Breast and Worst of MTV Marketing

Yeah, it's an old post, as much of a has been as Britney Spears, but the commentary is good. As you might have guessed, this is my commentary on the HYPErbowl halftime incident during the Superbowl football game, 2004.

Whiney liberals claim that anyone who found the show to be not in good taste is a prig or a prude. Trust me, I'm far from that pigeon-hole. I'm ex-Navy and I swear like a sailor. My commentary will explain my position:

Google Groups hyperlink

From: Mark McBride
Newsgroups: alt.tv.mtv,alt.radio,alt.radio.broadcasting,alt.radio.networks
Subject: Breast and Worst of MTV marketing
Organization: (remove the _ to respond directly)
Message-ID:
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 52
X-Trace: ldjgbllpbapjglppdbdpiflmbcekedmfhojhikkbagflhcboaioggmoemjcijbjgkjnipckdlfiaegaeipfhcfebgkjdjonofbceodhalfidbkiclnmbhlcnknekmbegaobjokhbchopdimoekfngodfappodfma
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 00:46:30 EST
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 23:51:17 -0800

I've heard Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake attempt to sing. They can't. MTV knows it. That's why when these two are on stage the dance numbers are elaborate, the outfits are weird, the staging is large and there are lots of special effects.

The dance numbers, the outfits and the effects can't hide the fact that Jackson/Timberlake have no talent. Never had it. Never gonna get it. So the only way to stir up some buzz and maybe sell out a few more shows is to show a little skin.

Well ... MTV got the buzz. The stunt worked. I've got no problem with nipples. Some of my best friends have nipples. I enjoy viewing them. But what is disgusting about the whole Hyperbowl Halftime incident is: Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake have no talent. They're products who've gone past their ability to sell. And no amount of skin or live sex action on stage is going to change that.

Maybe a 24 hour wedding in Vegas would help ... naaahhhh. Another talentless has-been's already tried that.

The Recording Industry Association of America has been blaming the kids downloading songs via Kazaa for causing a slump in record sales. Nope. The fact of the matter is that the RIAA, just like MTV, has no taste in music. They promote talentless hacks and wonder why CDs don't sell.

Downloading doesn't explain why 1 in 3 radio stations have a classic rock format. And it doesn't explain how 60 year old rockers can continue to tour, selling out shows with 40 year old hits. It only explains that if the talent is there in the hearts of today's youth, MTV and RIAA can't find it. And it's far easier to show nipple than take a risk on a band of fat, ugly people who can't dance but who sound great.

The RIAA and MTV have tried to push CD sales by pushing the edge of the envelope. Read this as: Let's see how low we can go. The "N" word was soon replaced by the "F" word. And, now, since all the bands seem to be using the term "Mother F******" as the chorus for every street song, the next logical move is to show a little skin on the music video. Then show a little skin on the cover of the magazine. Then showa little skin during primetime.

It can't be long before the Grammy for the year's top female breakout vocalist goes to Mary Carey, fresh from the California governor's race and your local adult film parlor.

At the rate and consistency MTV and the RIAA promotes talentless hacks, I'm expecting a donkey show next year.

Word.
--------------------
[Follow-ups in the days after the original post:]

2/7

There _are_ good young artists out there. Kenny Wayne Shepherd, for instance. It's just that the record producers are lazy and don't want to look around. They'll grab some no-talent from a Disneyland or SixFlags event, throw on a lot of glitz and sell the package.

Think of all the groups that were great but who wouldn't have made it today because they're too ugly or too fat to sell products -- Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Meatloaf, Jethro Tull ... just on and on.

2/7

U.S. isn't anti-nipple. We're anti-no talent hack. MTV and the networks don't get it. It's not about the nipple; it's about the crap they pass off as entertainment.

Religion is the last refuge for a scoundrel. Skin is the last refuge for the untalented has-been. Keep reading the wires. The nipple is backfiring ... Janet and Justin will soon find religion, as will execs from MTV.

2/20

The problem is that there's only so much Jethro Tull, Steppenwolf, etc. to go around. These groups *aren't* making new albums. So, if you have a decent market where three of the stations are classic rock, two are making money and one is under-selling their signal because it gets repetitious. (I know. I used to cobble together Fair Market Valuations and Appraisals of radio stations.)

But what alternatives do the station's have ... rap? hip-hop? soft rock? Era specific like 80s? There is a market for an urban format (certainly NOT as large as the stations think) but it historically undersells its signal. Soft rock? I live in Baton Rouge and I can turn the dial and hear Delilah on three freaking stations at night!

Gakkk!

Not everyone is lucky enough to have those aircheck CDs.

The music industry isn't taking chances on new groups and new sounds (and I blame MTV and the RIAA for that) and it's hurting the ENTIRE music related spectrum ... cd sales, musical instrument sales, music instruction, audio sales, and commercial radio.

The only growth area is satellite radio like XM and Sirius because they may have repetititious bands but they've got a lot of them which offers variety. Listeners sick of hearing about Israelis and Palestinians blow each other up and who don't want to listen to Hip Hop can always switch to Fibber Magee & Molly. It's repetitious but it's at least variety and it's not N' Sync or Janet.

[I also followed up the post with two articles I found on the news wires in the days following the post. The headlines of the two articles were: "Kids are listening to their parents ... Their parents' music, that is " and "Aging Rockers Pose as Teenagers to Hit Charts ." Q.E.D.]