DEBUNKING / DECONSTRUCTING: MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack

  

CLICK FOR POLISH MEMORIES

Beck Hansen, who created the famous hit "I'm a loser baby", once upon the time wrote a song titled "MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack". I decided it would be a fitting title for this article. Yeah.

Ah... good ole times. Between centuries, the fear of millennial bug. Me, an old brat, I started differentiate between the bands and started looking at outrageous bands, whether it was Marilyn Manson, The Prodigy, or DMX.

Poland back then was at the crossroads. We weren't part of the European Union (lol), but thankfully, we managed to be divorced from the terrible soviet union (yuck, don't try this at home). For a very long time, the only option was a polish version of german station called "Atomica" and our own program "30 tones of hits".

The moment MTV Poland began, was a quite an event. The whole team of Atomica moved to MTV and frankly, for a very long time, they just continued the same slop under different logo, with the difference that we could finally see The Osbournes (RIP), Beavis & Butthead, Daria, Celebrity Death Match, etc. but with subtitles (how else).

During the day, I was tormented with hip-hop all the time, and garbage pop in vein of Britney Spears (remember her cover of "I love rock 'n' roll?). Sure, sometimes I managed to see some Grunge in vein of Smashing Pumpkins or Soundgarden. But I already wanted something heavier. I preferred as a kid, bands like Korn, Linkin Park, Acid Drinkers. For people like me was MTV2, but frankly, more interesting bands I learned from VH1, and their weekends when they rotated stuff like Black Sabbath (RIP), Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, or Iron Maiden & Judas Priest. I might be from the different generation, and I never did tapetrading, but I feel that in my times, there were more obstacles to break, to reach Metal.

Anyway, each summer I visited my grandparents, I watched MTV 24/7 for 2 months (along with Cartoon Network & Fox Kids). Somehow, I managed to find out about the existence of a special program called "superock". It aired every day after midnight till 2 A.M.

Sometimes I watched it, but more often I taped it. It wasn't a good program. Even then, they played effing Hip-Hop, which made me puke. I do like Cypress Hill, but I don't think they (and Eminem) should appear during this brief hours dedicated to loud guitars.

For a very long time, it kept being a lame program for lame people. Until 2004. Something changed. Poland joined European Union (lol) and the standards of life improved. about which I already wrote previously on blog, and more importantly, the tastes have changed. Hip-hop, thanks to 50 pence, became a joke, and along with Nu Metal it became passe, while the retro sound experienced renaissance.

As such the playlist of superock improved. I finally could see the videos of Slayer, Sepultura, Gorgoroth, Deicide, Obituary and exactly... Napalm Death.

"Breed to Breathe" in its censored version was recorded on my worn VHS, but it had to be aired on september or october, when I went back to school. Back then I already was more into more extreme music, but the real revolution was about to happen.

That particular song made such an impression on me that I immediatelly wanted to purchase their album. Me and my buddy visited our local shop called Music Corner, and we spent our earned music (we didn't have allowance, we were doing minor jobs like hading out leaflets. Our other buddies were spending money on cheap wine, but we preferred spending it on Metal!). That particular day I purchased  Napalm Death "Noise For Musics Sake", while my fren, whose cousins were heavily into black metal, got himself the infamous "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas". We had some laughs, as ND had written "Mosh" on the spine, while Mayhem had "Anti-Mosh" - keep it in mind that we weren't aware of the culture war that happened in Norway.

Years passed, and more and more I was addicted to the internet, especially that it finally became affordable. I still had a sentiment for bands like System of a Down, or Static-X, but I've became hungrier towards underground. MTV was replaced without hesitation with Metal-Archives & Rateyourmusic (terrible website with some few good people, avoid). I managed to make some internet connections with musicians and bands, which helped me spread some underground rarities with permission (yeah, you might have downloaded it, without knowing it - I was the source).

Nowadays, after 20 more years, I still learn, and from what I can see, there's still a long road before me, and I doubt I will reach my final destination ever. There's enough of great stuff to discover that I will never be bored for the rest of my life. But I do am glad, that MTV is obsolete, as in my opinion, this station tanked Metal. After all, imagine going from Headbangers Ball, to derivatives of Big Brother crap.

RIP MTV and good riddance.