MTV2

MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to basic cable lineups across the nation. It is also broadcast over-the-air in some markets where the former all-request music channel known as The Box was broadcast.

Launched on August 1, 1996, the original purpose of the channel was to give music fans a place to see constant, commercial-free music videos, once the original MTV had started concentrating on reality television and soap operas. Today, MTV2 airs a selection of music videos, other music-related specials, and non-music shows focused on youth culture and pop culture.

A European counterpart broadcasts from London in the United Kingdom. The Canadian version of MTV2 was replaced by PunchMuch in June 2005, while the German version was replaced by Nickelodeon in September 2005.

The beginning of M2

MTV2 (originally known as just M2 until 2000) began broadcasting on August 1, 1996 — MTV's fifteenth anniversary — with Beck's "Where It's At" being the first video to air. M2 was created to show more alternative types of music and older music videos than regular MTV did in 1996. However, this did not mean that M2 never played anything current or mainstream. It prided itself on being a diverse mix of all types of music.

The only problem was that M2 had very limited availability for its first couple of years, during a time when digital and satellite television were not at all mainstream. M2's biggest group of subscribers for the first year or so were college campuses that provided their students with satellite television. M2 also broadcast live over the Internet during its early years, but was similarly ahead of its time, in a period when few people had broadband Internet connections.

Original VJs and shows

During the early years of the channel, the music videos ran on 8-hour rotations, so that the same block of videos repeated three times every day: from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and finally from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.. A new block would then start again at 6 a.m.. During these years, M2 only had two VJs, Jancee Dunn and Matt Pinfield. They were rarely seen on screen and they hand-picked all the music videos that were played for the eight hours every day. Pinfield eventually left to continue hosting shows on MTV, while Dunn remained at the channel through 2001.

M2 was almost always just a random blend of music, though occasional themed specials were aired. One of the first ones was the Smashing Pumpkins Videography, in which all of the band's videos were played in chronological order. M2 would often invite musicians to hand pick blocks of videos or air hour-long blocks (which would eventually be known as Artist Collections) of videos by one band or musician.

A-Z video marathon

Starting on January 1, 2000, in honor of the millennium, the newly renamed MTV2 attempted to play every music video in the MTV library in alphabetical order. While a majority of videos were played, many were skipped over. The special ended in mid-April 2000. Partially through the special, MTV2 changed its scheduling from three 8-hour blocks a day to two 12-hour blocks a day, so that it would finish sooner and so the channel would be able to return to airing new videos again.

MTV2's first relaunch

In late 2000, Viacom, MTV and MTV2's parent company, bought out the independent, viewer-requested "jukebox" music video channel known as The Box. Starting on January 1, 2001, all households that had received The Box began to receive MTV2 in its place, putting the channel into millions of additional households.

As part of the January 1, 2001 relaunch of the channel, MTV2 started to show commercials and began to separate the types of videos it played by genre. Hip-hop and soul music (hosted by a new VJ, Steph Lova) was played for an hour every weekday at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.. Rock music played every weekday at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. (hosted by another new VJ and former K-ROQ radio DJ, Chris Booker).

A new show hosted by Jancee Dunn called MTV2 Request aired every weekday between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. and again between 11 p.m. and midnight. All of the videos played on MTV2 Request were selected by online viewer requests. Another new show called Control Freak began in 2001, airing weekdays from 8 to 9 p.m.. It used real-time viewer voting to select the next video to be played on the channel (out of three choices), while the current video was playing. The majority of the daytime schedule still featured a somewhat diverse mix of rap, rock, and pop, and new and old videos.

Next set of VJs and shows

In late 2001, MTV2 held auditions for new VJs. Steph Lova, Jancee Dunn, and Chris Booker all disappeared. They were replaced with Jim Shearer (who would go on to become the main VJ in the heavily genre-segregated MTV2), Abby Gennet (who began to host MTV2 Rock, which was now being played between 3 and 5 p.m. every weekday afternoon), Quddus (a regular MTV VJ, who would host MTV2 Soul, which would air between 9 and 11 a.m. every weekday), and La La & DJ Clue (both of whom would host MTV2 Hip-Hop, which was played between 10 p.m. and midnight every weeknight).

During the week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve of 2001, MTV2 claimed to play every video that had debuted on the channel during the entire year of 2001, Monday through Saturday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. each day, alphabetically by video title. As had happened with the marathon of all music videos in 2000, several videos were skipped over as a result of unfortunate scheduling and an overemphasis on fitting in commercials.

