I want my MTV

Once upon a time there MTV actually played music. It was to the point where they were dictating the way pop music went. VH1 to a lesser extent but they did too. So you basically were not going to have a hit single without it being a hit on MTV first. Hence the song "video killed the radio star".

If there was an MTV generation it was mine. me and my friends had cable to mainly watch this channel 24-7. It had very trendy looking VJs (video DJ) that seemed to be replace once their style and looked stopped being the thing of the day.
There were a few music related shows, Obviously the Top 20 Video Countdown once a week who shows who's the hottest around. "Dail MTV" was the early version of TRL, were people would call and vote for their fave vid to play in the evening. it was a top 10. They actually played the whole videos. There was a show called 120 Min which played alternative, not this term has changed a lot over the years, it's pretty much college radio. The show got somewhat washed out during the 90's when the genre became pop. There was "Yo! MTV Raps" which was pretty much the only place to see rap music, again, until the 90's when it became pop and it just became redundant, Then there was the almighty "Headbangers Ball" Sat from midnight until 3a. Thousands of Teenage boys falling asleep in front of the TV. I usually made it but not all the time. the last 30-45 min were more odd stuff and so one would usually fade. The 90's music slowly killed this off as well. Also, as the 90's dragged along Little by little they added more and more non music shows until now that they play music from 5a-10a or so. It's sad.

When I was in Europe in Oct 08 I got to watch music channels, yes it still exists there, both in Spain and Dublin and it pretty much instantly gave me a whole new view of the artists that I watched. I am convinced that the music industry could revive quite a bit of the interest in their artists if they had very accessible music channels. I mean quality media all round. No pixalated, broken up, laptop sounding, music. Well, I guess it would make the most sense if it was online, maybe a TV channel that's web based. Since they only play music videos it doesn't matter if you watch online or on TV as long as you watch it. Have a few shows that specializes on specific genres but otherwise just play a nice blend of it all.
In a big way it just helps us experience the image the artist is trying to share, the idea behind the song.