VH1 Dance Machine
VH1 Dance Machine was a half hour music video program on VH1 shown between 1997 and 1998. It was also known as Dance Machine and VH1 Dance.
Overview
Originally, Dance Machine was shown in an hour block with The RuPaul Show. At the time, The RuPaul Show ran longer than a half hour, so Dance Machine filled out the hour, even though both shows were listed as a half hour on the VH1 website and in the TV listings. The program usually opened with a video by RuPaul, or had a video by him/her somewhere during the show's broadcast. Eventually, episodes of The RuPaul Show were either edited to a half hour or had its commercial breaks shortened so that the show could fit into its half hour slot, and Dance Machine was replaced with Pop-Up Video in the schedule. The show resurfaced with a morning time slot for several months before being removed permanently.
Dance Machine was criticized by its viewers for not airing pure dance videos and instead airing rotation videos, turning into another non-show like Crossroads and Sex Symbols. While some pure dance videos like Gina G's "Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit" and Amber's "This Is Your Night" aired, many of the videos shown on Dance Machine were either videos by dance-pop artists like Janet Jackson, Spice Girls, and Ace of Base, videos featuring a dance remix with footage from their original videos re-edited to fit the remix, or videos by non-dance artists that had dance-sounding titles (Hanson's "MMMBop"). Meanwhile, top dance acts like 2 Unlimited never once had one of their videos aired on the program. Periodically, a classic dance video from the 1970s or 1980s would air.