On the Evolution of MTV and Music Videos

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MTV is the oldest and most dominant cable network in the United States of America that focuses on programming associated with music. The MTV had a great beginning on the 1^st August 1981 with a grand announcement by John Lack one of creators of MTV who asked the ladies and gentlemen to rock and roll. The inauguration was followed by the music video clip ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by a band called the Buggles. The nature of the music industry had a great transformation with the birth of MTV and acquired a glory in the next several years.

MTV also was a major charisma in the cable TV industry in the overall American cultural scenario. MTV is an outcome of widespread market research. The Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company established the MTV. The availability of low cost programming in the form of music videos helped MTV initially. This facility was provided by record companies considering that this would be an advertisement for their records and performers (Burns).

Music videos descended from Cinema Musicals to promote bands disinclined to tour, or appear in the TV studio. The evolution of music videos as a distinct field came up in 1981 with the launch of the MTV. With the commencement of MTV a theory called post modernism that influenced the academic world in the eighties and nineties also came up. This theory helped music videos and MTV to flourish. John Fiske called the MTV, a Post structural Post modern music genre. Heidi Peters accused MTV of characterizing music videos as the absolute medium of the post modern world. This is how it was perceived by the academic and educated world.

Frederic Jameson quoted that music videos were a schizophrenic string of secluded, blinking signifiers, failing to link up into a sound chain, as a string without a center. Even if it lacked narrative coherence it did not obstruct conviction. After a study of music videos scholars concluded that visual narration would remain as the focal point of attraction. Postmodernism’s quest for a metaphor for the confusions of the world seemed to be fruitless. The musical score was highly repetitive in pace and melody that it often, challenged the intention of the videos. While taking into consideration the star system, youth and fan club, musical customs and variety conventions the music videos snip their visible darkness. If the specificity Music Television is considered, remaining strangeness can be understood.

The television viewers at first imitated the behavior they saw in movies. Home was considered as a theatre by darkening the living room and then the program was chosen. In the 1980s when MTV registered a boom in the industry there was dramatic change in the situation. The flaws of both radio and TV were combined and made an asset by MTV. The task was to induce the listener to an idleness of the body and the viewer to apathy of the thumb. It cannot be argued that MTV is a commercial institution that reaches many teenagers and young adults (Huck).

According to John Fiske the flashing, crashing image sounds depicts energy, swiftness, fantasy and the hyper reality though the music is neither the reality nor the social machine. The MTV logo represents the devil- may-care discourse which is constructed in part in unambiguous opposition to network television. The logo takes many different forms which are often presented through visual jokes. Many of its slogans promote the post modernist concept: MTV we are making it up as we go along (Frith, Goodwin & Grossberg p.62).

The releases of the music channel MTV is a collection of hired and cast-off images that rejects to make any sense of the enriching surrounding. MTV is seen as a band of irrelevant and blend of images (Abercrombie: 1996: 16). MTV uses narration scarcely and it prefers to use fashion, sensation, performance and display. According to John Fiske there is no meaningful connection between the videos and the lyrics. They are incised to the beat of the music. Style is considered a reprocessing of images that twist them out of the original framework. This would enable them to make sense and reduce them to free-floating signifiers. The significance of MTV is that they are free, outside the control of normal sense and sense-making and thus able to enter the world of pleasure (Change is a virtue).

A lot of contradictions arise in Fiske’s notions about television culture when compared to sociological studies of American Television such as Hoynes and Croteau from 1985 to 1988. An open argument and real differences of opinion are hardly ever allowed on American television. The presentation of serious public interest perspective from consumer groups, civil rights organizations, labor unions, peace and anti-intervention movements are totally missing from American television. The mechanism of the financial economy is not adequate for all cultural factors, but it is important to consider in any investigation of trendy art in consumers’ society (Dellinger).

Visual culture is a factor that is important in people’s everyday day lives. There is a growing capacity for individuals to visualize things that are invisible by themselves. Thus contemporary culture is more visual. Magnum PI, a famous action/ detective series was used by John Fiske in his essay ‘British cultural Studies and television’ to demonstrate the various ways in which a text can be interpreted. Magnum, the hero is pictured as a super male masculine representation, noble in his duty and service. For the young male viewers he may be a male role model, while female viewers may be attracted to his physical beauty as part of his protection of the weak (Quinlan).

Music video programming also follows conventional methods as other TV programming. The Countdown was the main conventional programme in Australia that featured music videos. The US programme MTV started seven years after Countdown. In the year 1987 Countdown mimicked MTV but it did not last for long (Fiske p.77).

A strategic agreement was signed by MTV Networks (MTVN) and Microsoft in the year 2005. New methods were created so that the viewers could access MTVN entertainment programming and other brands like MTV, Video Hits1, Country Music Television and Comedy Central through a variety of digital entertainment products and policies. Whether it is a PC, a portable device, mobile, Web or television, MTV was there on the platforms where the young consumers are today and will be there in the future also. There is a great environment for the consumers as Microsoft continues with its new innovations.

A digital media strategy task force was also formed by MTV and Microsoft for the identification and collaboration that worked on the expansion of digital entertainment aid, new methods of distribution and the marketing of the digital media. There are many other firms that retain consumers on multiple digital media platforms. For example In June 2002 Coca-Cola launched CokeMusic.com where an online meeting place was created for teenagers who were really interested in music. The site hosts many features including the Launching pad that has music and videos. The Coke studios were hangout places were the registered users could compose their own music and enhance their talents.

It is proven by these examples that the Internet is currently being integrated to the calculus of major firms by merging multiple platforms and digital divisions. Since mid 1990s two entwined styles have emerged where the information and communication technologies affected the social, economic, political changes in the style of communication. Consumers are the participants in the activities of media as a result of the new inventions in digital technology. This is a great transformation from a communication and broadcast based architecture (Information Communication Technologies).

The major ingredients of international television programming are music video and MTV. The MTV Europe was launched in 1987 after which the Asian service was launched in the year 1991 and in 1993 MTV Latino was introduced. This has created major changes in the entertainment industries both efficiently and aesthetically. The combination of music with television has charted a path for both industries into a future post modern synergy (Burns).

Works Cited

Burns, Gary. Music Television. Web.

Change is a virtue: gender bending, power and popular culture. Web.

Dellinger, Brett. 1995. Analyzing the media. Web.

Fiske, John. Cultural studies: Volume 3, Issue 1. London: Routledge, 1989.

Frith, Simon., Goodwin, Andrew. & Grossberg, Lawrence. Sound and vision: the music video reader. London: Routledge, 1993.

Huck, Christian. Capitalistic Spectacle and Cultural Difference in Popular Music Videos. Web.

Information Communication Technologies and Emerging Business Strategies. 2008. Web.

Quinlan, Ann. 2005. Reality Screened. Web.

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On the Evolution of MTV and Music Videos

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