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What Killed the Video Star? MTV’s Abandonment of the Music Video


It’s an age-old complaint that MTV no longer seems to stand for its original moniker: Music Television. With a group of nostalgic music lovers longing for the days of back-to-back music videos and commentary from beloved VJ’s, MTV continues to plow forward into different programming waters. Occasionally, the network gives a slight nod to its past, but with shows like 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, The Real World, and The Jersey Shore bringing in impressing ratings, MTV isn’t looking back.

The shift in MTV’s programming choices didn’t happen overnight. Upon its launch on August 1, 1981, MTV was seen as the underdog. A channel solely for music videos? It was outrageous and unheard of. Why would people continue to watch the same videos over and over again? John Lack, MTV Networks’ first Chief Operating Officer, knew people would repeatedly watch videos:

… when you listen to music, the first time is just to be introduced to the song. The second time, you get to know it. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time, you think, This is a great song. But it’s the 100th time you hear it that gives you all these psychological synapse poppings. Every time you hear it, something else happens. It reminds you of things. If we do our job right, and the videos are movies and little poems, it’s going to be even more attractive. You are going to say, ‘Oh, I just noticed that for the first time.’

Lack was right. Although the network fought its way through technological glitches, a deficit of videos to air, and few investors, teens and young adults across the country latched on to the channel. VHS tapes were often finicky, record labels didn’t want to hand over free music videos, and stuffy potential investors scoffed at the grungy idea of a rock and roll network. Nobody seemed to immediately find the value in the network. In 1981, MTV was a cutting edge idea. Ever since Lack introduced the network’s first broadcast by announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” MTV burst out of the gates and pushed boundaries. In an effort to revolutionize television, the founding executives wanted an image that reflected their ideals as a brand. They wanted to reshape the way music was being consumed. Fred Seibert pitched the now iconic moon man image that has become synonymous with MTV:

That got us talking about the most famous things that have ever happened on television… Finally, I said, ‘The moonwalk. I was in Sofia, Bulgaria, when it happened, and saw the streets clear out because everyone was going to a television set to watch. So let’s use the moonwalk and the flag.’ And Marcy Brafman, who was running the promotion department, says, ‘Cool—space is very rock ’n’ roll.’

While people didn’t necessarily clear out of the streets to watch MTV, the network’s core demographic certainly became glued to the around-the-clock entertainment. Tom Freston, another key player in the birth of MTV, noted the importance of the moon walk image in launching MTV:

We knew we needed a real signature piece that would look different from everything else on TV. We also knew that we had no money. So we went to NASA and got the man-on-the-moon footage, which is public domain. We put our logo on the flag and some music under it. We thought that was sort of a rock ’n’ roll attitude: ‘Let’s take man’s greatest moment technologically, and rip it off.’

While the space theme proved to be “very rock ‘n’ roll,” the network didn’t stop there. In another statement-making move, MTV chose to air “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles as their first video. Almost instantly, MTV co-founder John Sykes could see the results: MTV was improving record sales:

We finally hit pay dirt when we went into a record store and asked if there was any reaction to the songs we were playing that weren’t being played on the local radio stations. The manager said, ‘Yeah, we sold a box of Buggles albums.’ We were like, ‘Yes!’ Within two weeks, we had trade ads in Billboard, with quotes from all the store managers in Tulsa, claiming that MTV was having this profound impact on record sales.

In addition to aiding record sales, MTV was also launching careers. Culture Club, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, and Madonna, among many others, have MTV to thank for playing their videos on what sometimes seemed like an endless loop. Punk rock icon Billy Idol certainly noticed the impact MTV had on his career:

Radio guys would take one look at my picture with the spiky hair and say, ‘Punk-rocker. Not playing him.’ Then MTV airs my videos, and kids start calling up radio stations saying, ‘I want to hear Billy Idol!’ It really broke the thing wide open. We’d never touched the charts, and the next minute we had a Top 10 album. It was amazing. Nobody’d ever noticed me before. Now I’m walking down the street, and people are yelling ‘Billy!’

As MTV began to bring in boatloads of money, videos started getting more and more extravagant. Artists realized they had to stay one step ahead of each other, and MTV was the perfect place to let the competitive, creative juices flow. Music video budgets seemed limitless, and MTV became a canvas for excess, glamour, and all things rock ‘n’ roll. So what changed? How did this once thriving music video network transition into a platform for trashy reality TV shows?

With 340 million viewers worldwide, it’s fair to say the people at MTV know what makes for a successful network. When they started to realize that 24/7 music videos weren’t the hottest commodity, they did something about it. Between 1995 and 2000, the network began to shift away from music videos to dabble in other mediums. MTV introduced original shows like Beavis and Butthead and Daria, which still appealed to their core demographic. To put it into context, MTV was playing videos eight hours per day in 2000; in 2008, that figure dropped to three hours per day. Shows like TRL and FNMTV were introduced as a last-ditch effort to salvage the music video component of the network. While people find it frustrating that MTV no longer plays music videos, you can’t deny they tried to save this component, but to no avail.

MTV often sees criticism for airing the MTV Video Music Awards every year, yet they don’t even play the videos they’re honoring. While this move may seem hypocritical, MTV’s demographic has changed. MTV appeals more to tweens and teens than young adults. Teens aren’t calling into radio stations to request songs because they aren’t listening to the radio anymore. MTV’s current demographic no longer wants to wait for their music and videos—they want it now. They want the instant gratification of watching a video when and where they want to watch it—and the internet makes that all too convenient. There is no longer any patience for keeping the channel on in hopes that your favorite song comes on, and all too often, changing to MTV meant catching the tail-end of your favorite video. MTV recognizes the impact the internet has had on the television medium, and some have gone far enough to assert that internet is killing the video star. Currently, the closest MTV gets to airing a music video is a split-screen snippet of a video that runs during show credits. Perhaps this is a reflection on our multitasking culture. We can check email, listen to music, write a paper, and browse Facebook all at the same time. We are bombarded by information, noise, and ads all the time. I don’t think I can go one day without seeing something about Taylor Swift. Our ability to fully focus on one activity at a time has decreased with the increase of entertainment resources. Dying to see the newest Lady Gaga video? YouTube it. Vimeo it. Got Mumford & Sons stuck in your head? Listen on Pandora, Spotify, Soundcloud, etc. MTV realized that internet was becoming the new medium for videos, and they promptly launched MTV.com, where a wealth of music videos can be watched. In 2010, MTV finally cut the cord and removed the “music television” phrase from their logo. In a press release, MTV noted, “The logo is part of MTV’s re-invention to connect with today’s millennial generation and bring them in as part of the channel.” Now, we can easily remedy our music and video cravings with unlimited online resources (ones that could have made MTV obsolete had they not re-branded over the years). Included in these online resources is illegal music pirating, which is quite possibly another reason MTV abandoned the music video. Music piracy affects record sales, record labels, and the artists directly. If sales are down, music video budgets decrease… Videos aren’t getting made without a ridiculous amount of product placement and sponsorship… and so on. With what seems like an unlimited number of resources out there, it’s fair to say we no longer need the original MTV. If we even had it, would we watch it? I’ll admit, I’m one of the many people nostalgic for its old platform, but I can understand how they got to where they are today.

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