mate Sasha Kriukov twice went to reap the harvest in the Altai. Go on, ask him about the true price of the bread that you eat. What other shadows are lurking in this suffocating world? Her name is Lyudmila, but she prefers a monicker. In restaurants where she spends her days and nights she is called out: "Hey, Sophie!" - But how is that possible? You don't even have a job, but you frequent restaurants, wear fancy clothes. - Don't you feel sorry for yourself? Do you want to steal from yourself, Lyusia? Do you want to forfeit the simple joys of human life? The friendship of factory folk? The nervous tremor before an exam in a college? The loving stare of your husband' eyes? Or the happy mumbling of that charming tot, Seriozha? And Nina wants you to know all this. Who's that crawling about next to you? Who's that other shadow for whom all the values of the world mean little more than money? Viktor Pakhomov, perpetually tipsy and unruly. Where is all that money coming from? - I'm given tips every day. - Ah, are you really? - And you take them? - Yes, I do. - Splendid. So that's your income. That's life in the world of shadows, Garkun. But do you see that we want these shadows to become human beings? So don't bend over, Garkun. Look at the real big world that is breathing around you! A world where people wake up to new inventions. A world where cities are built and trees planted. A world where newspapers tell of our friends' glory. A world where people buy flowers for their loved ones and debate Botvinnik's latest game. Our world is a place where a person can in his final days say: "I did it all for the people". "And that is why this world exists for me". It is a great luck to live your life as a human being and not turn into an empty shadow. This is our message to those who are beginning their lives in murky alleyways. And it doesn't matter what exactly a shadow is mimicking: a peddler of foreign rags or a priest of rock-n-roll. Or an overgrown idler. We, the people, make no distinction in shaming them. TITLE: Shadows on a sidewalk Because we are human beings and we have human emotions. We can laugh and marvel. Be outraged and uncompromising. We can despise and condemn. We don't want foul shadows to blemish our sidewalks. All of us who walk our streets, who live in our city, no matter if one wears a volunteer's armband or not. And let our sidewalks be only adorned with figured shadows of tree leaves that do not hide the world's beauty from us. THE END http://universalsubtitles.org/videos/7Zxe8p0f7gwH/
You guys aren't kidding. I almost never hear any pop music so I usually am clueless to who Nikki Manaj and those folks are, but this past weekend I went to Vegas with a guy I work with and he only had a CD player and the radio. I couldn't tell the difference between all the songs that came on. Heavy synth, female singing hook with some nod to an eighties track, rudimentary rap and repeat. I wanted to shoot myself in the ear. I'm kind of thankful that radio and MTV music has sucked for some time because it made me look for good music elsewhere when I was young. I'm ok with being a snob in the area of music. It kills me to look at the top 40 lists and see what junk is on there. I really, really appreciate my Sirius.
Hear, hear! Sirius XM and streaming Pandora while I'm driving has relegated FM radio so I don't worry about listening to Top 40 crap.
While I agree that all the pop on the radio is crap now, could it be that, 20 years ago, some guys were listening to our music and talking about how crappy it is, and how the music was so much better when they were younger. I'm just sayin'...
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. We're getting old. Deal with it. You think our parents liked Color Me Badd and Technotronic?
To be fair, the music was "better" when they were younger, generally speaking. The 60s are widely considered a much stronger music era than the 80s. I use the quotes because i don't personally believe that art of any kind can be objectively rated, it is all a matter of taste, but going by "music experts" the point is worth making.
You make a good point. I just think it's funny how we remember things as being so awesome, when, in fact, they were sometimes kinda lame. For example, in this thread we've had people bemoaning the fact that MTV isn't "Music Television" anymore, and how they use to "just show videos". I remember those days, too. And I also remember that you sometimes had to watch an hour of crappy videos to see one cool one. 57 minutes of garbage for 3 minutes of enjoyment isn't exactly a great return on your investment of time.
It appears they also sampled/referenced this song somewhere in the middle: <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fsTK6TZnsB8?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fsTK6TZnsB8?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
I remember watching Ace of Base, Jon Secada and all the other "black-and-white-on-the-beach" videos in between constant loops of "Sabotage" and Lisa Loeb; the shows at least keep things fresh.
