The City Of a Thousand Videos

THE AMERICANS have thrown down the gauntlet. Their show was so fucking amazing, that unless we at least match it we re going to be left with egg on our faces.
MTV Europe President Brent Hansen is reflecting on the size of the task as the channel prepares to bring its 1999 Music Awards to the Point Theatre. They ve already set their stall out by confirming Ronan Keating as host, and persuading the likes of Marilyn Manson and Britney Spears that there s no place they d rather be on Thursday November 11th.
According to the New Zealander, the visit to Dublin is long overdue.
The only thing that s stopped us coming here in the past is the lack of hotel rooms, he confides. You don t appreciate how big a deal the MTV Awards are until you re there in the midst of the madness. Even though I ve been associated with them for a long time, the number of people involved, and the size of the infrastructure, still scares me shitless. No matter how well you plan out the show beforehand, there s still huge scope on the night for things to go wrong. Which is what gives it its edge. When a show s recorded, like the BRITS, there s always a sense of what haven t they let me see?
Anyway, once we were satisfied that there were enough beds to sleep everybody, coming to Dublin was a done deal. The big plusses about here are, one, you ve got an audience that s musically literate, and two, people are positively disposed towards opportunity. Unlike the UK, where they try to shut everybody else out, you guys are good at dealing with Europe and outside influences in general. Which makes it an MTV kind of city.
Not wanting that last statement to be misinterpreted, Hansen hastily adds that he has no desire to see MTV s audience become more homogenised.
The first thing I learned about Europe when I came over from New Zealand, is that every country has its own unique characteristics. Our immediate priority when MTV Europe started up was to get into as many homes as possible. Now that we have the numbers, we can start looking at how we relate to each individual audience. Improved technology means that we ve been able to start regionalising our output and eliminate some things which I know people find annoying. For instance, we re no longer confined to using Europresenters who speak slowly and neutrally enough for everyone to understand them. Terry Christian did some stuff for us in the early days, and no one east of Calais had a clue what he was on about!
At the same time, he continues, you mustn t patronise. I had an American executive suggest to me that we flash up the flag from each artist s country of origin, but I said, No, that ll be seen as tokenism.
Hansen is also sensitive to the charge that, with so many corporate sponsors to keep happy, MTV Europe is becoming increasingly conservative.
The first thing you ve got to remember is that uplinking from London, we re subject to the same ITC guidelines as the BBC and ITV. That didn t stop us, though, from playing The Prodigy s Smack My Bitch Up and Aphex Twin s Windowlicker two videos that were pretty much banned by other channels. I m not saying that we encourage artists to make political statements on the Awards, but by putting them out live we re taking a risk that, again, negates the charge of us being control-freaks.
What we don t do and I feel very strongly about this is go out of our way to slag artists off, or make them look stupid. An example of that was M.C. Hammer on The Word every time he went to answer one of Mark Lamarr s questions, they stuck on that sample which said, Hammer time! Fine, if he d been in on the joke, but they were just taking the piss.
With regards to controversial videos, my motto is, If in doubt, play it. As long as it s not obscene, we ll try and find a place for it.
Realising that the common denominator between Leftfield, Britney Spears and Type O Negative has long since ceased to exist, MTV have launched three new digital channels.
Our audience won t get any bigger, but it will become more fragmented, their architect acknowledges. Mainstream MTV will continue to present what I call a snapshot of the culture . Counter-programmed to that and concentrating on the indier side of things is Extra. Base is R n B during the day and harder dance at night, while M2 is no commercials and totally left-field. If we can make a go of those, who knows?, a few years down the road we may be in a position to put a punk, or a heavy metal channel on.
Vested interests aside, Hansen thinks it unlikely that MTV will be rendered obsolete by people preferring to pick up the remote, and programme their own selection of videos.
I honestly believe it s the packaging around them, as much as the clips themselves, that viewers tune in for. You want to see the videos, sure, but you also want to be informed and entertained. There s also a sense of recognition and personality that comes from having a VJ pop up between songs. Take that away and you re left with something that s pretty characterless.
I could be the 1990 s equivalent of the person who said talking films would never catch on, but I don t think we re about to see the end of radio and TV as we know it.
The question that s being asked more and more frequently is, Does MTV follow musical trends, or manufacture them? There certainly seems to be a case to answer in relation to all the rap-metal acts who ve suddenly invaded the American charts.
In other words, are we to blame for Limp Bizkit?, Hansen laughs. First of all, I ve got to say that the way the game s played in America is different. Record companies see a certain type of artist take off, and then go looking for variations on the same theme. That follow-my-leader approach isn t nearly as effective in Europe, which is why we can get behind a band like Death In Vegas who are doing something totally original.
There are always going to be people who think we re part of a big imperialist plot. I hope that if they actually watch MTV they ll see that s not true, but there comes a point when you have to forget about your detractors, and concentrate on your role as a creative entity.
Do we wield too much power? With 36 other music channels in direct competition with us around Europe, I don t think we re powerful enough! Our main problem is the amount of baggage we have to hall around with us, but that ll change as we become more regionalised.
As for the future, Brent Hansen hopes to do a lot more of what you ll see in November. Big ballsy moments which take risks, and challenge people s perceptions of what MTV s about. n