accessAtlanta

MTV has rarely been known for its discretion. When the network has a hit video, you can expect to see it over and over again, until your senses deaden and your eyeballs glaze. I'm still scarred from a childhood spent watching the videos for U2's "With or Without You" and Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun," which MTV played often enough to make me hate both songs.

Even now, when videos are but a fraction of the network's programming, certain clips air with maniacal frequency. Recently, it's seemed impossible to watch more than five minutes of MTV (or MTV2) videos without seeing the clip for Atlanta rapper T.I.'s "Why You Wanna."

MOST POPULAR STORIES Police: Jeffrey Donovan arrested, suspected of DUI Report: Abdul's return to 'American Idol' doubtful Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has 'very treatable' cancer Fallon's '7th Floor West' is a silly, soapy treat Chris Brown apologizes for Rihanna beating
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR

Directed by Chris Robinson, who also directed T.I. in the feature film "ATL," the video entails T.I. repeating the words "why you wanna go and do that" and persuading a foxy lady to join him in the shower.

It's a stylish video and the song is a Top 40 hit, making it appropriate for MTV to have the song in heavy rotation. So why is the constant airplay so maddening?

Because in today's on-demand culture, where digital music — and, more to the point, digital video — is available around the clock, it's frustrating to have this video rammed down my throat. In the "Black Hole Sun" days, I didn't have a lot of other music-video choices. Now that I do, I have less reason to tolerate anything overplayed.

Watching MTV is a lot like listening to mainstream radio — you have to sit through a seemingly endless string of commercials and inane on-air banter before you get to the music, which may or may not be any good and which almost certainly won't have any element of surprise. It's practically inconceivable that MTV or any big radio station would, say, play an older T.I. cut just for variety's sake.

In short, MTV is nearly useless as a music television channel.

Fortunately, it's spectacular on the Internet.

The network's Web site (www.mtv.com) does allow you to watch old T.I. videos or, for that matter, old Björk and Talking Heads clips. And the current stuff is there, too. I saw the gorgeous new video for Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man" for the first time online, as well as the stylish, but incomprehensible, video for Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack." And it's all free.

What's more, the site aggregates its content in a couple of useful ways. It allows you to focus on new videos, if you want MTV to educate you about what's hot. Or, if you know what you're looking for, you can search a deep database for the artist and video you have in mind.

This all works for PCs, by the way. According to an error message I got on two different Macs, Apple users are apparently out of luck.

Still, as any Web-savvy video lover knows, MTV.com is hardly the only Internet home to music videos. The all-purpose video site YouTube, which works for Macs and PCs, has tons of free music video clips on view, though the long-term legal viability of this is unclear. And for $1.99 a pop, Apple's PC-compatible iTunes store will sell you music videos that you can keep on your hard drive, though the selection is limited and skewed toward new stuff.

In any case, the music video remains a healthy art form and a promotional tool. Watching music videos online is a fun and surprisingly addictive way to pass the time, to catch up on what's popular and to indulge in some musical nostalgia.

But sitting around watching MTV, hoping against the odds that a fresh and interesting video comes on? Now why you wanna go and do that?