VH1 used to be a music television network, but within the last two years or so they have become a general pop culture music network.
Formerly in the same vein as such music networks as MTV (both MTV and VH1 are owned by Viacom) or MuchMusic, VH1 broke away from the standard music and videos format around 2002.
Their older programming mostly consisted of programming such as Behind the Music and Pop-Up Video, which were decent shows but fell victims to overplay, and becoming a parody of themselves (and then . . . he hit rock bottom). Their original programming was and still is their strongest point.
Now, their programming has evolved to focus around lifestyle and nostalgia with wildly popular shows including I Love the 80s and its spinoffs, and Best Week ever. I Love the 80s is a nostalgia variety show in which nostalgia items such as the Rubik's cube and The Breakfast Club are discussed by pseudo-celebrities. Best Week Ever applies the I Love the 80s formula to the events of the past week.
The VH1 of 2004 has been claimed in interviews to be highly engineered to people with short attention spans. Its programming is designed to be watched in short bursts or for hours on end i.e. sitting for 6 hours while they count down the 100 Most (adjective) Moments in (noun) History. Their myriad countdowns and pop culture shows make the channel a standby when nothing else is on television.
Oh yeah, they play music too. Their top 20 countdown plays slightly more mature music than their sister station MTV. The odd phenomena I've noticed is that I hear all the good music that I listen to in the background to all their shows as opposed to their music videos actually being played. I imagine somewhere in the secret headquarters of VH1 there is a background music programmer that has the exact same taste in music I do.
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