MTV CRIBS

Critique of MTV Cribs

“Subcultures represent noise (as opposed to sound: interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media. We should therefore not underestimate the signifying power of the spectacular subculture.” Dick Hebdige Subculture the meaning of style (1977)

What is a Crib?
A Crib is American subterranean slang for House.
Thinking of the best way to describe MTV Cribs I can compare it only to (for anyone that is British and remembers) Lloyd Grossman’s Through The Key Hole. Cribs is not exactly a subtle British look through the key hole of a B list celebrity guest’s home then having to guess “Who lives in a house like this” (Grossman). Cribs is a reality T.V show set in America and mainly focuses on celebrity homes in California of the rich and famous, Although there is a narrator, the celebrity is the author of their home and takes the audience through their ‘fabulous’ lifestyle. Celebrity homes that have appeared on the show include The Osbournes, Nelly, Mariah Carey, Pamela Anderson, Moby, Pati La Belle, Fat Boy Slim and the playboy mansion.

Seinfeld creator Larry David parodied Cribs in his comic reality show Curb Your Enthusiasm with humorous scrutiny “….. And this is the floor and here is the ceiling”
Cribs is the answer to the post-modern obsession with the gross public consumption of celebrity private lives. It is a 3 dimensional version of the voyeuristic celebrity magazine Hello or OK. It is the closest the public eye will get to see how the other half live without being asked to leave by security.


The Creator and her Audience
As a teenager me and my friends really enjoyed watching cribs and often sat and gasped at the outrageous taste some of the stars had. Just to be able to own a part of that life style would be like a dream come true. Of course I feel that growing up watching these types of shows created a predisposition that materialism automatically meant success. It does not matter how educated or sensible you were being a teenager in the late 90’s/00’s one was influenced by the reality T.V show magic.

MTV Cribs displays the homes and lifestyles of people who have made it in the Entertainment industry. This show is strategically targeted to a teen audience, with a point of exploiting an element of the rags to riches story in the U.S. Originally created and first aired in 2000 by a young lady named Nina L. Diaz. MTV Cribs had an urban spectacular subculture following at the beginning. The majority of homes and mansions featured in the show from episodes 1 to 12 were aimed at introducing the cribs of R n B hip hop, and rap artists, being on cribs was a statement a symbol of their success. Many came from impoverished and troubled childhoods and they were black, visual and vocal. Usher, Snoop Dog, Busta Rhymes, Lil John, LL Cool J, polarized the primarily white domination of the American dream. Paradoxically this transatlantic image is representative of an extremely spectacular subculture with an Americana Bling Bling Ideology and lifestyle (flashy platinum and diamond jewellery). Emulated and respected by Black British youths and ethnic minorities that come from under privileged backgrounds but watched by British middle class youths for entertainment.

Nina L.Diaz explains:
“It's all about going over the top for lots of the famous money-makers. NBA hero Shaquille O'Neal was the MTV Cribs personality that seemed to prove that for Nina. She estimates his Florida home is about 70,000 square feet and says everything in it is seriously over sized. He's got an enormous bed that fits him, his wife, his kids and still has plenty of room left over. Then there are his two enormous, separate garages to showcase all his vehicles. That's probably the most off beat thing (we saw).”

The Formula
CRIBS has a methodological linear approach to each episode, as the formula is always the same but with a new tour around a different celebrity’s house. Since 2003 a hybrid of celebrities from actors, athletes and celebrities have allowed the viewer a bird’s eye view into their home, causing the programme to seem conformist and fixed in its approach and therefore loosing its edge. Not wanting to sound as if I am romanticising but the celebrity’s that featured in the earlier episodes had more character and were slightly deviated, however this is merely a hypothesis theory.

“It's pretty much at this point standard operating procedure that you at least have a couple of flat screens”, Nina says with a laugh.
“Everyone has TVs in their bathroom so they can take a bath and watch TV.”She continues “Babyface has a custom-made TV that pops out of the foot of his bed. It has a screen on either side so two people can be watching different shows at the same time.”

