Elton John started a YouTube competition called Elton John: The Cut. He asked fans to create their own music videos for “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Bennie and the Jets.” (And now I have “Rocket Man” stuck in my head.) Elton is part of the panel judging the music videos and assigning the winners. All of this is being done for the 50th anniversary of the start of his collaboration with Bernie Taupin. So, Elton was doing some press around the contest and he sort of let it slip that most of the so-called “MTV Generation” artists were awful. Huh.
In his first public appearance since his health scare in April, Elton John threw some major shade at what he is calling the “MTV generation.” While talking to an audience at the Cannes Film Festival, the “Tiny Dancer” singer was candid with his thoughts on music that came after him.
“We were before the MTV generation, and I’m glad we were because we were real artists,” John said. “The MTV generation brought with it a lot of people who were great, but a lot of people who just made videos. A lot of the artistry went out of the music. We were lucky that we made it before videos.” (He added, though, that “Visuals—whether it is a painting, a drawing, a piece of film, a video – enhance music.”) After knocking Gen-Xers and millennials down a peg, the “Candle in the Wind” singer proceeded to praise the youth for their world-changing potential. “We need the next generation to be good because the world is sh-t at the moment,” he explained. “I just love the energy and the adrenaline of the new kids. That’s the adrenaline we had when we were younger. You can’t buy it. You can’t bottle it. These people have it.”
While I agree with him partially, I don’t necessarily think he’s the best judge? Like, of course there were and there are artists who relied too heavily on music videos rather than actual music. Madonna’s whole deal was that she was a brilliant visual artist… and a mediocre musical talent. But some of the greatest Generation X artists embraced the music video medium and really used it to grow their fanbase. I still remember seeing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time before I went to school one morning. I still remember the controversy around Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy.” I still remember so many of Prince’s videos, and Madonna’s, Guns N Roses, etc. If anything, I think the MTV Generation was more solid than the current state of music, where it’s more like the YouTube Generation – it’s still all about visuals, but now everything is online.
Also: Elton has a habit of championing artists who really aren’t that great in the grand scheme of things. I mean, he’s been ride-or-die for Lady Gaga for years. He’s currently all about Ed Sheeran, for goodness sake. The MTV Generation would have eaten both of those artists alive and then spit them out.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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