The Pop Corporation

When we launched THEPOPCORPS, we fully intended to make no money. That was 100% the business model. No sponsorships, no kind editorials in exchange for goods and services from PR companies and record labels. No free tickets. No free albums. You’re more likely to give an honest review when you’re using your own money and time, right?

While our business model is either naive, pious, or just plain stupid is a moot point really, as we’re seeing time and time again how difficult it is to write about music professionally in the current climate. Hence why we’ve decided to be more akin to a ‘zine, or the brain dribbles of an enthusiastic amateur.

We’ve seen The Quietus going around with their cap in their hand trying to pay for their website redesign, we’ve seen GQ meddling with Pitchfork, and now, Paramount have just decided to delete decades of music journalism as they unceremoniously shuttered their MTV News website.

There’s no archive, no nuthin’ – all that reporting and writing has become little more than freeing up some space on some servers.

If you visit MTV.com/news now, you just get redirected to the MTV home page where, instead of cool music junk, you now get asked to look at Teen Mom stuff, Drag Race and other format shows. Obviously, someone has come up with a metric to work out what is most financially viable for MTV, and it’s these binge shows, but indeed, how the mighty have fallen and all that.

MTV News kicked off in ’87, with a weekly show fronted by the legendary Kurt Loder. Over time, it would appear daily and during the ’90s, Loder was the authoritative voice for what was going on in the music world. Loder’s handling of the sudden death of Kurt Cobain was the making of the man, guiding young fans through one of their first real tragedies.

Of course, MTV shifting to format television (stop calling it ‘reality’ TV, because it’s isn’t ‘reality’) isn’t news to anyone, and in the early 2000s, shows like Catfish and Jersey Shore saw music taking a backseat, and now, relegated to a memory.

However, the news continued online, but again, following the trends rather than leading it, MTV News pivoted in 2016 toward something more like Buzzfeed – that rebrand was very much the beginning of the end.

Now, all staff have seen their contracts terminated and all archives have vanished.

Former MTV staffers took to social media regarding the news, and the deletion of these culturally valuable archives.

“So, mtvnews.com no longer exists. Eight years of my life are gone without a trace,” said Patrick Hosken, former music editor for MTV News, on Twitter. “All because it didn’t fit some executives’ bottom lines. Infuriating is too small a word.”