When Love and Hate Collide
Monday, December 18, 2006 at 10:18AM I truly have a love/hate relationship with VH1 Classic. I enjoy watching my hair band videos. I enjoy the rock documentaries and learn how classic albums were produced. What I hate is the constant repetition, the endless commercials and worthless promotion.
Or the errors. Errors about music history on a music channel are unforgivable.
During metal week, the channel aired a countdown of the 100 best hard rock groups of all time. Def Leppard came in at number 31. During the short biography that came with the entry, the announcer said "the highs were highs, and the lows were even lower. Drummer Rick Allen lost his arm and guitarist Steve Clark died of alcohol abuse in 1988." That's all well and good except the band on was on tour in support of Hysteria in 1988, and Steve Clark was along for the ride. He died in 1991, while working on the Adrenalize album. There were other mistakes, but this one is the most unforgivable.
The channel also has a bad habit of ":selling" a pet album within fake shows. The series, "Hanging With" is nothing more than a 30 minute infomercial featuring musicians.
Not that musicians don't deserve promotion or air time, but relentless commercial tactics just drive fans nuts. It's annoying when you can feel a commercial coming. I get it. Commercials pay bills, and networks don't come cheap. But constant commercial and merchandising doesn't just settle salaries; they also cheapen the overall product.
On VH1 Classic, the product is music.
Oh, how unfortunate.
Reader Comments (2)
the only REAL music video channel left anymore
too bad dish network is gay and makes you pay a lot more money for that package that it's in...which i don;t have
Nice article. I'm so glad to find them on your page. THX a lot.