MTVX was a Viacom-owned American

hard rock music Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

channel. MTVX was available exclusively on digital cable providers, being the first network made available in the "MTV Networks Digital Suite".

Format

MTVX aired no advertising outside of MTV2 promos, airing videos on a daily loop programmed to air in three eight-hour blocks per day. The channel aired contemporary videos and older videos that were no longer shown on MTV. Likewise, MTVX was not limited to just one genre of rock music videos. The channel aired a variety of genres, including

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

, and grunge. Also, MTVX showcased otherwise unknown or unheard music to the masses, such as Static-X, Disturbed,

Finger Eleven Finger Eleven is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 1990. They have released seven studio albums (six as Finger Eleven and one as Rainbow Butt Monkeys), with their album ''The Greyest of Blue Skies'' bringing th ...

Black Label Society Black Label Society is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1998 by guitarist/singer Zakk Wylde. To date, the band has released eleven studio albums, two live albums, two compilation albums, one EP, and three vid ...

SOiL Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debri ...

Soulfly Soulfly is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1997, and later based out of Phoenix, Arizona. Soulfly is led by former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera, who formed the band after he left the Brazilian group in 19 ...

Sepultura Sepultura (, "grave")Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 17. is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte. Formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera,Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 16. the band was a major force in the groove metal, thra ...

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

, Pantera, Kittie, Dope,

Coal Chamber Coal Chamber is an American nu metal band formed by Dez Fafara and Meegs Rascón in Los Angeles, California in 1993. Prior to Coal Chamber, the two had also created the band She's in Pain, in 1992. The original lineup also consisted of bassist ...

, Primus, Mushroomhead and others.

Closure

MTVX ended on May 1, 2002, and was replaced by MTV Jams, a hip hop music video channel. The last video played on MTVX was "See You On The Other Side" by Ozzy Osbourne. The replacement of MTVX was decried by rock music fans. MTV's explanation, based upon ratings and Billboard chart information, was that viewers wanted a devoted network for hip hop and R&B videos, rather than the

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

and hard rock videos that MTVX had been created to play, and claims that hard rock formats went into a quick decline post- 9/11 due to industry and radio de-emphasis.

Reuse of brand

In 2011 MTV began reusing the MTVX brand (with X standing here for 'extended') for "a new cross-media group in charge of developing content for various platforms such as TV, computers and

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

s." MTV launched MTVX in August The effort never resulted in any actual product or program branded by MTVX, though the brand name of MTVX remained present on MTV's official corporate page for several years.

References

MTV channels Defunct television networks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1998 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2002 {{US-tv-station-stub