Ah the heady days of early MTV Europe. Didn't seem that special then, just a bunch of people goofing off, lots of varied music for all tastes, some US shows crossovers. All in all a great mix of music and entertainment.
But somewhere in the tail end of the 90's things changed, reality shows took a bite out of music and it wasn't until other musical channels appeared that I noticed that MTV wasn't about music anymore. At least not about variety anymore. It became one 24-hour wall-to-wall ad for whatever star is high up in the charts. You could make it a drinking game, switch on MTV and have one whenever three clips of Gwen Stefani were shown in a row.
When they had the anniversary program it became blatantly clear that the anarchy and vibe of the early days had given way to careful marketing, faceless VJ's which could have been cardboard cutouts picked only because they are young and beautiful. All those early, now legendary VJ's like Simone Angel, Kristiane Becker, Ray Cokes or Marcel Vanthilt wouldn't even get past the pre-selections.