The Almagest

Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: OP/ED

Media Credit: hypebot.com

It all started when I was flipping through channels a few nights back.

Somehow (and I reiterate, somehow) I coasted into a world I usually don't make it into, made of nothing but reality, lies and fist-pumps; MTV.

It was then that I noticed something. In the right hand corner, where the logo is placed, I saw that the logo no longer read "music television" beneath the bold MTV.

It had happened earlier in the month when the new logo debuted on MTV's website.

It would be the day that music television officially died.

Now, some may argue that it began when MTV started placing reality shows into the mix, specifically "The Real World," which occurred in 1992. Before then it had been MTV's goal to play nothing but music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

What a short-lived dreamed that was.

Now we're lucky to get a quick music fix between the hours of 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., hours in which most people my age aren't even awake.

Bemused by MTV's musical choices, I decided to watch an episode of "The Real World."

If you're uninformed about the reality show, the hook is that seven (now eight) strangers are chosen to live in a house (generally in a large city) where they "stop being polite and start getting real." The tagline is simple, though the in-house relationships aren't. Twenty-three seasons in and I'm still amazed at the characters being portrayed.

Generally there's an all-star cast: a gay guy (with some sort of back-home drama), a party girl who likes to drink too much, a guy who can't keep his mouth shut, the token musician, the girl who cheats, the girl who's confused about her sexuality and a jokester who seems to only cause problems.

Usually everyone has some sort of rage against something, and each person has some sort of interpersonal conflict they're dealing with. The faces change, but the characters remain the same - it's actually the one show left on MTV that has even stayed somewhat true to its original meaning.

After the show I was drawn right back to the logo floating in the corner, almost winking at me.

For over 10 years I have been a part of the MTV generation (I didn't' have cable until I was 9!). I've seen the pop stars, learned of legends and even recorded to VHS a few episodes of MTV Spring Break in the process.

But there was the logo, boring and black, just sitting there.

Wondering more, I decided to check around online for a bit of history on the trademarked letters.

In a statement made by logo creator Frank Ollinsky to Rollingstone, the original graphic submitted displayed only the letters "MTV," which was not accepted by the network until the words "Music Television" were added below.

Almost 30 years later and the design has returned.

At least MTV isn't lying to anyone now.

MTV no longer stands for "Music Television," but it could stand for "Monotonous Television," something that most are familiar with on this channel these days.

For years MTV has delivered the same reality jokes to our TV sets, including fameless stars such as Lauren Conrad, Tila Tequila and some girl who is sixteen and pregnant. Reality TV, why must you take away our music television?

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