With the start of 2002, MTV2's block of techno and dance music, AMP, which had aired Sunday nights between 10 p.m. and midnight, was replaced by a show called MTV2 Dance. This became a three-hour block of dance and techno, which featured some more obscure music by little-known techno DJ's, but also incorporated the videos for mainstream, popular dance songs, by artists such as Amber and Kylie Minogue. The show also was known for playing dance remixes of pop videos, such as the Hex Hector Remix of Jennifer López' "Waiting For Tonight," the Metro Remix of Enrique Iglesias' "Hero," and the Thunderpuss Remix of Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right, But It's OK." MTV2 Dance originally aired every Sunday morning between 1 and 4 a.m..

Around this time, 120 Minutes, a long-running show which featured exclusively independent and groundbreaking musicians who were typically never heard on mainstream radio in America, was moved from its weekly timeslot of Sunday nights between 8 and 10 p.m. to Sunday nights between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.. Jim Shearer also took over hosting duty from Jancee Dunn.

In spring of 2002, MTV2 altered its format once again. New shows such as Chart2Chart (hosted by Jim Shearer), which aired the most popular videos from the pop, rap, rock, and dance, singles and albums charts, began. Spankin' New was a show that featured the newest videos of the week, and Extreme Rock began to air late nights on weekdays, showcasing hard rock and metal music, such as Godsmack, Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Guns N' Roses. Riffs & Rhymes appeared on the daily weekday schedule between 5 and 6 p.m., and it featured videos and bands that combined the sounds of rock and rap music, such as The Roots, Linkin Park, P.O.D., and Limp Bizkit. Chris Booker, after only a brief absence from the channel, was brought back in order to host the show. Riffs & Rhymes only lasted until the summer of 2002, but Extreme Rock, Spankin' New, and Chart2Chart remained through the end of 2003.

Special programming

In March 2002, MTV2 created a special program to complement MTV News's documentary on the 20 most controversial music videos ever made. The two-hour documentary on MTV was rated TV-14 and hosted by MTV News reporters Iann Robinson and SuChin Pak. MTV2 aired the selected videos in full, many of which were previously banned from MTV, in a three-hour late-night special, rated TV-MA and hosted by Andrew W.K.. In addition to playing the top 20 videos that were discussed on MTV's special, which included The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up," Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," Eminem's "Stan," and Madonna's "Justify My Love," MTV2 played Björk's "Pagan Poetry," Metallica's "Turn The Page," Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker," The Cardigans' "My Favorite Game," and U.N.K.L.E.'s "Rabbit In Your Headlight" as bonus controversial videos.

During the Memorial Day weekend of 2002, MTV2 played a special called Increase The Beat. Over 400 music videos were represented, ranging from pop stars like Pink, Jennifer López, Destiny's Child, and Brandy, hip-hoppers like P. Diddy, Ja Rule, Dr. Dre, Usher, Missy Elliott, and DMX, techno and dance acts, such as Cher, Whitney Houston, Chemical Brothers, and IIO, to punk bands, such as No Doubt, The Ramones, Blondie, and The Offspring, to classic videos by some of MTV's biggest stars, such as Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael and Janet Jackson, Prince, and Madonna, to new videos by then-unknown musicians like Norah Jones and Nappy Roots. The videos were arranged in order from slowest to fastest, based on the number of beats per minute of the song. The slowest video played was Maxwell's "This Woman's Work," which was 55 BPM, while the fastest, Nine Inch Nails' "March Of The Pigs" was 255 BPM. Increase The Beat aired all day Saturday and Sunday. On Memorial Day itself, the MTV2 VJ's and employees broadcast live from a barbeque in New York City, and grouped videos into categories, one for each letter of the alphabet.

MTV2's next major special programming came during the Fourth of July weekend in 2002. For the entire four-day extended holiday weekend, MTV2 aired a special called Box Set Weekend. The channel played an artist's Artist Collection (by this time, there were around 100 episodes of Artist Collection), and then followed it by other MTV programming that featured the artist, such as Making The Video, Ultrasound, and/or a live performance, depending on what was available in the MTV archives. Although it was not the first time that MTV2 played programming other than music videos, Box Set Weekend then had the highest concentration of non-video programming on the channel.

Prior to that weekend, non-video programming and specials were few and far between, and were never longer than 30 minutes at a time. Box Set Weekend began the trend for MTV2 to play fewer music videos and more archived MTV specials, which may have annoyed and alienated some of MTV2's original viewers who had initially tuned in just to see the videos, without having to sit through documentaries and interviews which could already be seen on MTV and VH1. However, it was said that MTV2's ratings increased as a result of their incorporation of documentaries, interviews, and behind-the-scenes specials along with music videos.

