Never had MTV, except the german version of it in the late 90's which I found absolutely atrocious and might have been a watererd-down shadow of what the original channel once used to be. But I understand the feeling and think it's a pretty good point. We're all heavily influenced by what we were into / what we used to like in our childhood and while growing up. And everytime I hear someone from my generation (X for that matter) talking harsh about the younger ones, I tend to think they're getting old and about to forget that it's what older generations used to think when we were that young ourselves. Which didn't stop us from being creative, innovative, or whatever of that kind.
Oh German MTV sucked so badly in the early 00s (when I moved over here in my early 20s, so I don't know the late 90s one), but American MTV was pretty darn cool in the 90s and I doubt both were similar to each other. I noticed that German music taste is much more heavily influenced by pop, whereas in America, the alternative music scene was pretty big, hence all the more experimental music videos and programs in general.
In a way you are right, because older generations always criticized younger ones and that is a sign of becoming old and less tolerant. However, while I consider myself an extremely open-minded person (and Gen X in general is the generation that 'refuses to grow up' according to Willy Vanderperre) and while I am a big fan of many Gen Z artists, photographers, (NOT the music, though), etc. I do not believe that the cultural stagnation we have been facing in the past decade has anything to do with this generation not being 'creative' enough nor 'innovative', but rather on the economic system we are living in, which prioritizes sales and growth over creative freedom and intuition (everything is rather calculated to a T to be more commercial and sell).
To state that someone who is a Gen Xer is more creative than a Gen Zer would be absolutely silly and ridiculous, as people are people and in any group there are diametrically different kinds of personalities (I could have more in common with a Gen Zer than a Gen Xer, even though I belong to the latter group). However, to say that a Gen Zer was raised with the same amount of musical and artistic diversity and craziness in popular culture as a Gen Xer did would be a total lie and it's not Gen Zers' fault.
If I compare Gen X to Gen Z, Gen Z is overall the better generation, no doubt about it, and I say it because my generation is a generation of comfortable cowards that failed to protest and criticize the system, whereas so many Gen Zers are fearless and with their eyes wide open.
. Her (best) work is so saturated with pop music references.
