There Is Nothing Headbanging About This Ball

Dear MTV,

Oh, how I thought you gave up the facade of playing videos the moment Spencer Pratt debuted his creepy flesh -colored beard or relegated your rejected remnants and skeletons to MTV2. This is what I thought until I stumbled across the decayed shell of what they consider to be Headbanger's Ball. MTV, like Hollywood, you continue to urinate all over our childhood dreams and loves. Shame on you.

Throughout the faceless hour of generic "metal," "hard rock" and "hardcore," only three videos were actually worthy of appearance on the Ball. Those three videos belonged to Slayer, Disturbed and Metallica (granted, it was "St. Anger" but it is still Metallica). The rest of the videos aired fit the faceless look of the current Headbangers Ball with a bunch of annoying, whiny punks trying to scream at the top of their lungs and jump around aimlessly while swinging their guitars around their necks and showing off their tattoos. This is not heavy, nor is it metal. It is, however, extremely disposable pop music with loud guitars and screeching.

Do not get me wrong as I am all for the continuation and advancement of the heavy music scene as there are a lot of impressive heavy bands out there (check out Baroness' Blue Record for a prime example of this).  Instead, MTV you are pandering to the lowest form of entertainment by playing this faceless rock especially if you are choosing to lump it with the Headbangers Ball tag. There is no way that Riki Rachtman, Jamey Jasta and, hell, Adam Curry would have ever played any of this and neither should you.

I understand that this faceless rock fits the current faceless and aimless direction that MTV has been leaning toward for the last five years or so but do not drag Headbangers Ball down with it. It would be like bring back 120 Minutes (now the current name for The Alternative on VH1 Classic) and playing faceless corporate alternative rock or OneRepublic. Just retire the name and leave it in the past where people had good memories of it and do insist on further ruining it. If you must continue this charade, at least change the name. To you, Headbangers Ball is just a brand to continue no matter what. To the rest of us who appreciated it, it was an awesome Saturday night filled with two hours of great music and great interviews with people who genuinely cared for the music they played. It never too late to stop and I hope that you will soon before some stereotype jackass known as The Situation becomes the host.

Sincerely,
Hightower and Jones.