After reading Dieckmann's pessimistic article on MTV, i felt it necessary to further her argument. Somehow, MTV has been able to entrench itself within the youth culture as a taken-for-granted component. However, i believe the opposite is also true: youth culture has become a component of MTV. There are 2 primary reasons I believe this:
First, MTV has been able to suck in and standardise genres and niche markets. MTV began as a platform for creative music videos. However, today, clichéd dating and reality TV shows dominate the channel. The odd music video (or the same 4, on a rotate system) is played in-between these shows. These shows are routine-ish, and agonising to watch. How one is expected to watch a "marathon" (episodes of the same show back to back), I dont know. Not only this, but the music is also sucked in to the standardising machine that is MTV. For example, the rap genre used to be unique with its own codes and conventions, but now the obviously marketed, TV-friendly "gangster" almost epitomises MTV.
Secondly, the MTV viewer has become just as standardised. As the shows begin to narrow the target demographic to young, white, vaguely loserish males, they are being shaped at the same time. These teens are involuntarily forced into numbing sameness. So much so that we are extremely quick to deny that we watch (or have ever watched) an MTV show.
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