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week of december 24, 2007
After a long, long break, altmusictv is back in action. Unfortunately, it seems that Subterranean (the way it once was) will never return. It's not all bad news, though... we've got a new layout and some new 120 Minutes playlists. That's right, after being M.I.A. since April, the site is actually back. It's our Christmas gift to all. So, where have I been all this time? Well, doing more important things, basically. Subterranean has been dead in the water, so this site has been good for nothing but archives.
Speaking of which, though, some of you have still been e-mailing in 120 Minutes playlists all year long. I finally got around to adding the latest batch to the site. There have been 13 playlists sent in since March (the last time I updated), bringing our total to 359. Here are the new ones:
May 26, 1996 - Bob Mould - from Plarocks
March ?, 1995 - Bush - from Idiotjed
March ?, 1995 - The Cranberries - from Idiotjed
January 30, 1995 - Bush - from Idiotjed
September 25, 1994 - Grant Lee Buffalo - from Adam R.
March 14, 1993 - They Might Be Giants - from Steevo M.
September 15, 1991 - Robyn Hitchcock - from eskimospy
September 8, 1991 - Robyn Hitchcock - from eskimospy
July 28, 1991 - The Psychadelic Furs - from JT
July 14, 1991 - The Wonderstuff - from JT
July 7, 1991 - Bernard Sumner of Electronic - from JT
June 30, 1991 - Julien Cope - from JT
April 27, 1986 - host J.J. Jackson - from Plarocks
Just look at that. April 27, 1986! It's the earliest one ever. The 4th episode of the series, apparently. The series began way back on March 10, 1986. If you have more, send 'em in!
Now, as for Subterranean. No one told me this officially, but all signs point to the inevitable: It's not coming back with Jim or any host. If you're waiting for the show to return to its former glory, just give it up. We're lucky MTV.com and MTV2 still allocate the resources to throw us a video block and some blog posts every week. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks. From what I've seen, mtvU is still going pretty nicely too, I'm impressed. I put links to watch the live feed of mtvU and Subterranean on the home page.
Yes, the new home page. Same design but a new layout. I tried to put everything you need right there on the home page, so you don't have to drill down the site to find whatever it is you're looking for.
Also, thanks to Google, now we have some search boxes, too. It doesn't exactly work wonderfully right now, but it's better than nothing. In the coming weeks, I'll work on making the rest of the site match the home page, and try to make the search boxes more effective.
Now, am I just talking to myself here, or is anybody still out there? If you're reading this, comment or something. Where have you been going to find new music? What was some of your favorite music of 2007?
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Hey, I've missed this. Even though Sub hasn't been updated in a while, it's still nice to hear from the web master. 2007 has been a great year for alternative and indie rock. A lot of big names came out with new material, and new bands came out with good stuff, too. There's too much to list. Just one note: I think Arcade Fire came out with one of the best albums of the year. Really, really amazing album. And MTV/MTV2/Fuse has just gotten progressively worse. VJs are history, popular music is garbage, and real music is still on the back burner, although, MTV sometimes pops in a few indie tracks to their shows. Whatever. Someday this will change...hopefully. And I'd love for VH1 Classic to go back to it's old ways (and old logo - it looked cooler). There's still hope for a better future, but music television is basically dead.
It's all about the internet now. MTV has always been about sponsor dollars, but it had a little creativity, these days, forget it.
The internet is the only way to go
Shame about SubT the way it ended but i'm lucky enough to still have "The Wedge" here in Canada (and I happen to torrent it from time to time) and a friend of mine sends me "120 Minutes" episodes from MTV 2 Europe which ain't all bad.
Hopefully, MTV 2 (US) will get it's act together and star up a new show.
Tough seems very unlikely now as you say.
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This may sound like blasphemy, but I look forward to the end of MTV. This abusive relationship will end soon.
Hey.. it's Chris.. if you don't remember me.
I still check up on this site.. mainly to check out the 120 Minutes playlists and such.. and also checkout the current Subterranean playlists from that link.
Here's my take on the current situation we've been dealing with:
The saying goes.. history repeats itself? Correct?
Well, the 1980's blew.. everyone knew that. Infested with hair metal bands and glam rock glory, the main enjoyment of making music was making carbon copies of eachother and doing it for the image and of course the benefits of the package.
Hmm?? Seem familiar? When the guy from ultimate guitar compared the current "third-gen emo" pop-punk phase that is dominating the mainstream right now to glam-rock.... he wasn't too off. In fact, he was spot on.
Just as in the '80's, you have/had to dig deep for the good stuff.. a la Pixies to Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth to Deerhoof, Husker Du to Annuals, etc.
Well, what eventually happened was that good music actually was propelled into the mainstream. That was the era of "alternative." What made that happen?
A band powerful and forceful enough to end a complete generation, and start a brand spanking new one.
The fact is.. we need another Nirvana. When/how/will this happen? That's a great question. Looking at 2007.. it continues to get better in music quality. We are continuing to find more and more great indie bands that are bringing back alternative (or as I like to call it.. mainstream indie).
Could it happen? As I stated before.. history tends to repeat itself. Music continues to go on and off in terms of decades..
For instance, '70's= great. '80's= crap. '90's= great. '00's=crap.
This is all mainstream of course.. I am talking about in terms of radio play.
I don't understand the anger and desire towards MTV.. and I am utterly confused to the desire to take MTV off the airwaves.
That's not what we need. Do you want to officially end any type of music video play on television once so ever? Unless we get a calling.. as in a music video channel that plays good music.. then I will agree to get rid of MTV.
I wanted a change from MTV.. I miss watching MTV in the '90's.. and watching "Last Goodbye" performed at 12 A.M.
They need to change.. and hey, if a new good video station comes and brings competition.. so forth that they will change their current wave of shows in change for more music ethnic shows.. than that's what we need.
In all honesty though, I don't want them to start playing music again, unless they're going to play good music.
Want good rock? Play Queens of the Stone Age. Want good alternative? Play Radiohead. What good rap? Play Aesop Rock.
There is no reason or need for the amount of repetitive nonsense to continue in this modern era.
I can only pray that the '10's will be change for the good..
We need another Nirvana.
For those that have Comcast On Demand, they can check out a new (as of right now only available on demand) music channel. It is called the A & R Channel (ARC.) They offer some pretty cool shows that have actual hosts. I haven't watched it in a while and I don't think I am as hardcore as most of the people that frequent this website, but you might enjoy it. And no, I don't work for them...
Aesop Rock is great indie hip-hop.
I was too young to actually grow up with "Music Television", but I know that if a cable network channel is "Music Television", then it should play music videos. I checked last night: MTV plays 2 hours of music videos. All week. If that. Sometimes less. And none on the weekends. Then it's all shit. If you don't want to play music that's fine, but don't call it MTV, call it Reality TV or whatever...though I'm sure a lot of MTV is scripted like no other.
I wish good alternative music was played on cable TV. There are so many bands out there and looking every last one up on the internet is like brutal research. It's hard to find the best of what's out there.
Who knows though. MTV can change. Music can change. No one knows the future of alternative music for sure.