by Michelle Lentz
I’m a child of the MTV Generation. The videos (yes, music videos) on MTV affected my already-angsty high school fashion choices and musical taste. I could come home from school every day and watch videos on MTV. I even still have, somewhere in storage, a couple of VHS tapes filled from end to end with my favorite MTV videos. My guess is that they are filled with a combination of ’80s hair bands and Madonna. If I had a VCR, I might even dig them out of storage for a quick trip down memory lane. The memory? When MTV had music videos.
There’s nothing like leveraging social media for a little nostalgia. Last week, MTV launched MTV Music, an online repository of over 16,000 music videos. According to the MTV blog, the site was made for folks like me.
For all of you haters out there griping about how MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore, here’s something to calm the waters. Check out MTV’s new website, MTVMusic.com — our new online catalog that finally opens up MTV’s massive music video archive.
While MTV.com has always been a source for the latest music videos, MTVMusic.com offers up a more in-depth library, including over 16,000 videos, “Unplugged” performances and exclusive MTV concert footage. And if a video you’re looking for isn’t there yet, check back regularly as more and more vids are added daily.
You can browse by genre, artist, and most viewed. You can also rate the videos and then view by rating. I’ve heard some bad things about the user interface, but I don’t mind it that much. I find it rather clean and simple – very un-MTV, come to think of it. But there are a few things I think could be improved:
- Some of the older ones, obviously transferred from tape, have scan lines and just look a bit beat up. I’m not video expert in the slightest, but isn’t there a way to clean those up?
- I’d like to have access to more information about the artist. Also, when watching a video, I’d like to see related videos listed somewhere, or more videos from that artist instead of starting my search over again.
- I’ve been spoiled by the awesome shuffle capability on my iPod. I’d love the ability to build a playlist and watch it on shuffle.
In true YouTube style, you can build your own profile, comment on videos, and favorite out videos to your profile. MTVMusic seems not quite like an afterthought, but often like a great idea in progress, and it is a beta. I hope they continue to add to this site and improve the features. In the meantime, it’s fun to dig through the archives. I leave you with what I believe was the first video played on MTV.
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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ‘08 in San Jose.
