Sunday, August 4, 1996
By Kristin Fiore
Summer Bruin Senior Staff
As if one weren’t enough, MTV launched a second channel, M2, on
Thursday, 15 years to the day after the Aug. 1, 1981, airing of the
original station.
M2 has ditched rotation schedules for a looser, more varied
format, though big hit videos may still be seen five or six times a
day. The lack of game shows, cartoons and other recent MTV
endeavors also means more music. Three local news broadcasts per
hour from local cable operators (and, of course, commercials) are
the only current interruption from continuous videos. It sounds a
bit like the early MTV, but it’s anything but.
M2 plans to have a strong internet presence, something MTV is
just now getting into as well. In the coming months, each video on
M2 will be accompanied by computer-receivable data about the artist
including tour dates, biographies, and any contests. All news and
band information will be stored and accessible online in an
expanded version of the current MTV system.
Despite all of these changes, the target age for the channel is
still young adults in their early and mid-20s. This places the
channel right in between MTV, which targets late teens and early
20s, and VH1, also owned by MTV, which targets viewers in their
late 20s and early 30s.
Most students in college now barely remember life without MTV.
The tiny channel that expected to fail ended up being the biggest
and most influential arm of the music industry.
But as its first viewers grew up, the channel splintered into
game shows, cartoons and TV programs that coined the vacuous and
obnoxious "MTV Generation." The homegrown appeal of early MTV has
been replaced by fast edits and ultra-slick yet somehow empty
production.
M2 is MTV’s chance to grow up and branch out musically. Its
commercial success as an MTV affiliate is virtually guaranteed, but
its success as a valuable music resource remains to be seen.