A New Playlist for MTV--and America?

Trawling the waters for the Next Big Thing in pop music, MTV is altering its course--and the impact on the nation’s record-buying habits could be immense.

Sensing a restlessness among its legion of young music fans, the hugely influential cable channel is adopting a new programming strategy that will welcome previously excluded musical styles to its playlist while de-emphasizing some sounds that have been MTV trademarks in the ‘90s.

Among the wide range of acts that stand to profit through greater exposure on the pop forum: cutting-edge techno and dance outfits such as the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers, and even mainstream acts such as Celine Dion and Merril Bainbridge.

The potential big losers: alternative rock and hip-hop, including hard-core rap.

“We’re just trying to say, ‘If you’re interested in music and you’re living right now, there are a lot of different things out there,’ ” says MTV President Judy McGrath. “What we’ve found in our research is that people like the good stuff and the interesting stuff from a lot of different genres.”

McGrath believes it’s “alarmist” to say that MTV’s shift signals the beginning of the end for alternative rock and hip-hop, the dominant pop forces of the ‘90s. Still, she adds, pop has reached a crossroads.

“It’s one of those interesting moments in music when there’s not a clear direction for everybody to go in,” McGrath says. “A lot of things are kind of bubbling around, and we think it’s our opportunity and obligation to expose some of that and see if anything really captures the imagination of the viewers out there.”

The move comes at a time when many in the record industry are puzzled by the decreasing sales of several recent albums by best-selling alternative rock groups.

Andy Schuon, MTV’s executive vice president of programming, says the channel had become too structured in the last few years as the popularity of its two most prominent clip-based specialty shows, “Alternative Nation” and “MTV Jams,” colored MTV’s almost every move.

“If you were an artist that didn’t fit comfortably in those categories, it was more difficult for you to get the type of exposure on MTV necessary to come to the forefront of popular music,” says Schuon, a former program director at L.A. radio station KROQ-FM (106.7).

“Our shift allows us, while we wait for the next big thing, to widen our net to be able to catch more things as we look ahead to ’97 as a time of exploration in music. We’re going to be there to accelerate the next big thing.”

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Besides retooling its music strategy, MTV is also undergoing a dramatic make-over by introducing several new shows, rolling out a new studio overlooking Times Square in New York and, for one hour each day, airing M2, the channel’s all-video sister channel.

Among the new, music-based shows that will be introduced starting next month: “Amp,” which will showcase ambient and electronic music; “Enter the Mosh Pit,” which will feature harder-edged modern rock; “Indie 500,” a weekly roundup of independent and import music; “Phat Ass,” a daily hip-hop lifestyle program; and “Popular Videos People Prefer,” which will focus on mainstream pop. At the same time, air time for “Alternative Nation,” which specializes in modern rock, and “MTV Jams,” an urban music showcase, will be cut in half.

Also, three nonmusical shows will be added to the lineup in coming months: “The Rodman World Tour,” an on-the-road series with pro basketball player Dennis Rodman that starts Dec. 8; “Idiot Savants,” a nightly game show due Dec. 9; and “The Jenny McCarthy Show,” a sketch comedy variety show featuring the “Singled Out” star that begins in February.

Since it came on the air in 1981, MTV has been instrumental in shaping the course of pop music, helping launch the careers of British pop acts such as Culture Club and Duran Duran in the ‘80s and escalating the popularity of grunge acts such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam and hip-hop artists such as Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur in the ‘90s.

“We’re very excited,” says Mark Fotiadis, vice president and general manager of Mute Records, which is preparing for the spring release of a third album by the Prodigy, one of the leaders in England’s vibrant dance music scene. “MTV is exactly what we need to break the band stateside.”

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But some wonder whether MTV might be jumping the gun by making such radical changes.

“MTV made moves before--to play more hip-hop and alternative--based on the growing popularity of those art forms,” says Darryl James, editor in chief of the Rap Sheet, a Santa Monica-based hip-hop newsletter. “But now they’re trying to go against the grain, which to me is a big mistake. A huge mistake.”

And a label president whose company specializes in modern rock said that while he was concerned about the MTV changes, he wouldn’t alter his strategy because of it. “Not in a million years would we let our decisions be influenced by the vagaries and ups and downs of some TV station,” he said.

In a testimony to the channel’s power, however, the executive asked to remain anonymous. No use in offending the powers at MTV, he said.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the new MTV strategy is its increased openness to mainstream pop, which seemingly is the least “hip” area with young viewers.

But John Doelp, executive vice president of 550 Records, which releases Celine Dion’s albums, thinks the move makes sense.

“Look at the charts,” he said Tuesday. “When you’ve got the top of the charts reflecting a couple of rap records and rock records and pop records, it’s showing diversity, which I think is a healthy thing for all of us, and I think MTV is going to reflect that.”