remember the time

Remember when VH1 (and Mtv) showed primarily music videos? Me neither. Going even further into ancient history, does anyone even remember when nobody would waste their time on VH1, and Mtv dominated the relevant demographic with all the cool shows and cutting edge programming? Yeah, me neither. Writing this blog now, I would have never guessed that I would ever write a blog singing the praises of VH1 back in the day- the coolest thing they had used to show was the RuPaul show and pop up video. What's interesting about VH1 is how much I have observed it changing right in front of my eyes. I suppose their willingness to adapt and change is something to be respected; maybe respected isn't the right word- adaption is necessary for anyone or anything to survive. I remember when VH1 was all about Divas and women first, I guess that kind of burned out when the audience realized that women can do anything men can do since the beginning of time. Now, just like Mtv, VH1 has changed to an exclusively reality based TV format- a few days ago I browsed through the upcoming days of VH1 programming out of curiosity (there's really no point considering all cable networks repeat the fuck out of whatever shows they happen to produce- I'm sure it's strictly a money issue). When I looked ahead, I noticed that for the next few days the only programming on VH1 was all reality TV shows about celebrities, some of whom had been first made into celebrities from appearing on VH1. VH1 now only shows celebreality- a term that seems to have originated in order to describe The Surreal Life. Instead of music videos, or save the music, VH1 has, for the most part of the past 2 years or so, had the most interesting, fun, entertaining, relevant and funny shows on cable. New York is responsible for the highest ratings in VH1 history- clearly they wouldn't do something stupid like get rid of New York any time soon. Lately, they have been focusing on reoccurring themes of fame and celebrity. I have noticed that it seems like they hold back- which is smart because saturating the media too heavily with any one celebrity never ends well for that person, which means less money for the producers long term. In fact, VH1 has become the last star making vehicle. New York goes to Hollywood is getting higher ratings than I Want to Work for Diddy; New York is more relevant right now than Sean Combs.

How fun would it be to write a book about the evolution of a cable network? Maybe I should write about Logo, cause I remember when it launched, so I was there for the beginning, and I've already seen it change so much...