To an extent. Yeah pop has always been watered down easier to digest than other options since the time of Tin Pan Alley. When I look back on what I liked when I was younger like stuff from the 80s, it wasn't too much from the pop genre. Saying that though, Micheal Jackson back then had more talent in his pinky than most acts today. Don't get me wrong, I can see appeal and talent in some pop stars like Lady Gaga even and can find similarities to pop stars of the past, but most of the stuff on top 40 list is repetitive garbage. Its not just an age thing either because I quit listening to all that crap in my mid-teens. My last guilty musical taste was MC Hammer. As far as videos, I'm not naive enough to believe that MTV could pull more ratings with videos than they could showing the idiots on the reality shows they have now. I will say that I lived in England for a couple of years and they still have a solid ten or so music video channels that show nothing but. I used to love coming in from a night out and flipping through the video channels. In the end, it isn't a big deal to me because I don't listen to that s#!+e. It was just killing me on a long drive recently when I didn't have a whole lot of options.
99% of everything I've ever liked is still popular and are huge concert draws. Speaking in general terms, I have to disagree with the assessment that older people hated what was current 20-30 years ago. Most of the stuff I listened to as a kid was "before my time," like: Zep, Sabbath, Pink Floyd, etc. and then Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy, Motorhead, onto Megadeth, Metallica, stuff like that. The '80's was a great time for metal, and no, I'm not referring to Warrant, White Lion, and Poison. Most of what I listened to either came out before I was born or came out when I was far too young to attend any shows. I was only 10-11 when Slayer's Reign in Blood came out, for example. Or The Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill. I was 7 when MJ released Thriller. I was completely entranced by MTV when I was a kid. Like most pop music today, I don't understand how it has survived as I know no one who watches it/listens to it. Adolescent girls, I guess. If Soulja Boy and Nickelback are still popular in 20 years, I'll eat my words, but JESUS the music on the TV and radio today is friggin' terrible.
Here are the top 10 hit songs from 1980- how many are still played today? Definitely 2, 6, and 9, although I will hear 1, 4, and 7 occasionally. I very rarely hear 3, 5, 8, and 10. 1. Call Me, Blondie 2. Another Brick In the Wall, Pink Floyd 3. Magic, Olivia Newton-John 4. Rock With You, Michael Jackson 5. Do That to Me One More Time, Captain and Tennille 6. Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen 7. Coming Up, Paul McCartney 8. Designer Music, Lipps, Inc. 9. It's Still Rock and Roll to Me, Billy Joel 10. The Rose, Bette Midler
Or the top 10 songs from 1970: 1. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel 2. (They Long to Be) Close to You, Carpenters 3. American Woman/No Sugar Tonight, The Guess Who 4. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, B.J. Thomas 5. War, Edwin Starr 6. Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Diana Ross 7. I'll Be There, Jackson 5 8. Get Ready, Rare Earth 9. Let It Be, The Beatles 10. Band of Gold, Freda Payne
2010 Top 10 (according to AOL Radio): 1. California Gurls - Katy Perry 2. Love the Way You Lie - Eminem 3. Nothin On You - B.O.B. 4. Airplanes - B.O.B. 5. Need You Now - Lady Antebellum 6. Just the Way You Are - Bruno Mars 7. Break Your Heart - Taio Cruz 8. OMG - Usher 9. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga 10. Rude Boy - Rihanna
You're looking at this backwards. I'm about 40 years old. I can't stand the music listened to by 15 year-olds. Using that as a measuring stick (i.e. - 25 years older than the target-audience), you would need to ask a 65 year-old what they think of the list above. And I would wager the average 65 year-old thinks that most of the artists on this list (possibly excepting McCartney and Floyd) are crap. I'm not saying I agree, I'm just saying that's the perspective. Our tv shows were better, our music was better, our clothes were better (well, maybe not the clothes. The 80's were pretty rough, fashion-wise). Every generation thinks this about the generation that comes after. Face it, guys: we're the grumpy old men now.
