7/11/2005
Live 8 a total disaster for MTV and VH1
Nine days ago, a superconcert that spanned the globe in 8 different countries took place. Its mission was to send a message to the world leaders that were attending the upcoming G8 conference that poverty should end. This message rings no truer than in Africa, where several people have just taken their last breath this very second beause they are malnourished and cannot be provided the medical care that they need and deserve. Live 8 was created to send a message that many people in the music community were mad as hell and they were not going to take it anymore. With an estimated viewing audience of over 1 billion people worldwide, they were not alone in their anger. Those who watched in the US had another reason to be angry, for the coverage of the event by music channels MTV and VHI was less than stellar and had a lot of people scratching their heads.
Live 8 founder Bob Geldof spent a tireless amount of hours booking the world's best acts, you name them, they were there. People like Dave Mathews, the Black Eyed Peas, U2, and Paul McCartney took time to help stop poverty. Evidently, someone forgot to notify the networks that the majority of the audience actually wanted to see some of these legendary acts perform live on stage. What was supposed to be 8 hours of music, turned into the MTV and VHI hosts spending hours sharing their thoughts on this historic day and showing pointless filler material showcasing people getting to the concert venues and what the acts were doing backstage. That was fine with me as long there was no activity going on, but what drove me up the wall was the fact that they were talking over the acts playing on stage live. I was really looking forward to the Dave Mathews Band, but instead, I had to listen to some toothy British guy go on and on about what a thrill it was to be there. He also went on about how he will never see another event this again in his lifetime, blah blah blah. By the time he finished talking, the band was finished and they quickly cut to another locale Where it was more of the same.
Another thing that bothered me was the fact that the concert was simulcast on both networks, meaning that both channels were showing the same thing, I have a problem with this because a lot of what was shown did not fall into VHI's age group. VH1 is a network that plays older music, (good music) that appeals to mainly an adult audience. I find it highly unlikely that VH1's audience wanted to hear someone like 50 cent do his thing. MTV on the other hand just plain disgusts me as a network and I was even more appalled at the way they handled things, As if the host's fawning over everything wasn't bad enough, the fact that they chose to cut to a performance by alternative rock group Linkin Park was downright wrong. It also made one thing perfectly clear, MTV was calling the shots, not VH1. MTV caters to the types of people that party all night, have noserings and tattoos, and enjoy musicians that scream into the microphone for 3 minutes straight. This is probably the only explanation possible as to why they chose to shut up during Linkin Park's performance.
In the end, we were left with more talk and less rock, and many people across the country were none to pleased about it. The networks were flooded with complaints very similar to mine that said they wanted less talk and more music. Thankfully, the cable giant listened and we were treated to a best of compilation of the show this past Saturday. In doing this, the networks did what they should have done in the first place, they showed the older artists on VH1 and the younger ones on MTV. I commend the networks for doing the right thing, but their disregard for what the audience wanted to see as opposed to what they wanted to do assures them that the telecast was a disaster in the minds of many.
Live 8 founder Bob Geldof spent a tireless amount of hours booking the world's best acts, you name them, they were there. People like Dave Mathews, the Black Eyed Peas, U2, and Paul McCartney took time to help stop poverty. Evidently, someone forgot to notify the networks that the majority of the audience actually wanted to see some of these legendary acts perform live on stage. What was supposed to be 8 hours of music, turned into the MTV and VHI hosts spending hours sharing their thoughts on this historic day and showing pointless filler material showcasing people getting to the concert venues and what the acts were doing backstage. That was fine with me as long there was no activity going on, but what drove me up the wall was the fact that they were talking over the acts playing on stage live. I was really looking forward to the Dave Mathews Band, but instead, I had to listen to some toothy British guy go on and on about what a thrill it was to be there. He also went on about how he will never see another event this again in his lifetime, blah blah blah. By the time he finished talking, the band was finished and they quickly cut to another locale Where it was more of the same.
Another thing that bothered me was the fact that the concert was simulcast on both networks, meaning that both channels were showing the same thing, I have a problem with this because a lot of what was shown did not fall into VHI's age group. VH1 is a network that plays older music, (good music) that appeals to mainly an adult audience. I find it highly unlikely that VH1's audience wanted to hear someone like 50 cent do his thing. MTV on the other hand just plain disgusts me as a network and I was even more appalled at the way they handled things, As if the host's fawning over everything wasn't bad enough, the fact that they chose to cut to a performance by alternative rock group Linkin Park was downright wrong. It also made one thing perfectly clear, MTV was calling the shots, not VH1. MTV caters to the types of people that party all night, have noserings and tattoos, and enjoy musicians that scream into the microphone for 3 minutes straight. This is probably the only explanation possible as to why they chose to shut up during Linkin Park's performance.
In the end, we were left with more talk and less rock, and many people across the country were none to pleased about it. The networks were flooded with complaints very similar to mine that said they wanted less talk and more music. Thankfully, the cable giant listened and we were treated to a best of compilation of the show this past Saturday. In doing this, the networks did what they should have done in the first place, they showed the older artists on VH1 and the younger ones on MTV. I commend the networks for doing the right thing, but their disregard for what the audience wanted to see as opposed to what they wanted to do assures them that the telecast was a disaster in the minds of many.
