The Executive Veejay

On the eve of Thursday’s MTV Video Music Awards, the pop world’s most colorful podium parade, the president of the cable channel has some encouraging news for the record industry, which still isn’t convinced it has fully recovered from a mid-’90s sales slowdown caused partially by a decline in alternative rock: Music is back.

“I would say it’s really good news,” Judy McGrath says of the channel’s latest research into young viewers’ tastes. “It’s full of interest in music, more than books, more than movies, more than anything.”

Because of MTV’s influence with the active young record buyers who are the lifeblood of the $12-billion-a-year record industry, McGrath’s words tend to be carefully monitored in executive boardrooms.

Her announcement two years ago at a Billboard magazine industry conference about plans for a new techno/electronic music show, “Amp,” prompted some labels to race to sign techno groups.

McGrath, 45, is still somewhat sheepish about how that speech was taken as an endorsement of techno as the Next Big Thing--which was not her message and which hasn’t proven true.

But she is speaking up again because she is encouraged by what she feels is happening in music and at MTV, which is investing in music-related programs again and experiencing a ratings surge. MTV’s total household ratings are up 25% to .5 over 1997 for the second quarter of the year and its prime-time ratings are up 17% to .7 for the same period, according to Nielsen Media Research. (A full rating point means about 700,000 households.)

While not abandoning its non-musical shows, the channel has added or is about to debut a flurry of music-accented programs, including “Total Request,” a viewer request show; “BIOrhythm,” a celebrity biography series using music as a narrative force; and “Revue,” a profile show that includes performances.

In an interview, McGrath, in town for the annual awards show at Universal Amphitheatre, looked back on that misunderstood techno speech and the continuing popularity of hip-hop.

*

Question: So you are bullish on music?

*

Answer: Yes, our viewership is up . . . and it’s really music that is pulling them in. For a while there, everyone seemed to be talking about Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, but now they are back talking about Lauryn Hill and Courtney Love and Wyclef Jean. I think people are waiting for the Alanis [Morissette] record. I am hearing and feeling that.

Q: Let’s go back to that techno speech. Did you have any idea that it would have such a big impact in the industry?

A: No, I never thought of it that way. . . . What I said was something that I thought was obvious if you watched MTV: Alternative and rap had become mainstream MTV, the staples of our play list. They were no longer by anyone’s definition alternative. . . . What that left was an opportunity for us to explore the fringe . . . to figure out what else is going on out there.

Q: What caused you to put “Amp” on the air?

A: There were some interesting videos and some interesting sounds [in the electronica field]. They were really fun and they felt good when you dropped them into the mix. . . .

Plus, personally, I was thinking about [some things] Beck had said on one of those year-end wrap-up shows we do. He said [something like], “I love guitar and I think guitar should always be part of this, but there are just so many cool sounds out there. . . . People are just going to have to get used to it.” I thought we should find a little window for electronica. But if you look at the speech, I said we are looking around like everybody else and this is one thing.

Q: If you were making a similar speech today, what would you say about the health of the music industry?

A: I think it is a very healthy time, a creative time. I think there is a lot to look forward to . . . a lot of singer-songwriters out there that you are going to hear more and more. I was cruising through the research and people mention lyrics a lot as something that is important to them. But they mention a lot of things. You can’t define the audience with one type of music. They have wide tastes. . . . They love hip-hop. They love pop alternative, but they also see rock perking up a bit again.

Q: With nominees ranging from Madonna and the Verve to Puff Daddy and Brandy & Monica, this year’s award show tends to underscore those wide tastes. How long have you noticed this diversity in pop?

A: If you look at the video awards last year, the Prodigy moment was so spectacular, but you also had things like Jamiroquai and Fiona Apple and Marilyn Manson. The spirit of what we felt in the air was there are lots of interesting new things going on, many of which are hard to categorize. If there was a trend, it’s that there’s no trend, and I think that’s still true.

Q: While alternative rock continues to struggle for an audience, hip-hop is probably stronger than ever. Some observers even feel it has surpassed rock as the music of choice among young people. Why do you think it has such an impact today?

A: I think you see in hip-hop a lot of the things I loved about rock ‘n’ roll when I grew up. It belongs to sort of a new generation and it’s real and it has a huge array of personalities, male and female. It’s a culture.

It has been fantastic for us and it’s so strong. It has proven itself over and over again, and continues to do so, but I also think that whenever you count rock out--whenever you say it’s not happening, it comes back. We were all sitting around recently talking about how we need a kind of [fringe] or “cringe” show now. . . . There is Korn and Tool and there’s Hole and Manson, even things like Barenaked Ladies, tons of things. . . . I sort of feel that it is vibrant again . . . that indie-type feeling.

* The MTV Video Music Awards can be seen at 8 p.m. Thursday on MTV.