The new NewMusic?

by: Liem Vu

September 08, 2009 12:00 PM

Comments: (2)

Can the next hope for televised music-journalism in Canada flourish on a station that's technically not allowed to show music videos?

Once touted as the Nation’s Music Station, MuchMusic’s M.O. has become murkier as the station enters its second quarter-century. With MuchMusic recently adding a new “MuchOriginal” reality dating series entitled Love Court to its roster of syndicated programming, it’s clear why the station opted out of celebrating its 25th anniversary last Monday and, instead, directed their energies to honouring (in the words VJ Devon Soltendieck) the “The Legacy of Leah Miller” on her last day on air.

MuchMusic, as it was, is no more and if anything, the dismissive comments issued by Senior Vice President and General Manager of MuchMusic/MTV Brad Schwartz to The Canadian Press last week about how MuchMusic was not into the “looking back business” put the nail in the coffin for the few who still carried any hope that MuchMusic would revisit its roots as a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants channel and a go-to-source for televised music journalism.

In EYE WEEKLY’s December 17, 2008 cover story, "But the little girls understand," former NewMusic host Hannah Sung lamented the cancellation of the groundbreaking music-news program by noting that the show had been canned before another one could take its place in Canada. But on the contrary, there was a replacement, albeit in the form of the American brand: MTV News, which, ironically, is broadcast on a station — MTV Canada — whose CRTC license restricts the amount of music-video content it can show. (Full disclosure: I am an unpaid summer intern at the station.)

Officially launched on August 18, 2008 as a 30-minute program, MTV News was built on the success of reporter Sharlene Chiu’s indie-friendly On The Radar segments originally featured on MTV Live.

Instead of being a personality driven hodgepodge of sound bites and overly flashy packaging, MTV News took on The NewMusic’s mantle of being the indie fan’s one stop alt-shop for news, music clips and long-form interviews with non-Top 40 artists like Fucked Up, Ben Kweller, Land of Talk, Women, St. Vincent and Grizzly Bear (before they actually became a Top 40 band this year).

“We all remember the good old days of The NewMusic and that’s not what The NewMusic was at the time [of its cancellation],” explains MTV News anchor Aliya-Jasmine Sovani. “In a lot of circumstances they would talk down about the bands that they’d interview and on our show if we don’t like the band, we’re not gonna interview them.”

Last Monday, MTV News unveiled its new, 12-minute commercial-free format after the show went dark for the week following its one-year anniversary. According to MTV News producer Chad Barclay, the new format will take “[The NewMusic] model and abbreviate it in a way where you [wouldn’t] lose the heart and soul of the artist.”

With the show no longer using the green screen for its Headlines segment, Aliya-Jasmine now sits on her desk as she delivers the top three noteworthy stories of the day, followed by a series of throws that link the different interview segments together as a cohesive whole. In place of the digital (read: sterile) monochromatic background, the backdrop is now a cornucopia of flickering monitors and televisions situated in the production area where the MTV Live and After Show teams hustle and bustle to churn out their respective daily shows. (Squint hard and you may see this generation’s Rick the Temp, Paul "the Intern" Lemieux.)

But with the death of The NewMusic and an increasingly fickle viewing audience, can MTV News do genuine TV music journalism and survive when its predecessor couldn’t?

“The last few days, my whole line has been 'Internet killed the TV Star' because you go on the internet to check out any kind of music that you want," explains Aliya-Jasmine on set, a couple of hours before filming the music headlines. "You don’t go to television for that anymore. What music television [provides] now is the kind of access that you can’t get anywhere else.”

Her words ring true as she scrambles with a producer to rewrite portions of her script seconds before shooting the Headlines segment, after receiving footage of DJ AM’s last interview with MTV News (US) in which he spoke ominously about the dangers of abusing OxyContin.
According to Chiu, the new format is ideal for the ADD audience, of which she admits she is occassionally a member.

“A lot of times when I watch TV, I’ve got the laptop on my lap and I’m reading about something. I’ve got YouTube on pause, buffering, so that when it’s the commercial break I can watch something, you know what I mean? That’s…my viewing habit.”

Although ratings are seen as the only Litmus test for whether a show should bite the dust, Alex Sopinka, the current MTV Supervising Producer and former Senior Producer of MuchMusic (during its '90s Strombo-era heyday) says that it’s not always the case.

“When I was [at MuchMusic], the whole contention was that if you wanted to play something, if you wanted to talk about a band or put a video on, it had to be popular. That’s bullshit, I mean, how are you suppose to break bands? You’re supposed to be the one that’s telling people what’s cool and what’s coming up, not be the one following the trends.”

But like Aliya-Jasmine’s personal iPod playlist — which includes an eclectic mix of Led Zeppelin, MGMT and Britney Spears — Sopinka believes that you can have (excuse the Hannah Montana reference) the best of both worlds.

“You can have the huge artists on [MTV News] and have fun…but you can also have that credibility [where] you have that long interview with the band where you really get into the music. I think the audience is smart enough to give us the time to listen to both. A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”

With Aux.TV having recently established itself as one of the first Internet channels to make the leap to broadcast television as a specialty channel, it’s uncertain whether MTV News’ mixed-method approach or Aux’s super-grassroots ethos will prevail.

But with MTV Live’s penchant for booking live performances from indie acts like Passion Pit, The Most Serene Republic and more recently, Anjulie, MTV Canada may very well be heading towards the direction of becoming the nation’s new music station.

TAGS:

Music

Television

Media

Copyright 1991 - 2009 EYE WEEKLY Newspapers Limited. All Rights Reserved. Distribution transmission,
Republication of any materials is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of EYE WEEKLY.
EYE WEEKLY is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.

Toronto Notes

The new NewMusic?

Toronto Notes