Due to an illness I was unable to make it to any shows this week, but while I was in bed I discovered that there is NO good music videos on TV anymore. What happened to MTV and VH1? I remember growing up and dancing to music videos by Elton John, Smashing Pumpkins, and even Vanilla Ice. ( No one can deny that "Ice Ice Baby" does not make your body move.) But while flipping through what I remembered to be channels for music videos...all I found were reality TV shows.
VH1 was the channel I used to watched while getting ready for grade school. I would listen to Pop Up Video to get the latest update on the artist or group. Now I turn on the TV to watch Bret Michaels, lead singer from Poison, make out with twenty uneducated strippers on Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels. The show is apparently in the top ten for most watch television shows on cable. Really?
Hoping to find relief in the video music world, I switched the channel to MTV. Knowing that MTV was the first network to have a reality show, The Real World, my expectations were low. I will be the first to admit that when The Real World came out in 1992, I was a fan. The show consisted of seven strangers picked to live in a house who have to worked together and have their lives taped. The strangers on the show had depth in their character and had a unique story about their life. The show has now changed into seven strangers completely different from one another who live in the house and complain and fight.
My concern is that children growing up watching reality shows are going to be more focused on other people's lives than their own. The shows, like The Hills, give girls the idea that it is OK to gossip and be catty with one another. When "in reality" the world is not going to tolerate childish characteristics and the kids today will have a huge "reality" check.
Music videos allow people to see the artist's artistic views towards the lyrics to their own song while also allowing the viewers to interpret the song towards their lives.
I too am concerned with the children of the future. I will watch reality shows occasionally as a guilty pleasure, but I know the difference between what is real and what is scripted. Hopefully, we will be able to teach our children the difference!
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