On the one hand, you could say it was due to Viacom's takeover, but I think the real explanation goes much deeper.

 

In BET's case, I think the trend away from airing music videos had a lot to do with the criticisms levied against the network by many, prominent African-Americans regarding the kinds of videos that they were airing.  When they would still air videos from rap and hip-hop artists (and remember, not all the videos produced during that period passed BET's "smell test"), they were edited and/or censored heavily, or allowed to run during off-peak (meaning, late night) hours.  However, even after being edited and censored and pushed off prime time, what made it to air often left a bitter taste in viewers' mouths, especially where the depiction of African-Americans, and African-American women in particular, were concerned.  I mean, it's a little tricky for a network that's geared ostensibly toward celebrating our best Blackness, as well as being a voice for a market that has been marginalized elsewhere, now to run videos that feature young, undereducated Black men flashing more cheap gold than Junebug Slade, and being flanked by jiggly "hoochie mamas" showing entirely too much titty and ass.  (I hated it when Taylor Swift took her cheap, easy shots at those aspects of our music videos in her own video for "Shake It Off," but damn if she wasn't right.)  Simply put, I think BET "walked away from music," or from music videos, because what we had been putting out there was not us at our best.

 

Plus, BET has always catered to "urban" audiences...but not necessarily to non-affluent "urban" audiences, which is probably the biggest market today for "urban" music.  Don't get me wrong, I still love me some Donnie Simpson and "Video Soul."  But, to me, BET always gave off a strong "bougie vibe," and an old vibe -- and that was before I knew that it was founded by the same family who founded Ebony and Jet magazines, practically the African-American guides to bougie living.

 

Even now, when I do watch BET for stuff like the BET Awards, I get the sense that they'd be much happier running Anita Baker videos 24/7.

37 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

There was just so much in music that MTV didn't cover that you had to supplement by watching other channels, networks.  That was just the way it was.

 

Remember when MTV believed that grunge was a real revolution, and that Kurt Cobain was its messiah?  I don't want to minimize Cobain's importance to his generation, but it really shows to go how desperate MTV was to stave off the coming of hip-hop.

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I do agree that MTV is not the proper venue to pay tribute to Aretha.  Madonna is not the right artist to do so either.

 

Understatement of the year!

Unfortunately, having Beyonce do the tribute would have re-opened old wounds.

Possibly, but anyone other than Madonna would have been better. I can't speak for anyone else but I don't see any connection between her and Aretha whatsoever.

On paper, the Madonna tribute could have been nice and unexpected since (for better or worse) she’s a queen of popular music in her own right. But then you’re reminded that Madonna is still Madonna.

The thing is, Madonna was there to present Video of the Year, not to do a tribute. Somewhere along the line, she or someone at MTV thought they should acknowledge Aretha somewhere in there and that was the net result - something slapped together with no purpose. 

 

MTV promoted Madonna's appearance as the presenter of the final award, not as an Aretha tribute. 

Just now, BetterForgotten said:

The thing is, Madonna was there to present Video of the Year, not to do a tribute. Somewhere along the line, she or someone at MTV thought they should acknowledge Aretha somewhere in there and that was the net result - something slapped together with no purpose. 

 

MTV promoted Madonna's appearance as the presenter of the final award, not as an Aretha tribute. 

I’m aware. I’m just saying that someone of Madonna’s stature and longtime influence in the music industry should have been able to do a nice tribute. Someone like Cher would have been totally random as well, but she would have done an infinitely better job.

I'm sick of Jennifer Hudson being the tribute act for everyone, but isn't she actually slated to play Aretha in a movie? She could have made some sense, but her music career isn't exactly that hot anymore, and she's only rolled out to do tributes and such...

Madonna responds to the backlash...

 

A funny review of last night:

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 20187 yr by Faulkner

Looks like the MTV VMAs scored another all-time low (as expected) with 4.87 million across all the Viacom networks, 2.25 million on MTV itself. 10.3 million watched just four years ago.

http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-top-150-monday-cable-originals-network-finals-8-20-2018.html

 

Ratings trends in recent years for the MTV broadcasts only:

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 20187 yr by Faulkner

Watch this little girl channel her inner Queen of Soul. It's the best thing to remind you that Aretha Franklin's incredible legacy will forever live on and inspire generations. (Video credit: Karemah Butler/FB) #ArethaFranklin #becauseofthemwecan pic.twitter.com/63OPyrzpVE

— #becauseofthemwecan (@Becauseofthem) August 21, 2018

That Rolling Stone article really shows how schizophrenic that site has become, as they veer from harsh callouts of pop names they don't like to forced and embarrassing fawning over the blatantly pushed media narratives of the day, like Ariana Grande and Camila Carbello.

Not everyone watches the Soul Train Awards, but that probably is the closest opportunity that we'll for a proper tribute (they usually air in November). Even though that will likely happen I still think that someone should produce a two hour tribute show where more than just two or three songs can be heard.

How Aretha came to sing the A Different World theme.

 

Edited August 22, 20187 yr by Faulkner

If nobody else needed to sing the ADW theme song after Aretha sang it, then why did the producers have Boyz II Men come in and redo it for the last season?