There Will Come Soft Rains

A Gathering of the Tribes

Thursday, July 30, 2009

MTV Nostalgia

With the free fall of MTV from a highly culturally relevant T.V. station to a constant freak show almost complete...it may be time to honor one of the stations most significant series. Up until its last few seasons, MTV Unplugged at its worst provided memorable television moments and at its best delivered some classic musical performances, often showing us a new side of familiar artists.

Nirvana, Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Alice in Chains, Dylan, Springsteen, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs, Pearl Jam, and Jay-Z are just some of the artists who absolutely killed it in an unfamiliar environment for many of them. I would argue that for many of them, it brought out some of their best live performances. A great example of that is this performance of Plush, by Stone Temple Pilots. Scott Weiland's voice sounds superb and I love the addition of the bongos. Weiland kinda went off the deep end not too long after this but while he was (relatively) sober, they put out some great rock music.

I am somewhat torn regarding the current state of MTV Unplugged. It is now online at MTV.com and the last few seasons have been highly unimpressive. But I really can't decide if it is because of the recent artists selected to perform or whether popular music today is just that shitty. I mean, Ricky Martin, Paramore, Katy Perry, All Time Low......seriously?
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