A great alternative (MTV 2)

Member Name: hugon

Product:	MTV 2
Date:	02/03/02 (296 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Chance to hear some great music you normally wouldn't hear, Chance to hear some live music

Disadvantages: Heavy rotation of some songs

If Britney leaves you cold, Atomic Kitten make you want to puke, and you just feel like crying everytime one of the Pop Idols is on the radio, this is probably a channel you'll be interested in.

446 on Sky Digital, and also available on digital cable, MTV2 showcases music from the alternative genre, music that wouldn't usually get airtime on the likes of the main MTV channel or commercial radio.

My TV is usually tuned to MTV2 when I'm in the house; I used to only get to experience it when I was round at a friend's house. However, I have noticed since I have got it that it has become a lot more Americanised than it used to be. It focuses increasingly on "Nu-metal" acts these days, with less content from UK acts. It's a shame as I'm not a huge fan of the "Nu-metal" genre at all, it leaves me very cold, but I guess that is what is popular at the moment, and MTV2 are trying to secure their audience. Perhaps taking more content from America saves a little more money as well.

I'm not saying that it's bad, not at all. There is still plenty of new and upcoming acts to see on the channel. Recently I've seen videos by the likes of Biffy Clyro, Seafood and McCluskey, which I would probably never have seen if not for the channel.

The channel covers a range of bands from the Nu-Metal of Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, punk from Green Day and Sum 41, as well as UK guitar music like the Charlatans and My Vitriol.

The channel plays mainly music videos during the day - from 6am to 2pm, it is just mainly a rotation of music videos. At 2pm there's a live selection for an hour, with a selection of live tracks from the MTV archives. This is one of the best programmes on the channel, there seems to be no sort of pattern to what they play, you just have to tune in to see what turns up. Then it's back to music rotation until 5pm, when it's the most requested chart, which is the so
ngs most requested on the MTV2 website (see link below).

The evening is for some of the original content, with live sets from bands, sections where bands choose their favourite videos, interviews with bands on thier history and influences, themed selections of videos and viewer's choice of videos. Again, the live selection in the evening tends to be heavily biased towards US acts, but MTV2 does take an active interest in UK music, with its imminent screening of the NME tour shows from London. However, it is refreshing to see usually at least one live set per night.

If eclectic music is your thing, you'll have to wait until after midnight usually, but there is usually an hour most nights devoted to experimental artists from bands that would rarely get airtime anywhere else. The new music section late at night is also to be recommended if you want to check out some of the more young and upcoming bands who have yet to hit the big-time.

What I like about it is the way the channel is all about music - there are few adverts (even if this used to be no adverts), but these adverts are for albums or bands. There are no egocentric presenters that you would find on the main MTV channels, virtually no promos promoting the channel that you are watching.

MTV2 has started to show some MTV non-music content like Jackass and Beavis and Butthead. I don't think MTV broadcasts Beavis and Butthead anymore, so that?s fair enough, but saying as Jackass is on multiple times during the week on the main MTV channel, I think showing the same show on MTV2 is pointless, especially considering there are only three series of nine episodes each!

The other bane I would have with the channel is that it seems to have a very heavy rotation of songs. If you watch the channel for any longer than an hour at a time, you will probably see at least one song more than once. Once you've watched the channel regularly for a couple of days, this can be
gin to grate a little. It's like an alternative version of a commercial station.

I'd love it if they could bring back more viewer's choice hours. I don't know why they did away with them, now you are confined to one or two in the early hours of the morning, but they where excellent (and when you see them, they still are), as they give a wide range of all artists, as well as a dip into the past, rather than mainly recent or current music that you get during the day.

Even though I do have my criticisms of the channel, I understand the channel does have to cater for lovers of all styles of alternative music. I wouldn't do away with it for anything though, as before the only time I got to listen to alternative music regularly was via XFM over the net, or the Evening Session on Radio 1. Even then, the only time I really got to see music videos by my favourite bands was when they put the music videos on their singles or albums.

If you like alternative music, I'd thoroughly recommend it, over Q and Kerrang - Kerrang's genre is too limited, while Q's is too varied. Whatever your preferred genre of alternative music, it'll be represented here. Even though I've only had MTV2 for a few days, I've already caught a few bands that I want to check out further, that I probably would have missed if I was relying on a few hours or radio each night to find out about them.

Its four stars from me - if they could introduce a bit more variety into the schedule, they'd get an extra star.



http://www.mtv2.com

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