MTV airs new politically correct programs.

Hello all,

This happened a month ago or so, but I was involved in an accident and forgotten about it until somethin sparked my memory. We have a program on dutch radio which airs every afternoon and is quite popular. It's called standpunt nl (viewpoint nl) and it works as follows. Each show (every day) it takes a currently hot topic, and turns it into a yes/no proposition. A guest with some insight or otherwise connected to the issue is invited to the studio, and the issue is debated. Meanwhile, the listeners can vote online on the issue. At a certain time, the presentator takes calls from viewers, where they are allowed to vote on the air and give a short defence of their choice.
A month ago, MTV was the topic. The popular music channel had just announced that it would start making shows which would increase political awareness of the youth. Part of the reason for that was the threat inherent to the 'gangsta culture' mentality that seems to be spread around in video clips nowadays. The issue at hand was: Is the gangster culture indeed changing the way youngsters look at society?
Two guests debated the issue, one a female anthropology professor from a university in the netherlands (I think) and the other one of the management team of the dutch branch of MTV.
When viewers voted, I think there were slightly more yes then no voters.

Now, someone said once that this should have happened much sooner, since this mentality has been firmly entrenched in the youth nowadays. Fast cars, big bucks, much 'bling' and of course, cheap ho's. Not only that, but the violence inherent to the gangs also seems to have it's charm (How far have we digressed from the cute West side story, eh?)
The MTV boss said something in the lines of : "Ridiculous. Saying that these videoclips change the way our youths look at society and should be banned is about as insane as saying that the Ateam and it's brand of vigilante justice should have been banned. Or cartoons, for that matter."

This is not a new argument by any means. But I believe there is a big difference between these clips and the Ateam. The Ateam consisted of four guys, each one being somewhat of a charicature. Hannibal was the sigar smoking tactician, Face the slick PR guy in the suit, Murdock was the completely deranged chauffeur and Mr. T of course provided muscle. Each episode started with a clearly defined situation where helpless innocents were being cruelly exploited by some evil, powerful man who needs something from them and has the manpower to force them to surrender. Next of course, the Ateam comes in and helps them out.
So in short, four guys who can be recognized as charicatures jump into well defined situations and help the good underdogs win.
The message from those videoclips is far more amorphous. No names are given(apart from the singer himself), they just depict a lifestyle. So there is the first difference. The 'lead character' in such a clip is NOT easily defineable. (S)he is more of a 'prototype', the now visual representation of an otherwise not visible 'American gangsta culture'.

Next, those gangsta rappers are proud of their background, and show how they grew up. Not just in videoclips, but in movies (Eminem and Five cents (or two cents, not really sure) I think) and documentaries as well.
In the clips, the guys especially tend to show a to my eyes 'devil may care' brand of coolness, while showing of their money. (I think it was one of the first clips of Five cents, in which this is shown in its extreme. Expensive clothes, cars, decked out with as much gold as possible, gaudy as hell. I think the songtitle was P.I.M.P. or some such)
Women portray themselves as sluts (extreme case being Christina Aguillera a year ago or so in the clip Dirty), guys as pimps (see above), and worse, these are icons, celebs, the stars that the youth idolizes and personify themselves with.

I for one believe a program such as MTV proposes, in which youngsters can sit around and discuss a political topic or other issues important to people their age is very important indeed. Way to go MTV! What do you guys think. Are thse clips dangerous, or am I raving?