Has MTV helped kill the music industry?

Part One.

By Elizabeth B. Christian, Ph.D.

Question: How does a medium born with the message announcing music video’s victory over radio survive when it turns on itself and kills the video?

This is exactly the quandary MTV has found itself in thanks to the technological and cultural shift that began in the mid ‘90s.

Gen Xers fondly remember the summer day in 1981 when MTV debuted, proudly declaring from its first televised tune, by the Buggles, that “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

The death of the video star, however, hasn’t come so proudly. In fact, many of us didn’t even realize what was happening bit by bit as new technology made pirates out of our young and sell-outs of our music television stations.

Now the golden age of music video is behind us, and we can only long for weekend holiday marathons of nostalgic pop-up video marathons to tell our kids there was a time that MTV really meant Music Television and had nothing to do with Snooki and The Situation, and the idea of reality television on MTV would have been blasphemous.

MTV, once a 24-hour-a-day bastion of music videos, by the year 2000 devoted just one-third of the day to that. By 2008, music video comprised just three hours of MTV’s air time because of the rise in convenience of Internet viewing, according to an NPR study. For the first time in its history, by spring 2009, MTV hosted no music video programs hosted by VJs.

But like the much-declared deathknell of journalism, the music video hasn’t died. It’s been reborn in the last few years bigger than ever—and as spectacular as any Lady Gaga get-up you can imagine!

In fact, my children would read this and wonder what all my fuss is about. Music videos are everywhere. They’re all over the Internet, and they see them on televisions in the gym and on video games. So why am I complaining?

Because, my dears, today any tone-deaf teenager with a cell phone and a Mac can record a decent enough music video! Heck, some of them are better than a lot of the classic early ‘80s videos we hate to admit we loved. And they upload them by the tens of thousands to YouTube, Facebook and other social networking sites. They go viral. As a writer for NPR put it, even “Madonna could not become Madonna from this platform today.” There’s too much noise to filter through. And most of us just don’t have the time or patience to do it.

Elizabeth B. Christian is assistant professor of journalism at Louisiana Tech University and author of Rock Brands: Selling Sound in a Media Saturated Culture.

Comments

[O'Darrius Walker]

To answer the question, in my opinion do not believe MTV has help kill the music industry. I believe MTV has helped evolved the music industry. MTV has only been a one factor of many in the music industry. Each generation has an addition to phenom "technology" that as of last has taken over our society. MTV on contributed to the growth of the music industry. However, the expansion and populism of the internet is having the same effect MTV had in the 80's. Unfortunately, for the music industry, video are downloaded by the millions and it only takes seconds. Technology is evolving the music industry yet again and the internet is the new host, and Apple is the new "MTV."

[Jessica Lord]

I remember watching music videos on MTV all the time while in high school. Ten to twelve years ago, there were several reality shows, but there were also some music videos. I remember also watching MTV Spring Break. Now, I TIVO 16 and Pregnant, and Teen Mom (2), but I do not watch anything else on MTV. In my opinion, MTV should change it's name, because it no longer plays music videos, but is all reality shows. I do not believe that MTV has helped kill the music industry.

[Nicole Kyle]

I can remember the days of sitting around waiting for the music videos that were popular at the time. But I also don't remember being on the computer all day searching for the videos at my own discretion. The joy of actually catching your favorite video was almost as good as waiting by the radio every weekend waiting for the top 40 so you could hit the record button to have your favorite song on cassette! MTV has done a complete 360 from when I watched it. Sixteen and pregnant and some of the reality shows they feature are not anything I would want my kids to watch. Hopefully there will be another change in the future to get my kids more involved and interested in watching and listening to the music like we did growing up

[Mel]

Personally, I am not a fan of MTV because of all the reality TV shows and lack of music videos. We all know that MTV was origionally all music, but just because it has evolved doesn't make it a "killer" of the music industry. To survive, businesses need to adapt to the market, and with YouTube taking over the music video aspect, MTV has altered its material to cater to the demand for reality stars. The part that is ruining the music industry is the "image" MTV created for the perfect music star. Television has put a face to music that has become more important than the actual talent of the artist. Artists like Jessica Simpson and Brittany Spears have become less of a voice and more of an image, promoting clothing lines, perfumes, and makeup. Even their performances on stage have become altered with "voice over" concerts and mics that auto-correct flat notes. On the rare occasion, like Susan Boyle, that a truely talented person is found, a huge determinating factor of success is image based. MTV is not the killer, just the weapon used to carry out the task.

[Lance]

I can't remember the last time I actually watched anything on MTV. Long gone are the days when I could watch for hours with hopes of seeing my favorite bands actually "in action". Prior to that, one had to stay up late (past my bedtime) and watch shows such as "Fridays" or the "Saturday Night Special". The only other way to "see" your favorite bands were either in concert or via magazines such as Circus, Hit Parader or Cream. The downfall with MTV started with the show "The Real World". The next thing you knew, if you changed the channel to MTV your were subjected to a show full of contant "beeps" to block the foul mouths of the so-called stars of the show. No thanks. They should have changed their name right then and there. Music no longer had anything to do with it. But, if you say music is coming back to "Music" television, I may have to turn up my hearing aid and give it another try!

[The Silver Conductor]

Ok so that question has been proposed by many, but the answer in my opinion is NO! MTV has helped propel the industry and artist whom would other wise have never seen the light of day had it not been for the likes of MTV and many more.
What seems to be killing the industry is a combination of factors,illegal downloading which came with innovation of many other industry components, ipods, ipads, cellphone computers as I like to call them, just to name a few.
The major labels were slow to grow with the new digital record industry, that it got left behind and is now after taking many financial hits saying "OMG" what are we gonna do?. I bet there are a lot of executives who wish they would have paid attention rather than sit back and ride on yesterdays laurels.
Who mam I? The Silver Conductor at:
http://www.thesilverconductor.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOO6ZTBf1Oc
Remember" "Always know who loves you"
The Silver Conductor