MTV Cleans Out The Vaults With New Music Video Website

Perhaps looking to actually make use of all those music videos that are just sitting in their vault, MTV has launched a new Website, dubbed MTV Music. Thankfully, MTV didn't stop short after uploading the TRL fare, as iconic and vintage videos — some even predating MTV itself — are ready for streaming. It's kind of like a higher quality YouTube, but without those annoying pop-up bubbles. The collection is pretty comprehensive: Of the 20-something fairly obscure videos we searched for, only two were absent (no love for Us3's "Cantaloop [Flip Fantasia]").

Plus, artists who have banned their videos from YouTube (like Michael Jackson and Prince) are both included and embeddable on MTV Music. And judging by the minute-and-40-seconds long amazingly-incredible intro to Prince's "Cream," the videos are all in their full-form glory. With the finale of MTV's last "real" music show TRL airing in November, it's nice to see MTV find a good retirement home for all those videos.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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