My young teen gets mad when I criticize MTV

[Ridley Park 704]

MTV is not what it used to be, it used to show concert clips of the Doors, Jefferson Airplane or Canned Heat; that was what Music Television meant when they started up. Now it's just become the sexual innuendo channel.

The loony tune right gets their ammunition from the likes of MTV when they attack low morals on TV.

I'm as liberal as the next guy, but did you ever watch that garbage? Imagine going fishing and finding the stream filled with hospital waste. That is the feeling I get when I come into the room and they have MTV on.

Yeah I may be a prude, but MTV is trying to outdo the lowest common denominator, IMHO. When I was a kid all we had was the Three Stooges or Huckleberry Hound.

It's easy to say "Don't let her watch it." That's like telling a dog not to dig in the yard.

I don't wanna do it, but I may have to cancel cable altogether, then I'll be the villain of the house, thanks to MTV.

[Nlighten1]

1. Sometimes

You have to make difficult decisions as a parent. Personally I will have no problem dumping MTV when my daughters get old enough to know what it is...it is basically gone already.

[Kamika]

2. Im born in 82

And even i think Mtv sucks these days. Its like they just stopped trying.

When i was like 10 or 11 they had tons and tons of fun shows(beavis and butthead etc),, or all kinds of music. They showed U2 concerts, or had Madonna weekends. Now its stupid shows if they even have any.

And the music seems solely to be RnB and rap and its not even any good rnb and rap. The ONLY redeeming thing Mtv has had lately is ozzy and jackass but two shows cant save a 24/7 channel

I think I was of the last generation to see the old "good" Mtv i feel kinda sorry for the younger ppl that grows up with this crap

VH1 all the way for me

[Uzybone]

13. LOL

if you think the only redeeming things on MTV are Ozzy and Jackass then I wonder why you have a problem with any of thier other programs. Those 2 programs stand out as amongst the worst crap they show. BTW I think VH-1 is just as bad with the sexual stuff.

[La_Serpiente]

3. i am 19

and I understand what you mean. Just give them a while and then they'll shake it off. By the time they get to college, they will realize the world is more than just MTV.

However, I like MTV because of their emphasis on diversity, Rock the Vote, and safe sex. However, it is very commercialized and hmmm...very "Ambercrombie and Fitch"-ish. It is kind of irritating and very commercialized.

You should expose them to other forms of media that actually has substance. I like to read. I would watch BET, but I don't have it here in Hawaii. Maybe you should get them BET.

But don't just make a rule that they can't watch MTV anymore. Just expose them to different stuff.

[alphafemale]

4. MTV meant something once.

Videos are all about grinding meat now.

[Skittles]

7. I know what you mean

I'm no prude but, come on - one is just like the next now.

[trotsky]

5. Did you see the PBS Frontline report?

"The Culture of Cool" - great writeup at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/

They played it on my local PBS affiliate the other night. Very interesting. They pointed out the introduction of two types of characters: the "mook" and the "midriff". The "mook" is the gross/stupid/funny guy like Tom Green or the Jackass characters. The "midriff" is, well, you can probably figure out the role model of the midriffs, and her initials are B.S.

My kids are 4 and 2, and at this point I really have no clue how I'm going to handle MTV and all that visual sewage on TV.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. A friend of mine...

Is a rather successful personal manager in LA. He said "MTV is clear about what they sell. It is not music. It's lifestyle"

Whatever that means. Semi-naked jailbait, perhaps?

I suppose what it means is how can they tie their programming, thematically, into their advertiser's products. Having said that, you can be sure of this: MTV is made up of the largest concentration of hacks on the planet. No larger group of No-Tal MuFuhs ever existed. They have taken The Art of Payola to heights never dreamed of by the '50s DJs. The amount it costs to get a video into heavy rotation on MTV is incredible.

The biggest weapons against MTV and what it represents, landscape blights such as Clear Channel, are Shoutcast and Winamp. Every day, a few more people get musically educated through them. The future of MTV, Clear Channel and others of their ilk is quite finite.

[NashVegas]

8. Criticizing Anything Pop Culture is the Best Way

to get your teen to dig in their heels. They need to find their own cultural markers that their parents don't already own.

Sorry, but it is. You can always resort to a parental lock if you feel that strongly about it, and buy the kid an instrument at the same time - tell 'em to make their own music.

