Although the folks at MTV have recently removed the misnomer “Music Television” from their logo because the network rarely plays music videos anymore, that doesn’t stop them from airing their annual controversy (and ratings) bonanza, the “Video Music Awards,” nor has it stopped them from resurrecting a program that was canceled more than 10 years ago, “120 Minutes,” which is dedicated to so-called “alternative” music.
Because the title of the program makes it clear how much time is devoted to this programming, it’s instructive to consider exactly how that time compares to the rest of their schedule:
- Fraction of time devoted to “alternative” music videos in 1999, when MTV cancelled the once-a-week “120 Minutes” the last time = 1 percent of their programming schedule.
- Fraction of time that MTV now devotes to “alternative” music videos via the new once-a-month 120 Minutes = .3 percent of their programming schedule.
- Oh, and it’s actually on MTV2, so unless you have digital expanded cable of some kind, you probably don’t get that network at all.
- And rather than airing at midnight EST Sunday evening/Monday morning, it’s on at 1 a.m. EST Saturday evening/Sunday morning.
To be fair, MTV2 also airs a two-hour block of “alternative” music videos once a week called Subterranean. That’s on at a time that MTV2’s website refers to as Tuesday nights at 5 a.m. EST/4 a.m. CST, by which they actually mean Wednesday morning.
This is all scheduled so as not to interfere with their critically important “reality” programming such as “Jersey Shore” and “Sixteen and Pregnant,” as well as hard-hitting sitcom repeats of “Martin” and “The Hard Times of RJ Berger.”
Although during its heyday the show featured a revolving door of hosts, including Kevin Seal, Dave Kendall and the occasional musician guest host, at the end of its last incarnation, it featured the bald and raspy-voiced Matt Pinfield, who returns as host.
Pinfield, who most recently was a morning drive disc jockey on alternative rock radio station WXRP until their ownership changed and their format was changed to news talk (see Pop Vicious, “Meet the ‘New’ Radio Boss—Same As the Old Radio Boss”), is widely respected as an authoritative figure in the current milieu of modern rock.
Although the stocky and shiny Pinfield may have missed his true calling as a spokesperson for throat lozenges, he does do a credible job of conducting interviews, which included Dave Grohl, Lupe Fiasco, Kings of Leon, The Black Angels, Sleigh Bells, Das Racist, PJ Harvey, Danger Mouse, Fitz and the Tantrums, Theophilus London, Cults and Zach Braff on the debut of the reboot.
The only noticeable misstep was Pinfield looking into the wrong camera as he concluded the Sleigh Bells interview and went to commercial. Coupled with his annoying swinging right arm seen in multiple segments, those were the only truly awkward moments of the new show.
A few new wrinkles have worn on the “120 Minutes” formula, which used to just consist of videos, the occasional brief interview and the quote of the week. The Connect the Dots feature has Pinfield connect commonalities from seemingly vastly disparate artists a la “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” in this case English roots group Mumford & Sons and Afro-beat inspired pop band Givers.
Obviously, the “Tweets of The Week” feature wasn’t around in 1999, and this week’s show included tweets from Twitter, posted by Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All’s Tyler The Creator, electro-pop artiste Neon Indian and Rainn Wilson.
Another new feature was the top three new mp3s of the week from The FADER magazine, although it was only given a few more seconds than the “Hobo or Rock Star?” feature, which seemed to draw inspiration from Michael Stipe’s line, “When you meet a stranger, look at his shoes.”
Highlights were excerpts from Pinfield’s 45-minute interview with Foo Fighters’ Grohl (including a rave about Welsh band The Joy Formidable that introduced their “Radioactive Cats”-inspired video), an interview with two members of Kings Of Leon in which the lead singer confesses to being so drunk the night before that he had forgotten that he met Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and a showing of Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy.”
While “120 Minutes” had many new artists to brag about debuting on their show, such as Nirvana, De La Soul and, to a lesser extent, We Are Going To Eat You, no videos were as controversial as “Jeremy,” but not for the reason that most viewers might expect. Pinfield referred to the band’s displeasure at the “censored” version of the video as it was originally shown on MTV, especially in that what exactly Jeremy did when he “spoke in class today.” Most assumed that Jeremy was pulling the trigger on a massacre of his classmates, but the original version reveals that [spoiler alert!] he pulls out a handgun, puts it in his own mouth and pulls the trigger when standing at the front of the classroom. The director, Mark Pellington, cuts to the kids in the class being covered by blood, a chilling and shocking image, especially given that the school year is just starting again.
Aside from the surprising (but ultimately justified) inclusions of actors Braff and Wilson, the only other big surprise was allowing politically outspoken hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco to choose a music video to play on the show. Given his outspoken refusal to vote, it should come as no surprise that he wasted his choice on Radiohead’s “Just.”
In the unlikely event that Average Joe Viewer is awake or home the next Saturday night/Sunday morning it airs, it will be interesting to see if they remember how to do whatever they did a month ago. If anyone remembers to watch it, good for them. Or they could do what I did, and just watch it online, which proved only half as difficult. And certainly not as difficult as using a crescent wrench to lock down the fast forward on my VCR’s remote, to catalog the numerous videotape recordings I made in high school and college.
Videos featured on the first episode of the relaunched version of 120 Minutes on MTV2:
The Joy Formidable: “Whirring”
Jeff The Brotherhood: “U Got The Look”
Sleigh Bells: “Rill Rill”
Pearl Jam: “Jeremy (Uncensored Version)”
The Black Angels: “Haunting at 1300 McKinley”
Cults: “Abducted”
DOM: “Living In America”
Mumford & Sons: “Roll Away Your Stone”
GIVERS: “Up Up Up”
Das Racist: “Rainbow In The Dark”
Radiohead: “Just”
Foo Fighters: “Everlong”
