MTV needs to finally get off the air. When the music video broadcaster began airing five decades ago, some of the pushback it got was that it didn't offer enough diversity in the videos it showed. Most of the musical artists were white and rock.
That approach was wrong, of course. Great music can come from anyone, no matter color, creed, origin, or any other walk of life, but the issue now is that MTV has gone too far the other way. If you want rock & roll, you don't want your MTV.
If anyone needed further proof of the broadcaster's stance on rock, one need look no further than the recently announced 2026 Video Music Awards nominations. Not only is a rock artist not involved in any of the "major" categories, such as Video of the Year or Artist of the Year, but there is no singular category to honor the genre.
MTV leaves rock music out completely in 2026 award nominations
Instead, MTV only offers a Best Alternative category. Alternative to what exactly? Pop? Because it can't be rock music, as the alternative would be such for an award that doesn't exist.
Among those artists involved in the Alternative category is Olivia Rodrigo. No offense to Rodrigo, who is a fine artist and one who likely will deserve a mass audience many years into the future, but she is the exact opposite of the category she represents. She is far too popular and sells too many albums and singles to be anything but mainstream.
That doesn't mean that she creates bad music, of course. She doesn't, but what she makes isn't alternative rock. It is more like pop rock.
Otherwise, MTV nominated a slew of indie rock or indie folk artists, including Noah Kahan, Geese, sombr, and Tame Impala. All have made excellent work at times, but MTV appears to be going out of its way to show how "cool" it is without honoring one of the best genres of music.
Alternative rock is a subgenre of rock, but it can't be a subgenre if there is no greater genre, so, in other words, MTV accidentally made Best Rock into Best Alternative. But that waters down everything involved in both.
The clear intent is an attempt to be vibrant and new, but without involving rock, the network is just sadly straining to be one of the cool kids without knowing what value all genres of music hold. Of course, after diminishing returns from MTV over the past 50-plus years, what else does anyone really expect?
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