Project MTV: Explaining the Science

Writer's Note: I am not, nor will I ever expect to be associated with and employed by MTV and its parent company, Paramount Skydance. This is part of #projectmtv, a fan-made MTV rebranding project. This is not happening in any form, but it's fun to dream. - jh  

Prologue:

"Ladies and gentlemen... rock and roll!"

On August 1, 1981, John A. Lack, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Warner AMEX Satellite Entertainment and the creator of MTV, uttered these words, the first thing heard on a channel that has become one of the biggest media brands in the world. 

In the nearly 45 years the channel has existed, MTV has seen a lot of changes. Some for the better, a lot for the worst. 

Throughout the last couple of decades, MTV kind of lost perspective of what they’re supposed to be. They’ve lost their way and largely surrendered the cultural zeitgeist to the internet and has become a ghost of its former self, though the occasional flashes of what they used to be tends to pop up every fall to remind the public that they’re still around. It’s usually a temporary flash, and then they go back underground like a cicada until the next time they come out. 

MTV has forgotten its way.

As someone who used to be a regular watcher of MTV back in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, I appreciated what the channel and the brand meant to my generation. Straying away from all of that and largely embracing reality programming before completely giving up under terrible management just felt wrong. MTV doesn’t know what it wants to be. 

All of their channels are so distinct yet unorganized. 

MTV Classic and MTV Live are more in-tune of what MTV used to be with a strong music focus, though Classic is aligned with older more nostalgic audiences in mind. 

MTV 2 has a lineup best described as a chaotic mess. 

MTV U and Tr3s are just there floating in space. 

There’s no consistency at MTV, and they can’t even fully blame it on YouTube and social media. The fact MTV doesn’t really have a presence on any social platform is still mindboggling. 

They do have a YouTube page they tend to use sporadically with long gaps between posting anything, and most of their posts take place around the time the VMAs take place and not too long afterwards.

What the MTV brand needs is a complete redefinition of what it is, what it represents, and how it should present itself in the future. 

There are three core elements that the MTV brand should represent:

Music Culture.

Music History.

Music Television.

Music Culture has been a core part of what the MTV brand has personified for much of its life. While not exactly always music-themed, the youthful energy that empowers music is a strong elemental force behind the brand. 

It’s creative, artistic, animated, and sometimes a bit real.

Whether is rock-and-roll rebelliousness, hip-hop swagger, the lackadaisical grunge aura, the neurotic easygoingness of alternative music, or modern pop trendiness, music has always ruled the culture of society, and MTV still embodies that culture.

Music History is the appreciation for the medium that has been a part of MTV since day one. 

Picking The Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star wasn’t just a symbolic choice for obvious reasons. It was chosen because it was an acknowledgment of what came before in music with melancholy respect but also a cautious yet celebratory appreciation of what’s to come with the knowledge that trends change, evolve, and eventually will end and come back to this very point starting the cycle anew. 

Music has been a part of all of our lives, and there’s so much of it to celebrate, remember, and appreciate. Modern MTV may not be the mecca for music it once was, but they still celebrate music. Perhaps now is the time to truly rekindle the brand’s love for music history in the 21st century.

Music Television is literally MTV’s full name. While most modern audiences never understood that, those who saw MTV at its peak saw and knew what that brand meant. 

They had music videos, live performances, concerts, intimate performances, and even impromptu freestyle performances on the spot. Music was lauded, honored, celebrated, and above all, respected. Viewers heard songs they would never play on their local radio stations from artists they never heard of. They got introduced to not only new acts but also new forms of musical genres, each one inspiring new generations of musicians throughout the decades. Although it didn’t start that way, music became the great uniter at MTV shattering cultural, racial, and global barriers. 

Music brought the world together, if only for a moment, and MTV was the destination for all things music television. 

It can be again. 

Linear television must still be a foundation of what the MTV brand is all about. There needs to be something to celebrate each of the three core missions of the MTV brand. 

A channel that celebrates, respects, and honors music history.

A channel that embraces and encouraged music culture and the youthful spirit that keeps it alive.

A channel that is unapologetically and literally music television.

And a channel that unites all of these core missions. 

Four networks bound by a singular brand and clearly the definition of Music Television. 

No two-headed dogs or butterflies.

Reject what's classic and embrace who you represent.

Acknowledge that music is life, not just live. 

Presenting:

MTV.

Club MTV.

MTV Generation. 

MTV Palladia. 

The four core elements of the MTV brand.

Science! 

But to understand what the whole brand should be, we should talk about the main network itself.