Raging On: MTV's coverage of Live8

Hello all, and welcome to a special edition of Raging On: Today finds me in a rather foul mood. And if you read the title, then you know why. So let's cut to the chase and get with the raging.

Alright, so Live8 was billed as the largest concert ever that's goal is to raise awareness about the poverty crisis in Africa. It just so happens that this concert occurred almost 20 years to the day that Live Aid, the largest CHARITY concert, happened. For a background on Live Aid and Live8, google it, for this isn't a source for history.

Anyway, Live8 is essentially the biggest event in music history. Everything that involves music had its sights set on this event, and everyone with an inkling of care (or music) was interested. MTV Networks agreed to be the carriers of this event, showcasing the event in each country that they are in that participated. America, being the country MTV came from, set itself apart as the network to try and showcase the event as a whole, showing us what was going down in each show all while helping raise awareness about poverty in Africa and what we can do to help. Well, as you can imagine, MTV (and its sister station, VH-1) jumped on the opportunity to make this a once-in-a-lifetime affair....and failed miserably. I didn't watch the event on television (I will get to that in a minute) save for 1 band's performance...a reunited Pink Floyd. And this is the catalyst for my ire, this is the reason why I am writing to you now.

If you search online for people's reactions to MTV Network's coverage of Live8, you will hear the same thing over and over....MTV fucked it up. They had a chance to regain their music-world credibility they gained in '85 with Live Aid by staying on the action the whole time, minimally breaking for commercials and interviews...and they fucked that up. Throughout the day's coverage, the "veejays" were seen interrupting performances to talk to celebrities about their roles in the Live8 festivities, audience reactions to how poverty in Africa affects them, and their relentless need to pay the bills. Like I said, I didn't watch on TV all but 1 performance, and it was the blasphemous exploits of the network that did me in. Pink Floyd, who acrimoniously split in the early 80's with Roger Waters on one side and Nick Mason and David Gilmore on the other, decided to chuck their decades of bickering and bad-mouthing to help raise awareness. They did something extremely selfless, pushed aside years of strife and tension, and reunited in song for the masses. And what a performance it was. Save for Mason's slower-than-usual drumming (he's pushing 60, so I won't bitch too much), the band's performance ranked as one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever witnessed (and I saw it from my couch so imagine how those in attendance felt). They played a 4-song set that was Dark Side of the Moon-heavy (Breathe morphed into the Breathe Reprise, followed by Money...all from DSotM, Wish You Were Here, and closed the set with an amazing performance of Comfortably Numb). This garnered the attention of MTV and they switched live from their Philly broadcast to London to witness it. Everything was going great...until the second-half of Comfortably Numb, when all of a sudden the veejay cut in to talk about what was going on and then to alert the unsuspecting viewer that they were cutting to a commercial. Surely they wouldn't cut the most-anticipated performance of the whole show to make some money. Oh, you bet they did. So I quickly changed the channel to VH-1, assuming that they would take the reins from MTV and continue to air while MTV took a break....nope. They were running the exact same fucking feed. Tell me, why would 2 stations run the same feed when their audience is the exact same. There isn't a single cable or satellite company in all of America that airs ONLY 1 of the channels and not the other. What the fuck? And why would they run the same commercials...its not like their double-charging the customer for 1 feed worth. That's crazy. So, I lost the final solo of Comfortably Numb and the euphoria of watching this amazing reunion. As you can imagine, I was totally pissed off. MTV Networks has gotten a barrage of emails from irrate fans of all the bands they did this shit to. Come on, they were only playing 15-30 minute sets, surely you can wait until the end to cut to a commercial or a face interview with Jimmy Fallon....Jimmy FUCKING Fallon...give me a fucking break. Assholes. You've missed the boat on this. You should change your names to CTV because you stand more for corporate politics and needs than music. But, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud...and oddly enough...its AOL.

That's right. For all the things that AOL does wrong, they were completely vindicated by airing, uninterrupted, all the concerts that were going on. And the quality was excellent, given its just internet streams. I noticed no lag at all (considering 150,000 other people were watching it online at the same time, that's an amazing feat), and that's saying something. AOL, the corporate behemoth that has become as much a joke as a major player in the ISP world, showed us a glimpse of what we have to look forward to in the future. Partnering with Microsoft (WindowsXP was the sponsor), they were able to provide a totally free, all-encompassing experience that, while not on par with television in picture quality or sound reproduction, gave it a tremendous run for its money and showed that IPTV will be the future. I see future endeavors being run even more efficiently. The whole world will have AOL to thank because they showed that this can be a huge success.

And where MTV can be falted for failure, so can commercial radio. Premiere Radio Network was the radio-side of this event, and in numerous markets (the Indianapolis market included), it wasn't even carried. But, the alternative to commercial radio, XM (much like the internet is the alternative to TV), owned the show, broadcasting everything, uninterrupted.

This will serve as a wake-up call to the major corporations of TV and radio. Your stranglehold on the information market is loosening. The internet has finally shown its worth when it comes to real-time delivery of this type, and XM showed that the $12.95/month is well worth it.

I say down with MTV. Fuck you. For far too long you've pushed yourselves away from the music artists and into the arms of reality shit. Hell, I am going to say right now that AOL has much respect from me, and I hope to see other companies do similar endeavors in the future. Fuck you, MTV. Kiss my ass.

This has been Raging On, have a wonderful, rage-filled day. Please visit Relevant Irreverence, a new internet destination for all things artistic, musical, and disturbing.