You are entering a pop-free zone. (MTV 2)

Member Name: bigbtommy

Product:	MTV 2
Date:	14/08/01 (219 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of good music!, Very short ad-breaks, and adverts infrequent., No Steps or S Club 7!

Disadvantages: Nothing

MTV. Those 3-letters are enough to strike fear in to the hearts of any music lover. But when reviewing the MTV2 network, you have to think slightly differently.

With MTV, the basis is in pop. And pretty much only pop. But, if like me, you don't like pop, you could replace the word pop with crap. So much so, that I believe MTV stands for More Trashy Videos...

But MTV2 is shocking because it is so good, but why the MTV name. MTV2 describes itself as 'alternative music television'. But seeing as 99% of people I talk to prefer MTV2 over standard MTV, that'd suggest differently.

With MTV2, you get a good mix of electronic, metal, rock, punk, general 'guitar' music and slightly more leftfield stuff. They aren't afraid to play stuff that's older or rarer, or things that wouldn't usually fit on to radio or MTV channels.

Also, what is amazing about the MTV2 channel is it's lack of adverts. With MTV, they have hundreds of annoying adverts, as well as even more annoying trailers for their websites, programmes, and just pointless blips of animation that just waste your time. MTV2 does have animated sequences, but most aren't actually annoying, but quite stunning Flash animations. And the fact that you get lots of good music around these adverts makes the MTV2 network seem so much less annoying.

Typically, you'll get around half an hours programmes without adverts, and those adverts may be two or three breaks, sometimes with adverts for LP's and albums and stuff, so it can be quite interesting. Not the usual 'Best of the 70s' compilations CD's that are usually advertised on standard MTV channels.

You get all sorts of good programming.

"alternative music television" is a round up of current music that's circulating that's actually good. With standard MTV, you'll get about 10% good music. This zooms in on that 10%!

"view
ers choose" are slots allocated to viewers who have chosen an hour's viewing on the mtv2 website. Don't worry, you won't find little 12-year olds picking Britney records, the choices on the website are limited to good music, and all playlists are screened before being shown.

"for those about to work" is a morning 'chillout' mix that is shown, before people go to work...

"most wanted chart" is a rundown of the most selected tracks on the website

There are also many interviews and special programmes. Recentely, there was a whole night dedicated to Radiohead, my favourite band of all time. This included an interview with two band members, a live performance, and a play through all videos ever done by them. Look out for good stuff like that. For metal-heads there is also Riot, a programme dedicated to heavy and nu- metal of all kinds, featuring interviews and performances.

In conclusion, if you have access to MTV2 via systems like Sky, it is worth taking advantage of it, as it saves us from all the constant mind-numbing crap turned out by bands like S Club 7, Britney and Steps.

Also, next time I go and watch MTV2, I will make a listing of all the songs shown in 30 minutes, so you can see what sort of music they play.


It saves us from the More Trashy Videos channel though...

Thanks for reading,
Tom

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