On August 24, 2002, MTV2 aired an 18 hour long special called VMA Winners, which aired the most memorable winning videos from the entire history of MTV's Video Music Awards, in anticipation of the award show on August 29, 2002. Each hour was dedicated to a certain year of the awards, beginning at 6 a.m. ET with 1984 and ending at the 11 p.m. ET hour with 2001. Approximately nine videos were shown per hour from each year. MTV2 VJs Jim Shearer and Abby Gennet hosted the special, contributing three segments per hour. Either Shearer or Gennet hosted the first two segments per hour, then they joined each other for the third segment, in order to switch off hosting duties for the next hour. By the end of the special, the music videos for more than 160 past VMA winners were shown. MTV2 aired similar specials in 2003 and 2004, hosted solely by Jim Shearer and incorporating the additional years of VMA winners.

Experimental programming

Also in the summer of 2002, MTV2 experimented with MTV2 Dance's timeslot, airing the block twice a week: in its usual early Sunday morning slot between 1 and 4 a.m., but also early Saturday morning between midnight and 3 a.m.. This only lasted for a couple of weeks, however, and by the fall of 2002 MTV2 Dance was cancelled entirely.

In the fall of 2002, amid complaints that the channel was slowly following the same path that regular MTV had taken, away from music videos—especially older and rarer ones—MTV2 debuted a new weekly show called The Definitive. Its purpose was to showcase videos, many of which might not have otherwise still been played on MTV2, in themed blocks. It began airing on Sunday nights between 10 and 11 p.m., and showcased an hour of videos grouped by a different theme every week. Its first episode played all animated music videos such as "Californication" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and "Do The Evolution" by Pearl Jam. Since then, the show had nearly 50 episodes. Some of the final themes were videos featuring Snoop Dogg, videos featuring motorcycles, and videos by musicians who have famous fathers, in honor of Fathers' Day 2003.

Also in the fall of 2002, MTV2 aired 24 Hours of Love, a live special hosted by Courtney Love. For the special, Love took control of MTV2's airwaves for 24 hours, playing a selection of videos that she wanted to see, taking calls from viewers, and inviting special guests into the studio. The event was regarded by some viewers as innovative, unusual, and indicative of MTV2's continued ability to go beyond normal expectations for its programming.

Near the end of the year, MTV2 also began to play Retro Videos weekdays between 7 and 8 a.m.. This evolved into a show that was later called Back In Play, which also aired between 2 and 3 p.m., and with each of the two hours being a completely different block of older videos that were not currently on MTV or MTV2's playlist. In December of 2002, MTV2 once again tried to air every video that debuted on the channel in 2002. As happened in the past, several videos were not actually played.

Major format evolution

Through the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003, MTV2 phased out the format of exclusively music videos, instead adopting a new slogan, "Where the music's at," and featuring other music-related shows instead of 24/7 videos. Past MTV Icon specials, news documentaries, and countdowns were all as likely to be shown on MTV2 as videos. However, MTV2 still continued to show innovative and up-and-coming musicians and videos, as well as mainstream videos.

New rock/hip-hop shows

MTV2's 2003 schedule included some changes from 2002. Jesse Snider, son of Twisted Sister's Dee Snider was selected as the host of MTV2 Rock, replacing Abby Gennet. In addition, MTV2 Rock was reduced to one hour per day, and hip-hop related programming was expanded to 5 hours per day. Much of the daily schedule was occupied by other music-related specials and documentaries, with random-rotation music videos occupying only the late-night hours.

In April 2003, MTV2 aired Madonna Weekend, a special that commemorated Madonna's new album at the time, American Life. The network showed classic MTV specials and interviews featuring Madonna, as well as a four-hour collection of Madonna videos called Madonna A-Z. The weekend ended on Sunday, April 20, with the premiere of The Definitive: Madonna. It was the first episode of The Definitive to be 2 hours, and it was completely determined by online viewer voting at MTV2.com. Madonna's controversial "Erotica" video was voted into the number one spot. Although MTV originally banned the video from its airwaves, MTV2 played the video uncensored and in its entirety. Some viewers thought MTV2's decision to air the video demonstrated that the network still had an alternative and risque edge.

In May 2003, the long-running alternative music show 120 Minutes, which started on MTV in 1986 and moved to MTV2 at the end of 2000, came to an end with a final episode, featuring host Jim Shearer interviewing former hosts Matt Pinfield and Dave Kendall. After the final episode, the series was renamed to Subterranean and given a shorter 60-minute format. The series also moved from Sunday to Friday nights.