The Appeal
A Semiotic analysis definitely leads me to realise that class and hierarchy are most definitely an issue, Cribs is about 21st Century Nuevo riche celebrities in the media, Teenage society’s fascination with reality T.V shows. Reality T.V shows like to demonstrate how celebrities became successful and that to become successful, rich and famous does not necessarily require an extensive education. This appeals to a teenage heterogeneous audience, a generation who’s role models are ex cons, previous porn stars or have been in rehab discover through multi modal media that becoming rich and famous is not so unattainable. Watching an episode of Cribs with Shaqille O’neal gave me an insight into how teenage boys from ethnic minorities in the U.K with aspirations and goals could be positively channelled. In America a youth who possess a gift, who has talent in Sport but is less able, who is potentially failing in school could be assigned a place at a top Ivy League university if they excel in sports.

Paul Willis interviews a teenage boy in Learning to Labour p 89, through an ethnographic study on working class lads and their defiance to become an ear’ole.

PW “Are they [Middle class people] still ‘they’ or do you already feel you’ve….”
Boy “No I still treat them as ‘they’ (…) you know I sort of talk to them (…)”

“Sport is his way to the top. In a very real sense the ‘killer instinct’ is a class instinct:

Boy “I wanted to prove that somebody without their, you might call it intellectual or financial, well you might say greatness, could be beaten by say somebody years younger and intellectually weaker, and a very much poorer background (…) you have to have a poorer background (…) you have to have a killer instinct (…) when I play I couldn't’t care less who it is against, I’ll try and beat them, I couldn't’t care less if they are paying me and they want a friendly game, I’ll beat ’em (…) it’s the hunger to win, probably a primitive feeling, almost like the hunger for food. You grab out for food and some people will grab out to win, they will try and practice and try and try until they win (…) middle class people don’t have the killer instinct, they don’t have the natural aggressiveness to get out there in the cold and practice.”

Global Domination
There is the question of audience and pleasure, that Cribs engages with teenage boy’s egos and aspiration. As there are significantly more male celebrity’s appearing on the show than females. As this is a show owned by the global phenomenon MTV (Music Television) there are representations of youth culture and music genres, Many celebrities are often young guys (and girls) in Indie, Hip hop or Rock bands and their style is often influenced by their musical taste. Teenage fans relate to their idols and are intrigued to take a glimpse into their home lives almost like as a voyeur. Their language and behaviour is casual and non conformist which appeals to an insubordinate youth market. Sound tracks are played throughout the viewing of the home to create mood and energy between shots and to maintain a contemporary approach. Cribs is an appropriate production made in the 21st century, at a time when reality shows are powerful media that interact with teenagers and their inner desires to become recognised and successful in show business is more suited to the ‘I’ generation than ever before.
Many Cribs are filmed in the sunshine state of L.A California amongst other U.S states, the backdrop is of a high profile celebrity’s residence. The ‘star’ takes the audience through the kitchen fridge which is always suspiciously organised and points nonchalantly over to their Chef. There are constant references to materialism and consumer products from the many ridiculously expensive cars to the 55 inch plasma T.V screens in every room to the extreme bowling allies and Cinemas. There is an excessive hierarchical undercurrent amongst the celebrity homes with suggestion to size and paraphernalia.


Conclusion
I enquired, questioned and researched the reasons behind Nina L. Díaz deciding to produce a show like Cribs and subsequently gone on to produce My Super Sweet Sixteen which is a reality T.V show featuring rich teenagers celebrating their birthdays in extravagance often with celebrities’s invited to perform at their party.
There is not much literature written about Diaz although while searching the web, it was obvious from reading extracts by Diaz and the particular nature of her shows that she is interested in exposing how the rich live and the extravagant and fabulous way they spend their money. As the brain child of Cribs Diaz seems to explore the curiosity of a fan, As producer it is as if she has scripted her voyeuristic fantasises and projected this into reality for the world to see but why?. As her name suggests she comes from an ethnic background it would be interesting to ask her; whether her discourse of cribs is only for entertainment value, satirical or to educate and inform the audience. Is she commenting simply on the privileged lifestyles of the rich and famous? Maybe the complex bricolage of over indulgence in a post modern society? Or perhaps a bit of both.