Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Take My MTV... I Don't Want It Anymore...
I grew up in the "I Want My MTV" generation, but it's official - it's not mine anymore, and I'm putting it out on the front curb with a homemade sign reading "PLEASE TAKE - FREE!"
After the ABYSMAL coverage of this past weekend's Live 8 concerts, you have to scratch your head and wonder how this network, once hailed as the cutting edge of music on television, could be so bone-headed, apathetic, and simply ignorant in their plan of attack for covering this historic event?
And who knew that the heroes of the day would be AOL? Their live online streaming non-interrupted-by-commercials-or-phony-VJs coverage attracted over five million viewers. And while I'm not here to heap piles of praise on AOL, you've got to love the fact that they didn't sequester their coverage for their membership only. Their coverage was placed on their general website, free of charge and available to anyone.
Beyond that, they've kept the full streams of each of the concerts up and running for another six weeks. In addition to the streams, they've now catalogued many of the performances for on-demand consumption - if you haven't checked it out, please take a look at what MTV didn't want you to see.
PTF picks: Coldplay, "In My Place" (gotta watch it if for no other reason than to see Gwyn holding Apple in her arms, with precious pink sound protection over her ears - ugh!); Green Day, "Holiday" (their whole set was pretty fabulous); REM, "Man on the Moon" (gotta check Stipe's bizarre blue mask); Black Eyed Peas, "Get Up, Stand Up" (with the Marleys); Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" (for the sheer historic nature of it all); and Stevie Wonder's entire set. The point being, there was SO MUCH GOOD MUSIC here on this one day, and the opportunity to cover it was largely squandered, except by AOL.
Go check them out before you have to pay for the CD/DVD box set, and see what the concerts were REALLY like.
UPDATE: I just found a link on AOL's site that links to a listing of every performer in London, Philly and Toronto - so in addition to the highlights, you can check out the stuff that no one even mentioned on MTV! In London, check out Scissor Sisters, a fave of ModFab; in Toronto you MUST check out GREAT BIG SEA, an undiscovered jewel, if you haven't already discovered them; check out the full list - you'll be amazed at the number of people you had no idea were playing at Live 8!
Posted by FleshPresser at 9:47 AM /
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