Shark Bytes

I loved this show. Especially the 1991-1996 era. I have a ton of episodes on dvd, if anyone has any they are welling to trade or offer up for remastering, I would love them. All my shows are mtv120minutes dot...

Please contact me.

120 Minutes was a destination show for my friends and me. We watched it religiously up until the early 90's -- then it fell apart so completely that it just wasn't worth the effort anymore.

The show in the early days was always partly crap, you just had to find the good stuff in between. But they did have a lot of good stuff.

The problem that occurred was more the fault of the music industry in general than shows like 120 Minutes. Things began to turn really crappy by the early nineties, and like someone below mentioned, alternative lost its meaning. When everything is labeled alternative, nothing is alternative. It was impossible for a show like this to survive in that climate. It just became a caricature of its former self and there wasn't anything good to be found on it anymore.

There's rumors that Night Flight may be coming back -- that's great news!

I'm down with what Christopher M. says about experiencing everything for the first time. It's been years since I listened to music and felt anything other than nostalgia. In those days, I dunno, I'm sure it sounds silly, listening to that music was just so enlivening. I've experienced nothing like it before or since. Some of it is my age. Like my parents with their oldies station, I prefer the music of my teen years. God, my friends and I would tape 120 Minutes too and fast forward to songs we liked again and again until we saved enough money to buy the albums on cassette or cd. I have so many good memories of those years and 120 Minutes was a part of it.

I agree that it jumped when alternative became everything but alternative. 120 Minutes never became the pathetic mess that was Alternative Nation, but it was disappointing. I don't think I ever watched it after 1995.

It's not related to 120 Minutes, but I remember when Hootie and the Blowfish and Sheryl Crow started getting played on the alternative radio station in my area. That's how bad it got to be.

Wow. I was on a nostalgia binge tonight when i decided to check out 120 Minutes on Google. I will say this. I agree with the person who posted saying the show was always 75% crap and 25% worth checking out. I'd be a little more hopefull giving a 60% crap, 40% desirable marking. Nobody I knew liked Dave Kendall when he was on. We'd all tape it on Sunday night, wait to get home from school Monday afternoon, watch the videos, and then talk about it Tuesday morning at school. We'd all make fun of Kendall's hairpiece, but it was still good fun. Lewis Largent was hated by all the guests as well as the fans. Matt Pinfield knew his music, but I couldn't stand him saying "Cool" between every comment by the bands he spoke with. (Just check out the Rocket From the Crypt interview.) I think that what I hold in my heart for 120 mintues is a sum of much more than was actually ever there. These memories of the shows aren't just the shows, they are the collective sum of my adolesence. When I think of a show, I think of my friends and I hanging out, wanting to fit in with each other by celebrating that we didn't fit in to the traditional high school models. I graduated from high school in 1992. It was very much a year when the music scene underwent a huge change. I went to college and still taped every episode probably well into 1994 to 1995. I just got busy with other things and lost touch with the show. I miss those days, and sometimes just wish I could inhabit the body of that awkward 17 to 19 year old. By far they weren't the best of days...but this 34 year old would love to just be there to reexperience everything for the first time.

The very best show to air on MTV, no matter who was the host at the time...it really hurts to see how badly that channel has been ruined. It is literally unwatchable at this point, and at the time MTV was the sole source of "alternative"/"underground"/"offbeat" music. It is my contention, despite my "advanced" age (I'm WAY beyond MTV's targeted demographic now), if they were to revive such a program, it would be immensely popular...I believe that the 18-25 demographic is completely burnt out on "Pop Tarts", rap and hip-hop and want something else...the problem is MTV lacks the gumption it would take to bring it back...alternative rock on MTV? Not bloody likely...

