Recently, we finally got MTV2 on our cable system in this area. We previously had MTV (which plays almost no videos) and MTVX (which plays almost nothing but rock videos). But MTV2 is very different from those other two MTV networks.

MTV2 plays videos, and lots of them, and they aren't restricted to any one particular genre of music beyond the fact that almost everything played is very popular and commercial. Unlike MTV, MTV2 doesn't really have stupid television shows, just music videos. MTV2 is clearly geared toward a very young audience.

Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Ricky Martin, and all of the other big names in the world of pop music have their videos played on MTV2 (though I've never seen a Britney Spears video on MTV2). MTV2 plays a ton of commercial rap videos along the lines of Outkast, Ja Rule, and Mystikal along with the much more foul Sisqo and Nelly. MTV2 plays an EXTREMELY heavy dose of commercial r&b/pop artists such as Destiny's Child, Mya, and R. Kelly. They also play a lot of commercial "modern" rock videos from bands such as 3rd Eye Blind and Blink-182.

I've yet to see anything truly alternative or underground on MTV2; they seem to only play chart fodder. They also have a nasty habit of playing certain videos way too often. "Free" and "Case of the Ex" by Mya and all the commercial rap artists I mentioned get way too much air time. I'm convinced Mya owns a piece of this network because I've never turned on MTV2 without seeing one of her videos within three songs. MTV2 also seems to have an obsession with Shaggy, and his videos are unavoidable for anything more than about twenty minutes. This overplaying of already established popular artists leaves little time to play videos from dubious, lesser-known "artists" such as Eden's Crush, Nelly Furtado, and the Corrs.

Similar to early MTV, MTV2 has VJ's (video jockeys) who occasionally talk bet
ween songs. One of them is Jancee Dunn, a young female who looks about nineteen years old. The other VJ I keep coming across is this one really overweight guy in his early twenties. I would really expect them to have some hunk in that position considering how image-conscious MTV is. The guy seems to know what he's talking about and adds some credibility to this dubious network. Another thing adding credibility are the incredibly commercials MTV2 plays for itself. Lots of those are surprisingly funny and/or brilliant, and seem out of place around such moronic music.

DO I RECOMMEND MTV2?

I don't recommend it to everyone, but there are definitely some people who could find value in this cable network. If you enjoy current pop music and/or are under the age of 20, you'll probably greatly enjoy MTV2. If you enjoy watching videos of any kind, this network will prove to be useful to you. But if you don't like current pop (and I don't) and want to see videos from more alternative and underground artists, MTV2 is not the place to look.
Average