Bye Bye Bye: MTV Gets The Heck Out Of Times Square
Posted by: Justine Fields
Filed in:
entertainment
6:10PM, Monday August 17th 2009
If you thought it was the end of an era when “Total Request Live” closed up shop about a year ago, it was only the beginning of the end. Now MTV is saying adios to their monster studio that overlooks Times Square in New York City. The big guns over at Viacom, MTV’s parent company, don’t want to spend $11.6 million on the $1000-square-foot prime real estate anymore. They’re also giving up their expensive lot on the ground level that currently houses the MTV store. But now where will I go to buy my “I Want My MTV” apparel?!
Even though I wasn’t terribly sad when “TRL” got the boot, I must admit that because of the show every time I walked through Times Square I made sure to glimpse in the direction of those giant black windows to see if any celebrity was peeking his or her head out. I did so, in spite of my usual laughter over the people congregated outside the “TRL” studio on the sidewalk, crying at the site of a Backstreet Boy peering down from two stories above through heavy-duty glass. Still, that studio was the place to congregate/learn about/gawk at/scream your lungs out, over the next big thing. It was also MTV’s last excuse to play 30-second clips of music videos during the daytime hours.
The departure of MTV’s home base is making me weepy-eyed. The idea of five, ten, or 15 years from now, seeing members of my generation walk through Times Square with their children, saying, “There was once this big studio, where all the major celebrities would come, and kids would cut class to stand on the street with signs ... yada yada yada” is eerie. I’m feeling like an old hag and I don’t like it one bit.
Also, what’s gonna happen to Alexa Chung? Isn’t she doing her thing up there now? [Idolator]
TheFrisky.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network
Justine
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 05:20 pm: [report]
Wow. Now there is nothing left of the ol’ MTV.
_jsw_
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 05:46 pm: [report]
I think the last piece of the old MTV left in the late 80’s. Then came the Decline. Now? It’s post-apocalyptic MTV. Pretty soon, there’ll be nothing left but a website with blinking text and a Rick James video clip.
Amelia13
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 05:51 pm: [report]
Wow I didn’t even know that TRL wasn’t on anymore. I remember when MTV played music. I haven’t watched it for at least 8 years.
impoddity
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 06:04 pm: [report]
@Amelia13: Right with you. I got over it in 2003, when I turned 16. My 17-year-old sister watches the channel for the reality show, and every other word is bleeped out. What a great way to influence today’s youth. Are any of the children aware that the “M” actually stands for “music”?
*sam*
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 06:17 pm: [report]
Music?? what??? I always thought it stood for Money, Tits, & Violence. ah, I have learned today.
CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 06:22 pm: [report]
@sam: Now I have a band name. Kudos.
Justine
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 06:41 pm: [report]
Bravo, @*sam* haha
Goldfinch86
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 08:42 pm: [report]
I walk past MTV studio’s and when I do I get a little sentimental. My mother was 30 when she had me and she loved MTV. Thats where I first saw Annie Lennox, David Bowie, U2, and Real World, all by age 7. I wonder what hip parents show their kids now besids KEXP, which is a web radio station, because there’s a difference between hip and crappy rap videos, I mean real new music. Kids are looking to the web for music so yeah MTV’s demographic is just not there anymore. Like when VHI2 went from no commercials to commercial every other song and crappy made for tv music bio movies. Original great music stations on tv are no longer part of our culture right now, maybe in like 20 years there will be another MTV or VH1 where all they show is music, but right now people are not looking for that. In that sense what is the use of the music video I wonder, watching it on the web is not the same as seeing it for the first time on the top music for the week.
Queen Frostine
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 08:47 pm: [report]
I guess I’m from the generation that remembers MYV before the whole Times Square studio. I won’t miss it, for me they’re moving into Times Square signaled the end. Now that they’re moving out, I hope it signals a return to their roots.
Queen Frostine
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 08:48 pm: [report]
Oops, I meant MTV.
Coral
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 09:10 pm: [report]
I love the MTVU channel. The one that plays music that is popular around the colleges and universities. It mixes mainstream stuff with indie and other lesser known music.
averardoll
wrote on August 17 2009 @ 09:32 pm: [report]
Wait.. you would think that the rise of hard candy.. Carson Daly would rise like a phoenix from a bottle complete with his black nails.
Fonke_monke
wrote on August 18 2009 @ 12:51 pm: [report]
NOOOO!!! they can’t remove MTV.. lazy asses from MTV they must come up with something and pull it off! Then again their award shows aren’t as great as they used to be. I guess its right when they say that all good things come to an end!