My MTV generation

by Dan Scagnelli

 

MTV seems to have become one long advertisement, selling a lifestyle to the younger generation around the world.

 

Distancing itself from its video-jockeying (VJ) roots, it has become a programming channel to rival entertainment giants such as Sky1 and E4.

But what we at Arts London News want to know is, has its influence been positive or negative on you?

Studies indicate that the average youth watches somewhere between 30 minutes and two hours of videos a day and that one-fourth of all MTV videos contain alcohol or tobacco use.

What’s on MTV today?

My Super Sweet 16 is part of the new programming - a show that feeds the egos of spoilt brats who organise lavish £100,000 parties.

The Hills follows young wealthy Californians around their daily lives, focusing on VIP parties as well as the main characters’ relationships.

Pete Doherty in 24 Hours is also on if you want a reality television show featuring a failing rock star who, in the not too distant past, has been convicted for possessing crack and heroin.

MTV Cribs will show you around houses of the rich and famous, resulting in day dreams of Porsche collections and a gym sized closet.

MTV role models

To keep the bond between channel and audience strong, MTV must know where youth culture is going, so market research is the mantra.

MTV Senior Vice President of Brand and Strategy, Todd Cunningham, said: “Research efforts at MTV have been certainly legendary, it’s been a feverish addiction about understanding young people.”

MTV have developed the ‘mook’ character to appeal to guys. Defined on Urban Dictionary as: ‘A twenty-something male who shows off and makes a scene of himself. A mook personifies…the mindless celebration of childish masculinity.’

You know him as the dare-devil on Dirty Sanchez and Jackass- crude, loud, obnoxious and in your face - he's one of MTV’s most valuable creations.

MTV has created its feminine caricature too: the ‘mid-drift’. The mid-drift is no more true to life than the mook: If he is arrested in adolescence, she is pre-maturely adult; if he doesn’t care about what people think about him, she is consumed by appearances; if his thing is crudeness, her's is sex.

The mid-drift is a collection of the same old clichés, re-packaged as a new kind of female empowerment: she’s a sexual object and she’s proud of it.

The mid-drift archetype is superstar Britney Spears who has sold over 25 million albums world wide.

If you’ve seen a Britney performance you’d know her clearest message to girls is: your body is your best asset so flaunt your sexuality, even if you don’t understand it. Unsurprisingly Britney’s most loyal fans are teenage girls.

The aftermath

An experiment in 1993 found that college students who were assigned to watch MTV, developed more liberal attitudes toward premarital sex than their peers who did not watch MTV as part of the study.

A second experiment found that 12-14 year-olds were more likely to approve of premarital sex after watching MTV for less than one hour.

Sexualised youngsters make better consumers. So it’s not human research- it’s market research. Companies want to increase their share to earn more money and they are not trying to understand you: they are trying to earn from you.