Is MTV Cool Anymore?

With iPods, MySpace, Friendster and everything shifting to an online format, is MTV really relevant anymore and does it hold any clout when it comes to dictating trends among the teenage population? This is a real question the company will have to come to terms with.

In light of the recent lay-offs at MTV Networks (which owns MTV, VH1 and Nickelodean), it seems very relevant to be asking the above question. Some 250 employees (including some in upper management) were let go as the company begins to focus more on its online projects.

This begs the question of whether MTV will remain as important as it used to be in the 90s when it dictated what was popular mainstream music and also what was valued within the teenage American culture (through reality TV programs such as The Real World).

Now, with the hype of the reality show Laguna Beach settling and The Hills doing only as well as any spinoff can, more teens are finding that their ability to control what is entertainment is up to them more than ever.

Teens can have their own blogs, download their own music, create their own social networking via sites such as MySpace - they certainly don't need a network like MTV dictating or hinting to them what any of that should be.

Plus, even if the company were to go predominantly online, how could it possibly gain the attention of a generation that is not so much influenced by brand anymore as it is by what others just like them are doing when it comes to what catches on as popular? In other words, MTV the brand, used to be popular because it was MTV.

Today, MySpace is popular because individuals can do what they want (generally speaking). The popularity isn't so much what MySpace is producing for people, but what people have the ability to produce for each other on MySpace. In contrast, MTV does not yet have that format and if they were to move online, what format would they possibly take on?

In a lot of ways, what is being seen with MTV mirrors the general state of pop culture. The traditional channels in which popular culture was dictated in the past, are no longer the case or important to people today. The Internet - with all its blogs and networking sites - have made it easier for popular culture to be centered on local, everyday people.