Also in May 2003, MTV2 resurrected the old MTV show Headbangers Ball, which featured a wide array of heavy metal and hard rock music videos. Metallica hosted the first episode, followed by Rob Zombie for the next few weeks. Jamey Jasta from the band Hatebreed was then selected as host of the show, though touring responsibilities prevented Jasta from hosting on several occasions. The show was preceded on Saturdays by MTV2 Rock Countdown with Jesse Snider and other rock-related music specials and documentaries.

In June 2003, MTV2 began an 8-hour block of hip-hop programming on Sundays called Sucker Free Sunday. Each week, a different guest host served up Artist Collections, countdowns, and other hip-hop music specials.

Show cancellations

During the fall of 2003 and the beginning of 2004, MTV2 once again updated its schedule to include more genre-separated blocks and less variety. The popular show Control Freak, which allowed viewers to vote for the next video they wanted to see, was cancelled from its daily 2-hour time slot from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and moved to one half-hour seen only on Tuesday. Other daily shows like Back in Play and Latest & Greatest, which featured a mix of new and old videos, were also cancelled.

As part of this transition, MTV2 Rock was moved to a half-hour at 8 p.m., followed by a daily half-hour version of Headbangers Ball. MTV2's daily Hip-Hop Show was expanded further, airing the newest hip-hop hits every day from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., with the same videos played again from 10 p.m. to midnight. A new show called Greatest Hits replaced Artist Collections, so MTV2 could play only the particular artist's best videos instead of every video that they ever made. The arrival of the new Greatest Hits show meant MTV2's popular The Definitive was cancelled as well. Around this time, MTV2's daytime schedule halted regular music video rotation. As a result, music-related specials and documentaries were scheduled for daytime on MTV2.

In the spring of 2004, MTV2 ended its contract with Jesse Snider. Jim Shearer remained with the channel and also picked up hosting duties for all rock shows previously hosted by Jesse. Jamey Jasta remained the host of Headbangers Ball. Around this time, MTV2 also welcomed Amanda Diva as its new hip-hop VJ.

End of freeform format

In the summer of 2004, MTV2's daily schedule became almost completely occupied by repeats of MTV's documentaries, reality shows, and even some classics such as Beavis and Butt-head. Only some music video programming remained, including a daily MTV2 Hip-Hop hour at 6 p.m. and an MTV2 Rock hour at 8 p.m..

At this time, MTV2's freeform music video format, which featured a diverse mix of new and old videos from all genres since the channel's beginning, completely ended. Even during MTV2's late night Music Videos rotation (4 a.m. to 7 a.m.), a programmed playlist determined the videos that were to be played. As 2004 came to a close, MTV2 made very little changes to its programming, with non-music shows and documentaries continuing to occupy most of the daily schedule.

MTV2's second relaunch

During the halftime of Super Bowl XXXIX on February 6, 2005, both MTV and MTV2 aired a 15-minute preview of MTV2's second relaunch, which took place at midnight on February 7, 2005. The purpose of this relaunch was to create a unique brand identity for MTV2, targeting 12-34 year old male viewers and separating the channel from being perceived as simply an MTV spin-off.

The two-headed dog

The relaunch of the channel also brought the introduction of a completely new logo: a two-headed dog. The previous boxes logo and MTV's famous block logo were eliminated from the new MTV2 logo, implying that the new channel would be nothing like the current MTV. Billboard Radio Monitor reported that the two heads of the dog were made to represent rock and hip-hop, the two sides of music on MTV2. ^*

Also as part of the relaunch, MTV2 added "sharts" (nonsensical video clips from old B-movies, as well as short clips collected from the Internet and others created in-house) between normal video rotation, commercial breaks, and at the top of each hour. These clips began to serve as station IDs for the new MTV2 and were most likely intended to present a random, "anything goes" attitude for the channel. Although Viacom, MTV2's parent company, denied any influence from competing music video channel Fuse, the attitude and identity associated with Fuse most likely played a part in the decision to relaunch MTV2 and add these random clips.

All original shows that were made after the relaunch were given new opening themes with "sharts" as well. Throughout each opening sequence, pieces of broken bars appear all around the screen and eventually, at the end of the random video clip, form into a bar in the center that reads the name of the show.

The channel also introduced a new way to credit videos. At the beginning and end of each video, three colored bars would appear in the middle of the screen which display the video's information, rather than the traditional MTV style of white letters in the lower left corner. Also during each show, MTV2's two-headed dog logo would change colors, and a bar would appear in the middle of the screen to inform the viewer of what program is being shown. During regular music video rotation, random comments such as "Stop thinking about your hair" would appear. The new video credits and show information bars were met with mixed reviews from viewers.

