One of the certainties in this modern life is that whenever anything is written anywhere on the Internet about MTV, someone will inevitably remark, "Hey, remember when MTV played music videos?" This point will be made even though MTV has been sloughing off their music videos in favor of actual shows—well, in favor of Cribs—for at least the past 15 years, and, honestly, who cares if MTV doesn't focus on music videos anymore? If your hankering to watch Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know?", say, or that one Ugly Kid Joe video that was all MTV played for six months in 1992 is so strong, your head might be full of glass. Anyway, you can watch VH1 Classics. That's what it's there for. (That and to provide background noise for emptying the dishwasher alone.)
Well, apparently MTV has decided to make those "Remember when MTV stood for 'Music Television'" people seem officially crazy, hopelessly old, or some combination of the two, because the network is obliterating all trace of their music video-centric past from their logo.
In other words, they're cropping the "Music Television" part out:
And sometimes filling in the blanks with a little Jersey Shore, amongst other shows:
From MTV's press release (via The Wrap):
“It represents a new visually defined MTV, stimulating its past, present and future and embracing it’s diversity. Everything from Jersey Shore, to the VMAs to collaborations with the MoMA. The logo is part of MTV’s re-invention to connect with today’s millennial generation and bring them in as part of the channel.”
Ah, remember the You Wrote It You Watch It exhibit at MoMA? What a stirring way to spend an afternoon. Almost as good as the much deserved Jenny McCarthy retrospective, "From Singled Out To Exercise Video Game Commercials."
If nothing else, this new logo proves that MTV knows exactly what those millennials like: extra meaningless letters and cropped things. That's why they're always texting about how rad Color Me Badd and Gerardo are. Duh.