One of the few classic shows in MTV's storied past of tv show creation was 120 Minutes. A veritable who's who of the alternative world of the 1990's, 120 Minutes not only made Sunday night less of a drag, but also turned the alternative nation on to cool new bands (not to mention it was followed by the ultra-cool Liquid Television, an animated and artistically adventurous precursor to Adult Swim).
It's hard to imagine in today's world of all access to all kinds of music of all kinds, given the internet, but back then 120 minutes was a good way to check in on up and coming bands in a media landscape that really only supported the biggest of big acts. The only other way to find good alt bands was college radio, CMJ or word of mouth. Alternative emerged because it was an alternative to the dominant mainstream, something emerging from the post-punk world and was something we uncovered one piece at a time. We never had a show on a major TV network that connected the dots like that before.
So now, MTV is bringin' that beat back ... 120 Minutes officially re-debuts on Saturday, July 30th with the title 120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield. Check out teh preview above and hope for the best. It'll be interesting to see how the show plays out now that we can find any music we want in the internet-based modern world.
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