Post-relaunch shows

MTV2's VJs remained the same after the relaunch, and there were only a few programming changes. Each day's schedule remained mostly full of music documentary shows and other non-music shows. The daily MTV2 Rock hour at 8 p.m. was eliminated, replaced with additional hip-hop shows. Each of MTV2's regular music shows also received new opening themes and transitions. Another programming change was the return of MTV2 Premiere, which aired a brand new music video at the top of every hour on Thursdays in 2001 and 2002. The new MTV2 Premiere was named Unleashed and began taking place on Tuesdays.

Some new non-music video shows were also added to the schedule. On March 11, 2005, MTV2 premiered a block of shows called Sic 'Em Friday, at the time featuring Wildboyz, which was previously aired on MTV but moved to MTV2, as well as brand new series Team Sanchez and Wonder Showzen, and repeats of The Andy Milonakis Show that originally aired on MTV during its first season.

Despite all of the hype surrounding the relaunch, not much else about MTV2 changed. The original purpose of the channel, which was to be a continuous mix of music videos, was already long gone. As a result of the programming changes that were building up since 2002 and the relaunch in February 2005, MTV2 became totally unrecognizable from its 1996 debut.

Special live broadcast

On June 11 and 12, 2005, MTV2 aired 24 Hours of Foo, a live special hosted by the rock band Foo Fighters, which was very similar in concept to 24 Hours of Love, a live special hosted by Courtney Love that the channel aired in 2002. Beginning at noon ET on Saturday, June 11, the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, and Chris Shiflett took over the MTV2 airwaves for an entire day to host a selection of music videos and live events.

The highlight of the broadcast was a one-hour, full-band live performance from the Foo Fighters, which took place at midnight. Earlier that evening, the Foo Fighters played a 30-minute acoustic Unplugged performance. A live episode of Headbangers Ball was also part of the broadcast that night, hosted by Dave Grohl as he interviewed special guests SuicideGirls.

The 24-hour live broadcast also included other special events, including a drum circle in Times Square, science experiments with Cockeyed.com's Rob Cockerham, an on-air wedding, a trivia game featuring comedian David Cross, and other appearances from MTV personalities and friends, including MTV News reporter Gideon Yago, comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo, Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen, and comedian Robert Smigel as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

MTV2 VJ Jim Shearer was master of ceremonies for the event, launching the broadcast and staying with the Foo Fighters all 24 hours until the end of the show. To some viewers, 24 Hours of Foo was a sign of life for MTV2, demonstrating that the network could still put together and air an unusually spectacular live special. Since 24 Hours of Foo, there have been no other large-scale live broadcasts on MTV2.

Current trends

As 2006 began, most of MTV2's programming continued moving with the general trend that had already started years earlier. Despite the removal of MTV's famous block logo from MTV2's logo in 2005, the channel increased its ties to MTV, airing a broader selection of repeats of other MTV shows that fit in with the "outrageous" theme, as well as some others with no certain theme.

The channel's focus on non-music video programming continued, with most promotion centered around its Sic 'Em Friday block of "outrageous" shows, consisting of Wildboyz and Team Sanchez in a season beginning January 6, 2006, as well as The Andy Milonakis Show and Wonder Showzen in a season beginning March 31, 2006.

On June 10, 2006, the network premiered a related block of animated shows called Sic'emation, featuring new episodes of Celebrity Deathmatch, two new animated series (Where My Dogs At? and The Adventures of Chico and Guapo), as well as repeats of the classic MTV series Beavis and Butt-head, various Nickelodeon series (The Ren and Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Invader Zim), and NickToons Network series Kappa Mikey.

While music is still played on MTV2, the other programming on the network is given more airtime and promotion. In order to find music video programming to watch, viewers must know the schedule and check weekly listings. MTV2 does not promote most of its music video shows, and it does not directly inform viewers about the times in which music videos will be aired.

The music video programming that still airs on MTV2 remained stagnant in 2006. Each weekday, hour-long video countdowns of hits (Elite 8), hip-hop (Sucker Free), and rock (T-Minus Rock) air at various times. The Unleashed video premiere was moved to Mondays. At the end of each week, an hour-long rock countdown and two-hour hip-hop countdown are aired, along with Sucker Free Sunday, Headbangers Ball, and Subterranean, which have remained in the same time slots since their debuts in 2003. The network also continues to air blocks of videos known simply as Music Videos, featuring a pre-determined playlist of predominantly current videos, during the overnight and early morning hours, usually between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET.

Without a flagship show or any specific direction, MTV2 is currently a mixture of music video programming and non-music programming aimed at the 12-34 year old male audience. From its current programming trends, it appears that MTV2 will remain with its current format for the foreseeable future.

External links

MTV Networks | Music video networks | 1996 establishments

MTV2 | MTV2

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