MTV says it has not abandoned music, just Gen Xers

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:56 am

MTV says it has not abandoned music, just Gen Xers
By Georg Szalai Georg Szalai 1 hr 32 mins ago

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Music videos are still valuable content for MTV, even though viewers' evolving tastes have required an expansion into reality and other shows, a top executive at the cable channel said Thursday.

MTV and its sibling networks, such as VH1 and CMT, still play more than 600 music video hours a week, but they increasingly play on alternative platforms, said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music and Logo Group.

In the network's early days, "music videos were the soundtrack of pop culture," he said. But then the audience demanded "more genre shows," and MTV moved into animation, reality TV and social campaigns.

Toffler, speaking during a keynote interview at the Billboard Music & Money Symposium, said MTV integrates music in different ways via big events and by using music within shows. It also spends more than $100 million in music each year in the form of promotions and the like.

He was recently quoted as saying the channel was pushing out members of Generation X. Asked jokingly by his Billboard interviewer why he hates that audience, Toffler quipped: "Because you're cynical."

On a serious note, he said the 12-29-year-old demographic is in focus for him and his colleagues. Those Millennials, born between 1980 and 2000, are "much more traditional," Toffler explained. For example, many of them watch "Jersey Shore" with their parents, he said. That's why Taylor Swift got such strong support when Kanye West interrupted her on stage at the Video Music Awards last year, he added.

Joined: 21 Apr 2004 Posts: 4259

Quote:

That's why Taylor Swift got such strong support when Kanye West interrupted her on stage at the Video Music Awards last year, he added.

The reason that Taylor Swift got such strong support is because Kanye is gen-xer? Or is the reason that kids and parents watch "Jersey Shore" together?

What is Toffler getting at?

(Anyway fuck MTV, Viacom... even though I enjoyed watching Jersey Shore w/ my tenants.)

Joined: 31 Jul 2004 Posts: 599 Location: Philadelphia, PA

To somehow group Gen-Xer's with the reaction to Kanye is the dumbest statement I've read from a "news" article. People were outraged cuz Kanye's a douchebag. Well I guess if mtv is mindless it only fits for this article to be mindless as well.

Who cares about a music video channel when you've got youtube? And yes, MTV has abandoned music. They have now exlcuded Music Television from their logo. The only music you hear is some lame acoustic guitar and piano song when one of the people in Orange County is seen crying over her life.

All those Viacom channels equal Channel Zero. And Flav had a show on it.

Joined: 21 Apr 2004 Posts: 3505 Location: London

There's a poison goin on...

Joined: 03 Dec 2009 Posts: 444 Location: Amsterdam, Holland

Kanye was born in 1977, doesn't that make him a generation-Yer?

And the reason they were pissed off at Kanye was not only because he acted stupid but also because most people who watch MTV are sub-urban racist kids who rather sympathise with a white-trash talentless bitch. I mean I hate Kanye for being a pop-tart as well but atleast he made some really good music in the past.