120 Minutes

Over the past few days, I've been watching old episodes of MTV's "120 Minutes" on YouTube. By the late '90s, their concept of "alternative music" encompassed post-grunge, the start of nu metal, late Britpop, electronica and American indie rock. It seems really incoherent, much different from the eclecticism of the present. Playing Buckcherry and Robbie Williams in the same 2-hour slot now comes across as rather bizarre; they didn't come from the same culture at all, and neither seems very "alternative." But it's nice to be reminded of oddities like Baz Luhrmann's spoken word hit "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" or the GO soundtrack's dance remix of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride."

My main era of watching it was the Dave Kendall- hosted era, say late 80s to early 90s? Most of the videos stayed within the ‘alternative music’ framework at that point… would’ve been odd to see Robbie Williams or Buck Cherry (tho you certainly saw alt-leaning metal like janes addiction).

I can’t imagine watching an entire episode, except to see those rarely played one-offs.

I’d love to see a compilation of all their Buzz Bin videos. ( or at least a list of them). Lazy me could google it, I suppose!!

Wikipedia has a complete list of Buzz Bin artists (although not the exact songs and videos) here: [en.wikipedia.org].

I have been skipping over music I dislike when I watch these episodes, apart from some of the oddities like the Baz Luhrmann song.

The 1999 episode I watched kicked off with Robbie Williams' "Millennium" and played Buckcherry's "Lit Up" an hour later!

Also, here's an episode programmed by John Peel in 1995: [www.youtube.com].

Happy New Year's Eve and Day, everyone!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2022 01:16PM by steevee.

I don't remember when I quit watching 120 Minutes, but it sounds like it fell prey to the same "If Alternative is what's selling, we're going to call everything Alternative" corporate strategy that smothered commercial Alternative radio in its infancy and saw people like Sugar and Sonic Youth and the Butthole Surfers shoved straight out of the radio format they'd spent a decade fighting to prove the viability of in favor of such cutting-edge titans as Hootie and any artist with Crow in the name.

My wife and I used to enjoy 120 Minutes, although we agreed Lewis L'Argent was a rather annoying veejay. We kept expecting him, at any second, to lose his hard-fought self-control and start dancing up close to the camera, taunting the viewer with, "Nyaaah-nah nee nyaaah-nahh! I know the Ra-mo-o-ones! I know Sonic Youuu-uth! And yooo-uuu dooo-on't! Nyaaah-nah nee nyaaah-nahh!"

I watched 120 Minutes from point zero where they had normal MTV VJs hosting it…awkwardly, through the Dave Kendall era. By the late 80s, 120 Minutes was all of MTV I could stand watching. I would tape it in S-VHS and edit down highlight reels to ßIs. It was chilling seeing what constituted "alternative" programming change dramatically over the six years I bothered with. In 1986 there was still a hint of New Wave in the programming. By 1990 the grunge and proto grunge acts made it feel like sludge metal instead and my attention wavered. Not my thing. I stopped watching some time in 1992 maybe? Within a year I stopped watching any TV at all. I'd have to check my videos [all boxed up] to get an accurate sense of exactly when it ended. I guess with the non-event status of Robbie Williams' career in America, his appearance there was deemed "alternative" since no formats were playing him regularly! That was sort of like the earliest days of the format. They would play anything marginal, no matter the genres.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2023 07:51AM by Post-Punk Monk.

Half the videos got taken out for copyright reasons, but this episode of 120 MINUTES (apparently, the UK or Australian version) hosted by Nick Cave might be the only time the Beasts of Bourbon and Barry Adamson got MTV play. The complete playlist looks amazing.

I was a pretty regular viewer of the show from 1986-1990, some really good stuff aired during that time. I could not believe my eyes when a Felt video came on with Liz from Cocteau Twins, it was surreal as those bands were just mythical to me at the time. I had numerous Felt and CT albums that were from the import bin, I had only seen them maybe in an alt mag. I also vividly remember seeing a Loop video and thinking what the hell is this, I must have that. But yes thank goodness for VHS so you could fast forward through the crud. And don't hate on me - I rather like Millennium! Ha.