120 minutes rocked,even when a dope like Matt Pinhead was at the controls.The sdvent of MTV in 82' heralded a complete shift in the paradigm of my musical tastes..I found The Smiths,Ultravox,Big Country etc.,later in the military,when all my friends were listening to hair metal,there were a few of us listening to "that weird stuff",as it was called by them.Those were the days..mid 80's.R.E.M,New Order,Jane's Addiction,Morrissey,OMD,The Church,Sisters Of Mercy,Peter Murphy..geez,it was awesome!!! I found 120 minutes when I got out and continued to find more great music.Music is the air I breathe and 120 minutes was a crucial show regardless of the host.

Anyway,"alternative" music has suffered many deaths since the heydey of 120 & Alternative Nation....a significant collapse occured around 96' when Matchbox 20 spearheaded a cadre of vanilla bands that fell under the banner of "modern rock"..I.E. Train,Vertical Horizon,The Call,later Goo Goo Dolls,later Sugar Ray (Who,like Smashmouth,appeared to be "hip" but ended as LAME.),and that horrible dreck Tonic..this idiotic,flavorless genre started out on the alt. stations but soon drifted over to simpleton soccer-mom contemporary "rock" stations..then came the whiny,angsty,unremittingly bleak Nu-Metal with it's cadre of pale,tortured depressos keeping the spirit of fear and doom alive in post 9/11 America..rap-rock...emo..ugh,ugh,ugh....Music,how I weep for thee

dave kendall was this show for me. i loved 120 minutes and relished sneaking downstairs sunday nights in high school to watch it until 2 in the morning. so tired, soooo didn't care. when lewis largent took over this show lost it's erection. i still watched but i never got over dave leaving...never. i don't know if i can put my finger on what that's about other than what the two "guests" said above. dave was snarky and funny and he knew his sh*t.
for me, those were the days when music felt so exciting and important. I still love music but it's just not the same.

It jumped when "alternative" became just as predictable and formulaic as anything to which it was supposed to be an alternative. The inexplicable popularity of Alanis Morrisette didn't help. She was like a marketing executive's version of Courtney Love, Polly Jean Harvey and Liz Phair, watered down and made palatable for the masses.

this show reached its pinnacle during the mid 90's when they played videos from hum, jawbreaker and the young gods. it hit its low point in the late 90's when limp shitzkit and korn videos where played nonstop.


pinfield was an ok host but i lost all respect for him when he appeared on a limp shitzkit cd. jancee dunn was cool. i dont really remember too much about the hosts before 1995......

It jumped when alternative stopped being alternative and became just another marketing niche.

ek...but that was nothing compared to playing Limp Bizkit, Korn, and other such artists that only dream of being alternative. What the Hell? P.S. I have every episode of 120 Minutes and Post-Modern Mtv between March 1990 and August 1993 on VHS tape if anyone wants to trade copies.
Pre Feb 28, 2007 Guest

Whoever posted this above, can you please email I would love to trade with you. Please contact me at brian_yersky@yahoo.com

120 Minutes was great for a long time. It was MTV's last remaining bastion of music that was diverse and creative, but eventually it was taken over by the same pseudo-rebellious, reverse bandwagon jumping, so called alternative music that was already on MTV during the day, every day.
A lot of people seem to have always hated Matt Pinfield, but I always found him to be very knowledgeable. Sadly, he eventually started immediately calling EVERYTHING "amazing" no matter what it was.

In regards to the show, based on research throughout the internet, I think it jumped back twice.

One time, it jumped back when it moved to MTV2 in its regular and true format.

However, it jumped when it got cancelled, but this didn't last long as it jumped back again with its hour-length successor Subterranean.

Bottom line: It jumped back twice to save the show and its legacy.

That's my two cents about it. Thanks for your time.

From,

Mr. Archibald

Once the awful "grunge" hit, they got away from amazing British artists like Morrissey, New Order, XTC, etc, and played record company fodder like Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, and Better Than Ezra. Just terrible, real alternative still lives on the internet.

About 2 years after Nirvana made it big, "Alternative" quit being a niche and a tax write off for major labels, and it became a huge cash cow. Of course, when there was money to be made, the labels drove it into the ground, and probably, ended up making their own doom.