Friday, June 26th, 2009

Fuck MTV’s Michael Jackson Coverage

Michael Jackson on MTV

I don’t wanna go off on a rant here… you know what? Actually, I do. I’m gonna rant. Will you shut up for just one minute, 80′s Dennis Miller?

So like everyone else, I find out Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, has died at 50 and I’m shocked. This is a momentous pop culture moment. It’s the closing of a chapter. The end of an era. The white glove is off forever. I don’t know – there’s an appropriate phrase in their somewhere.

I heard from my friend John that MTV was playing nothing but Michael Jackson music videos. I’m so happy. I used to watch MTV religiously as a kid and later as a teenager, and I know my pop culture history: at first, they wouldn’t play Michael Jackson videos, because he was black. When they finally gave in and played “Beat It,” “Thriller” and others, it made their network. Racist MTV became a global powerhouse off of Jackson’s music. To put it bluntly, they owed him.

So I sat down to watch a ton of Michael Jackson videos on MTV. It seemed like the perfect way to celebrate his life. Watching him in Thriller, you can’t help but say, “he was awesome.” This was in the late afternoon. By prime time, MTV switched back to regular programming.

What the fuck?

You can’t give the man who created your network 24 hours of music videos? Yeah, maybe I’m the old man telling MTV to show some respect, but come on. Michael Jackson made your network a “thing,” and you’re gonna preempt your tribute to him with what? I’m 16 and Pregnant? Seriously. Fuck.

I grew up on MTV, from Remote Control to Daria, and I devoured countless music videos. I admit, their recent teen girl-centric real format has kept me away for years, so maybe I’m not their audience anymore. But I think everyone — tween to me — can agree that when Michael Jackson dies, you want MTV to stick with his videos. Fuck the sponsors, it’s an emergency. The King is Dead.

I’m sure MTV News is gonna do some tribute, but now I could give two shits. If I need a news story, I’ll watch CNN. When we want to celebrate the life and music of the only solo act bigger than Elvis, MTV better clear its schedule. The pregnant tweens can wait a day. They probably want to watch his videos, too.

5 Comments

Filed under Music

5 Comments

  • Amanda
    June 26th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    Here, here. There were even CLEAR CHANNEL radio stations that made way for all MJ all day into the night– why couldn’t MTV prioritize?

    Sincerely,
    pregnant tween

  • Bitter
    June 26th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    Michael Jackson molested children. he paid out millions of dollars to keep multiple families quiet. FUCK HIM!

  • Geoffrey
    June 26th, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Amanda – Even Clear Channel got their act together. Ridiculous.

    Bitter – We shouldn’t forget the bad things Michael Jackson did. However, MTV owed him a better tribute for essentially launching their network. What sucks to me is that MTV *knew* they needed to do something, but they half-assed it. If they decided to do nothing, because they were like, “screw that child molester,” that’d be one thing. But they bungled a tribute to the most popular pop artist of all time, and that’s frustrating.

  • Hexen
    June 27th, 2009 at 1:11 am

    I know the feeling. Wasn’t around to see MTV when it was actually Music Television as much as you, but I still remember it from when I was little.

    But, seriously, they only gave him a few hours? All of the modern jokes aside, he is a music legend. Guess we just gotta do our own tributes and listen to some of his classics, eh?

    Played some Moonkwalker in remembrance.
    RIP.

  • Paul
    June 28th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    XM gave him a whole channel for the weekend.

    Anyway, I hate that people that condemn him for being a child molester, because it was never 100% proven. Maybe he was a horrible person that raped kids, but we might never know for sure. I’d rather think he was innocent until there’s something concrete.

Leave a Reply