Mtv Opening Up Its Programming To Broader Range Of Musical Styles

Trawling the waters for the next “big thing” in pop music, MTV is altering its course and the impact on U.S. record-buying habits could be immense.

Sensing a restlessness among its legion of young music fans, the hugely influential cable channel is adopting a new programming strategy that will welcome previously excluded musical styles to its playlist while de-emphasizing some sounds that have been MTV trademarks in the ‘90s.

Among the wide range of acts that stand to profit through greater exposure on the pop forum: cutting-edge techno and dance outfits such as the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers, and even mainstream acts such as Celine Dion and Merril Bainbridge.

The potential big losers: alternative rock and hip-hop, including hard-core rap.

“We’re just trying to say, ‘If you’re interested in music and you’re living right now, there are a lot of different things out there,”’ says MTV President Judy McGrath. “What we’ve found in our research is that people like the good stuff and the interesting stuff from a lot of different genres.”

McGrath believes it’s “alarmist” to say that MTV’s shift signals the beginning of the end for alternative rock and hip-hop, the dominant pop forces of the ‘90s. Still, she adds, pop has reached a crossroads.

“It’s one of those interesting moments in music when there’s not a clear direction for everybody to go in,” McGrath says. “A lot of things are kind of bubbling around, and we think it’s our opportunity and obligation to expose some of that and see if anything really captures the imagination of the viewers out there.”

The move comes at a time when many in the record industry are puzzled by the decreasing sales of several recent albums by best-selling alternative rock groups.

Andy Schuon, MTV’s executive vice president of programming, says the channel had become too structured in the past few years as the popularity of its two most prominent clip-based specialty shows, “Alternative Nation” and “MTV Jams,” colored MTV’s almost every move.

“If you were an artist that didn’t fit comfortably in those categories, it was more difficult for you to get the type of exposure on MTV necessary to come to the forefront of popular music,” says Schuon, a former program director at Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM.

“Our shift allows us, while we wait for the next big thing, to widen our net to be able to catch more things as we look ahead to ‘97 as a time of exploration in music.”

Among the new, music-based shows that will be introduced this month: “Amp,” which will showcase ambient and electronic music; “Enter the Mosh Pit,” which will feature harder-edged modern rock; “Indie 500,” a weekly roundup of independent and import music; “Phat Ass,” a daily hip-hop lifestyle program; and “Popular Videos People Prefer,” which will focus on mainstream pop. At the same time, air time for “Alternative Nation,” which specializes in modern rock, and “MTV Jams,” an urban music showcase, will be cut in half.