A real great channel. (MTV 2)

Member Name: Poonabester

Product:	MTV 2
Date:	07/09/01 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Variation, The Music !! (If you like this genre of music), Smooth and Slick Presentation, NO ADVERTS!

Disadvantages: Slight repetition of shows sometimes

If i had to watch any channel for many many hours, i would no doubt choose MTV2, which is currently channel 446 on Sky Digital. Compared to the other music channels that are available to me, i find that MTV2 is in another league.

You've got the likes of MTV and MTV Extra, which are at least professionally put together with decent graphics and presenters, but the stuff they put on caters for the major section of the audience, which unfortuanetley now is young kids and there's MTV Base and MTV Dance which i suppose would be very good if i was into those respective types of music, so i can respect these, mainly due to the fact that i know they don't repeat the same tripe hour after hour.

Then there's all these shoestring crappy pop channels where the viewers phone in and choose what songs come on. You know what i mean, there's 'The Box', 'Smash Hits' and i would even put the likes of 'Q' and 'Kerrang' in there, because despite playing a different genre of music, their playlists are determined by young impressionable kids who just want to hear the same songs over and over, i.e. 'Time of your life' by Green Day and 'Smells like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana. Great songs but these channels are the worst thing to happen for anthems like this. On Q and Kerrang there are a lot of good songs but you can't help getting sick of the same set of songs over and over and over... ARGH!

Obviously with the major viewership being young kids aged under 14, or adults with a deficit in learning, if you watch these channels, you have to sit through a set of about ten or twelve songs which are just repeated over and over again, and are obviously going to do well in the charts, which are determined by the same people.

Anyway this opinion is about MTV2, so i guess i should start talking about it, instead of putting down its rivals. Everything i have said about the rivals is different with MTV
2, and the good thing is, it plays music that i am into. I could not think of any hell worse than being 'Into' pop music, and basing my musical collection around it. ARGH again. Anyway MTV2 plays alternative music, which is great for anyone who likes alternative music obviously, and i don't think that the music they play attracts only one group of music lovers. They play punk, metal, indie, rock and everything inbetween, so obviously you won't love every track they play, but if you are broad minded about your music tastes, you will like most of the music they play.

It's not just a big endless playlist of songs either, like most of the rivals. The day on MTV2 is spilt up into many, usually hour long shows, like 'Alternative Music Television', which plays all the newest alternative stuff, which is very good, but i find is the least varied show, as you get a few tracks which the staff seem to like, and tend play a bit too much. Nevertheless there are plenty of great songs in between. It's always a pleasure to hear a new song you've never heard before, which you like, and then finding out who it is, to broaden your musical knowledge. Every day though, at 2pm you will find 'MTV2 Live' which is an amazing show, obviosly playing live, some rare, tracks from the best of Alternative music. Absolutley great, and i wonder why no other channel has thought of putting on a show like this, which contains great footage from big gigs, TV performances and festivals.

Then on most days, you'll find an hour where an artist chooses an hours worth of songs. These are obviously great too, as the singers or bands will know their music better than the average 12 year old steps fan. I don't know if they still do it, but you also found an hours worth of songs chosen by the average viewer, on 'Viewers Choose', which was always varied and exciting, as you got, for instance, some punk lovers, so their hour would have be
en punk based, and metal fans, indie fans, etc, so there was always loads of variation, but i dont know to what extent 'Viewers Choose' is still on the channel.

The variation continues at night, when you will find all sorts of stuff. You often get nights devoted to a particular band or artist, for instance recently there was Radiohead and Blink 182 nights. These are heaven if you like the particular act that they are featuring.

Oh yeah one more thing- There's no adverts ! How good is that? thers nothing i despise more than having to watch 6 minutes of adverts for every 15 minutes of actual programming. This is a major advantage of MTV2 over all of its competitors.

There's loads of other stuff going on, like other live stuff, and a variety of special features, but overall, the channel is just great because of the music it plays. If you want to keep listening to 'Lady Marmalade' 205 times a day on 'The Box' then by all means do so, but if you want a more unpredictable experience where you wont know all the songs before you hear them, but they may well leave an impact on you... watch MTV2.

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