At 12:01am on August 1, 1981, The Buggles UK song “Video Killed the Radio Star” became the first music video played on the 24-hour, all music channel known as MTV. In the early years, MTV became the catalyst for many musical careers, as the early music video landscape provided a bold new medium consumers and artists. Starr and Waterman (2014) note, “MTV changed the way the industry operated, rapidly becoming the preferred method for launching a new act or promoting the latest release of a major superstar.” (p. 451)
The MTV generation launched several careers, as the video production and overall opulence of the early 1980s enabled artists to push the acceptable limits on cable television in a way that was not possible in mainstream media. Madonna became a contentious figure in American culture on the strength of her video and song, "Like a Virgin,” which features video imagery that was considered very risqué for the time, filmed in very diverse locations. With a high concentration on elements of fashion, Madonna essentially launched an entire fashion revolution as her style was emulated by “the MTV generation.” Prince and his Purple Rain album was another staple of the early days of MTV programming. His groundbreaking song, "When Doves Cry,” blurred the lines of performance art, live performance scenes, and film making elements.
Songs featuring the synthesizer as the primary musical instrument, as in The Eurhythmics' release of the iconic, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” were a staple of the early MTV playlist. The video featuring band mates in classic black suits, with avant garde imagery in the background made the band an immediate hit, and subsequently launching a strong solo career for singer Annie Lennox. Even hard rock artists were influenced by the synthesizer, as the rock band Van Halen found its first widespread commercial success with the their song, “Jump.” Coupled with a relatively tame video compared to their live shows and later videos from the album, “Jump” was a song that bridged the gap between the pop world and the distinctly rock crowd. Arguably, this song was a divisive selection, as not too long after, David Lee Roth embarked on a solo career, predicated on the showmanship of his videos, rather than the traditional rock roots of the remainder of the band.
In some cases, MTV enabled artists to essentially relaunch their careers as they used the work of video producers to expand their audiences through ground breaking work. Artists such as Tina Turner became relevant in an entirely new decade and to an entirely new audience. On the strength of her song and video, "What’s Love Got to Do with It,” Turner’s Private Dancer album was the highest selling album of her career, nearly 20 years after her work with Ike Turner, her former husband. Peter Gabriel, the showman former lead singer for Genesis, received the 1987 MTV Video Vanguard and 10 additional awards for his video, “Sledgehammer,” featuring incredible claymation and stop motion imaginations of the song. In one of the most interesting and timeless crossover hits ever, RUN DMC samples the band Aerosmith, who then join them in a memorable video for "Walk This Way.” Following the release of the song, Aerosmith’s career was relaunched, and using the video medium and careful casting, their later releases sold far better than their albums in the 1970s.
The new hip-hop community also found a champion for their cause with MTV and programming such as Yo! MTV Raps. Artists such as Public Enemy brought a militant element and strong imagery to the video airwaves in the video, "Night of the Living Baseheads.” With elements of MLK in the onset of the video, as well as featuring the S1W’s step based background dancing, the lyrical content and message was enhanced and delivered to an audience that was certainly removed from the original culture. In the early 1990s, Snoop Doggy Dogg released Doggystyle, featuring the song, "What’s My Name?" on Death Row Records, produced by NWA member and co-founder of the label, Dr. Dre. The video and song capture a glimpse of the West coast culture in a rather comical way, reflective of the movie Friday, by another NWA member, Ice Cube.
The grunge era coincided with the beginning of the end of videos on MTV. A steady move toward reality based shows such as “The Real World” slowly eroded the all music programming. One band that was launched during the early 90s was Seattle band Nirvana. The release their epic album, "Nevermind," containing the Alternative rock anthem "Smells Like Teen Spirit,” was a profound opening salvo to the war on music in the mainstream. The alternative movement, including bands such as Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, and Alice in Chains were the last beneficiaries of the video movement, from my perspective. Technology advancements were about to change the music delivery landscape yet again.
During the mid 1980s, a series of technological events were set in motion that have affected the delivery mechanisms for music. In 1985, the first commercial music compact disc (CD) was pressed in the U.S., Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA.” The CD did not immediately replace cassettes or LPs, but the higher quality audio, reduced media failure rates, and the reduced size of the media were factors in the adoption of the standard. in 1995, the MPEG file format for compressed audio, which significantly reduced the file size for audio files enabling users to “rip” the audio from a CD to a digital version. In this period, where dial-up access to the Internet was still developing, the reduction of file size compared to the uncompressed WAV file made it possible to share music. This file sharing potential was the impetus for the development of the Napster platform in 1999, which became a household name after a group of musicians set out to end the software and the drag on sales by those who were offering pirated music on the service. After a long legal battle, pioneering Napster ceased operations in 2002. The growing digital libraries of music were changed in 2001 when Apple releases the software called iTunes, with its easy to use interface and the ability to legally purchase music in digital form directly from a service. Soon after, Apple again changed the audio content landscape with the introduction of the iPod, a device that enabled a user to carry 5 or 10GB worth of files. The development of comparable mp3 players, and later the advent of SmartPhones grew out of this initial personal device concept. As Internet speeds on phones increased, so too did the demand for mobile content and delivery of audio and video files. In 2005, three former PayPal employees founded the video sharing company YouTube, ushering in a new mechanism for sharing video content. Google purchased YouTube in November, 2006 for $1.65 billion, and is a primary means of delivering content on many mobile devices. Recently, offerings such as Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music, and Rdio have provided monthly subscriptions that enable users to listen to entire catalogs of audio content, further impacting worldwide record sales.
References
Starr, L., & Waterman, C. (2014). American popular music: From minstrelsy to MP3 (Fourth ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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