Music television
Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite, cable, or Streaming Platforms.
For the US TV network whose initials mean "Music Television", see MTV.Impact on the music industry[edit]
The impact that television music has had on music culture is that it allowed for aesthetic and personal style to the lead in terms of importance over sound in popular music.[3] Before the age of MTV the term “pop” was a means to describe popular music at the given time. However, after music videos started to become more widespread the term “pop music” started to describe musical genre that was accompanied by specific aesthetics through visual art in conjunction to sound.[6] Moreover, to get a record deal in the time after 1981, when MTV had launched, sound was not as important as image when it came to creating a novelty act or selling records.[3] An example of this can be seen through Madonna and Michael Jackson who used the platform MTV to create careers that were based on music videos, choreography, and personal style over sonic performance.
The impact of music television on the music industry after the launch of MTV led to addition of specific visual art division within record labels [6] which had the specific intention of introducing new acts to audiences with a clear image.[7] However this strategy sometimes was ineffective for up and coming artist since most commercial broadcasters wanted to air already established artist.[7] Nevertheless, record companies found a way to overcome this problem by signing exclusivity deals with MTV to guarantee air play both their established artists as well their newer artists.[1]
Additionally, a key factor in music television's success in the 80s and 90s was the evocative nature of music videos that were specifically targeted towards the teenage audience.[12] The impact that MTV specifically had was that it was a window into popular trends and clothes [12] unlike in the twenty first century where trends are available through social media.[3]
The extent of the effect of Television music after the late 90s is argumentative. In the golden era of music videos, 1985–1996,[13] fame achieved through television was an integral part of the star-making process for the music industry.[7] However the depletion of television rating going into the twenty first century [8] as well as the aspect that radio was the more dominant form of broadcast media in terms of longevity dating from the 1920s to the mid-late 1950s[2] show that the effect of television in terms of longevity were scarce [14]
In the late 90s the expense of creating music video grew from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands which made them less appealing as an easy market source.[15] Starting in early 2000s YouTube and Myspace started removing the need to pay broadcasters for air time and the music industry had found a free replacement.[14] following the launch of VEVO in 2009 the increase of music videos consumed on internet platform surpassed the expectation of record labels.[15] Another aspect that lead to depletion of the effects of music television is that record companies were cutting video budgets and industry paper and moved most up to date content to digital platforms.[8]