Here’s a surprise: Instead of celebrating its 20th anniversary by repackaging, say, the contrived spontaneity of The Real World or the “Party down, dude!” vapidity of Spring Break, MTV is marking this milestone with a boxed set of music videos–the channel’s raison d’être in the first place, of course, but pretty much an afterthought in recent years. And an impressive undertaking it is, with more than 50 selections spread out over four DVDs. They’re arranged chronologically on their respective discs, which are divided by category: “Rock” (with 16 videos ranging from Robert Palmer to Godsmack, it may be the most interesting of the lot), “Pop” (the most fun disc, with 15 largely trivial but irresistible tracks by Tears [Read More...]
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Whether or not you should buy this is really determined by your gut reaction to the concept. If the thought of owning some of your favorite videos from years past puts a smile on your face, go buy this immediately. If you hem and haw, or are unsure, pass it up. Unless you can think of a few videos on each disc that you would love to own, you are probably better off just buying your favorite disc, as the bonus DVD is rather sparse.
The videos in general are in great quality (the more recent ones look pristine), and the sound quality is fine. The little video interviews are completely forgettable however, and the ‘bonus’ disc really could have used some more fleshing out.
DVD is really the ideal medium for video retrospectives like this because you can skip past the ones you don’t like in the blink of an eye. My one beef with the set is that you are left wondering why they didn’t fill these discs up a bit more. DVDs can certainly fit more than 15 or so videos per disc, and it gets you to thinking about what deserving bands got snubbed by this retrospective.
ok , well when i first got this collection i was a little bit disapointed. i thought there would be more videos that really had a impact on mtv and its audience. i mean they didnt have the bugles , the didnt have micheal jackson or guns n roses or anyone else that really had some good videos for mtv but overall the collection was good and it grows on you. the pop disk is about 4 stars, with some classic new wave hits and works it way up to modern hits for mtv. the rock disk is about 3 or 4 stars, it was missing some really good videos they couldve put in there but was still pretty good. i mean they have cake and monster magnet and the cult and soundgarden on that disk. and the 3rd disk is jams, which chronicled the old school rap videos till today. and the 4rth disk is beats , which has more electronica music on it but only 5 or 6 videos. it has stuff like moby and chemical brothers. all the disks are about 4 stars and they have the old school commercials and pop up facts from mtv on it also and band statistics and bios.i would recomend this collection to anyone cause it basically covers it all almost and is good if you are looking to collect some good videos. the picture is excellent but the sound is ok. on the dvd player it sounds good but in the computer the sound is bad. but if you really like collecting videos get this.
I think this is a fairly low price for the number of videos you get. My feelings about the selection of videos are mixed. There are plenty of songs/videos I like here; there are also plenty that have the power to make me change the station when they come on. The really nice surprise, though, was the Jungle Brothers video. My husband, my brother and I weren’t familiar with the song, but we loved the video–it was vastly entertaining.
I think most people can find things they like about this collection and things they don’t like; I also think we can all agree that getting four decent DVDs for approximately the price of one or two is a pretty good deal.