Letter To MTV re Live 8 (7/7/05)

This letter was emailed to the CEO and President of MTV. The CEO responded within an hour with a very kind response apologizing for my disappointment and strongly admitting the blown opportunity. Out of respect for him, I will not be posting his response.

Dear Tom and Van,

As an MTV viewer for the past 21 years and as a person whose life was changed by MTV’s coverage of Live Aid, I feel compelled to let you both know how disappointed I am with your coverage of Live 8 this weekend. It was insulting to both the artists and the viewers. MTV missed a huge opportunity to inspire a new generation.

MTV’s coverage of Live Aid literally changed my life. As a teen glued to MTV for over 12 hours, I learned about Led Zeppelin, The Who, Eric Clapton, David Bowie and more. I learned what political activism was all about and became a politically active person. I also learned who Bill Graham was and wrote him a letter after the event thanking him for the inspiration. His assistant wrote me back and I wound up pursuing a career in the music business that led me to working at Bill Graham Presents and on the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour. It's sad to think that instead of kids 20 years my junior having THEIR lives changed by MTV’s Live 8 coverage, they'll instead forget the event as quickly as their latest super sized extreme grape Slurpee. The next would-have-been music historian, the next Jann Wenner, the next Peace Corps leader and the next Mother Theresa likely switched off his or her TV to use Play Station, watch AOL or just missed the message of the event due to scrolling through the endless b.s. via Tivo.

Maybe there’s a good explanation for the way you broadcast Live 8. If so, millions of us would love to hear it. According to the NY Post, required commercial time, the last minute scheduling of artists and an 8 hour time limit were the excuses. I don’t see how those are excuses. There were plenty of commercials during Live Aid, but they were aired BETWEEN ACTS! This time, major artists were regularly interrupted mid-song to either cut to an endless parade of commercials or, even worse, mindless banter from your roster of pretty-faced, empty-headed VJs who have spent too much time selecting their clothes to have ever learned a thing about music! I’ve never missed Martha Quinn so much! Seriously, your coverage showed close to no complete sets by the artists who performed. Of the songs that were shown, most were cut short. Even “Comfortably Numb” was interrupted by useless banter right before one of the best guitar solos of all time. That’s sacrilegious! Last minute scheduling of artists is typical of many music events – a qualified producer and director should have been able to pull this off. I’m sure a pro like Joel Gallen could have nailed it. Were your directors and producers fresh grads from Full Sail? They should never work again! It was literally dizzying to watch the on-screen shot jump from the VJs to a few seconds of an act to another country to endless commercials - and that’s NOT because I’m over 30. Thank god for Tivo! Even with that it was painful. I can’t imagine you got any viewers to sit through all of those commercials once they realized that there was practically no music coverage! And for the record – Sway, Rachel and Amir saying “oh my god – this is so historic” is NOT MUSIC COVERAGE!!! As for the 8 hour limit, why not divide up what was shown on each of your channels? MTV and Vh1 could have shown different coverage (Dido on one, Linkin Park on another, Floyd on both). For those of us not on medication for ADD, M2 and Vh1 Classic could have shown unedited music coverage. Come on guys, synergy! Synergy!

Despite this rant, I generally applaud you guys at MTV. Unlike many of my 30-something peers, I like that we can always count on MTV to be the fresh face of today’s pop culture. Although I think it’s wrong that MTV staples like The Real World have devolved from a show about different kinds of young adults living together to a show about how fast a group of pretty, empty-headed, fake-breasted and bench-pressed alcoholic chain-smokers can hook up with each other in the hot tub, I still have to hand it to you guys for programs like The Osbournes and Punk’d. You have proven time and again your ability to not only reinvent your brand but to continue to hold on to the youth audience of today. That is a major accomplishment...and since you are smart enough to achieve that, I would have thought you would be smart enough to make Live 8 the incredible pop culture/educational TV moment that Live Aid was 20 years ago.

Disappointed but still rooting for you and hoping the rumor of a "re-do" is true,
Luber