MTV Drops ‘Music Television’ From Logo

In a move that is easily 10 years overdue, MTV has tossed aside the “Music Television” from its logo. They really ought to dispose of the ‘M’ as well, because there is nothing remotely music related going on at the onetime center of the universe for music and television.

The new look was revealed on-air yesterday, featuring the original ‘M’ with the small, graffiti-style ‘TV’ on the right side.

“The people who watch it today, they don’t refer to MTV as music television. They don’t have the same emotional connection that, say, the people who are writing about [the logo change] do,” MTV’s head of marketing Tina Exarhos said.

She is absolutely correct. My youth is directly tied to the birth of MTV, which hit the airwaves in 1981. A certain generation watched in horror as MTV transformed itself from music hub to reality TV whorehouse; seriously, there was a time when MTV was so awesome.

“From a truly design perspective, we didn’t look at losing ‘music television’ for any other reason than from a functionality standpoint,” said Exarhos. “But we realized that it would have an impact if we took that off. I think those who watch MTV today think about it as much broader than music television.

“Music is still at the heart of everything we do, but it’s about a lot more now,” she added. “If MTV didn’t change, we’d be irrelevant.”

The relevant/not relevant issue demands a closer look because this isn’t 1988 and MTV’s relevance, with or without their god-awful programming, is questionable. But they are still here after all these years and should be applauded for fighting through the entertainment changes. Have they destroyed whatever loyalty they had built up from the early days with consumers of a certain age? Yes! But it’s obvious that MTV has long been happy to throw dirt on the past and concentrate on a newer, much younger audience who honestly could care less about a stupid block of music videos.

Let’s at least give MTV execs credit for understanding who they are in the big bad media world. And they are definitely NOT a channel about music.

According to a press release:

“The logo is part of MTV’s re-invention to connect with today’s millennial generation and bring them in as part of the channel.”

Re-invention? If they want to re-invent themselves why not ditch the ‘M’ altogether and use a trashcan logo to symbolize the type of programming they’re going for these days.

What do you think of the new MTV logo? Or do you not care whatsoever?