If you receive TrioTV you might want to try sitting down to watch some of their musical fare and lure the kid over there.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. My crazy freeper mom watches Newlyweds on MTV

...she said, man, I thought MTV Sucked...but it's very informative, but they shouldn't do condom commercials. That just encourages sex. She's so weird.
Duckie

[blondeatlast]

10. Son is 6 now, but I intend to watch it with him (it's a matter of time)

Already I've been able to teach him to be wary of commercials by watching Nick with him.

There amy be hope, though; MTV2 actually shows some interesting music and videos. Do you get that?

[name not needed]

11. mtv sucks

the music is awful. if you get fuse, you are lucky.

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. Agreed. My daughter loves "The Real World" which is basically

20 somethings acting like irresponsible idiots. Note I said basically, there have been some (few) redeeming characters. Take it back to videos, with older videos mixed in and I'd feel better.

[ProudGerman]

14. That's the problem though

If they took it back to videos, they'd lose money. The people out there actually want the dreck that passes for MTV entertainment on there. The people of this country don't want music on their music television, they want sex sex sex. People don't watch "The Real World" to see people from diverse backgrounds come together and work though things. They want to see who "hooks up", especially if the one's hooking up have a boy/girlfriend back home. They also want to see bickering, backstabbing, and the occassional fight break out.

Basically they want "girls gone wild" and "Jerry Springer" 24/7. Good behaviour is hard to live up to. Selfish, near animalistic behaviour provides opportunities to laugh at someone and makes one feel less guilty about their own irresponsible actions.

[jiacinto]

15. I don't watch MTV that much

I do watch one or two shows on the network. I mean there is the show "Made", which is good. They also have a show that deals with real problems and they follow people around.

I think you are genearlizing the network. Yes, some of their shows are stupid and do low the common demoninator. But they do have good programs too that address key issues facing young people.

So I wouldn't paint MTV with a complete broad brush.

[catzies]

16. My daughter and I have been watching MTV for 20 years!

I'll still take it, with all its good and bad. My daughter is 23 now and we both say things like, "Back in the day..."

I was the one who watched the Osbournes and Newlyweds:N&J first, but she watches ALL the Real Worlds.

And yesterday I saw the Short List special on MTV2 and got to see some videos for the first time (Interpol, Cat Power).

Yes, they're up front about what they sell. And either you buy it or you don't. :shrug: What's the problem? Everything's like that anyway.

[Breezy du Nord]

17. MTV can suck it!

Sorry. i've always wanted to say that. Never really had much for MTV anyway.

[NicoleM]

18. When I was a kid

my parents called the cable company and had them block the MTV. No MTV for us. There were too many half-naked people, and that was back in the late 80s/early 90s, which was really tame compared to what's on MTV now.

I'll probably do the same thing when I have kids old enough to be interested in MTV. Their target demographic starts at 12, and there is very little on that channel that is appropriate for a 12-year-old to watch, IMO.

[NightTrain]

19. That's because your offspring is too damned young to remember...

...when MTV was at its best. I refer, of course, to the network first 3-4 years on the air, back in the early 1980s.

[DrGonzoLives]

20. Oh, for the days of Headbanger's Ball

Man, that show was the shit...

[FDRrocks]

21. The only thing MTV has done good recently...

is thier Rock the Vote initiatives, and I haven't checked up on that in a couple of years. It definately is worth nothing, anymore.

[JVS]

22. Mock her for watching it and intensify the criticism of MTV

[MojoKrunch]

23. Get into it.

Get waaaaay into it.
Dance to the hip hop.
Make Newlywed inside jokes.
Pretend you are Ozzy.

4 weeks of dad gushing about the details of every little thing on MTV will not only make it *COMPLETELY UNHIP* but will probably cause serious trauma... so use sparingly.

:D
Mojo

[aquaman]

24. I don't find it unusual that many adults don't like MTV....

....because they are targeting teenagers and the early 20's crowd. I hate the channel, in fact if I stay on the station for more that two or three seconds, I can actually feel myself getting dumber. At least when I was a chap, they showed music. It was good back in the day.

[SmileyBoy]

25. I'm 21, and I've had it with that network.

I'll admit, I used to watch Jackass and Tom Green sometimes, but that would be it. Now it's just another number on my TV screen that I always pass without a second thought whenever I flip channels, along with Fux News, HGTV, Lifetime, and others.