For producers of television channels, such as MTV videos are one thing, money. A good video is one thing, but people need to see the video to appreciate it, so exposure is the life essence of videos. Producers will often place videos on shows that have the captive audience, in order to introduce the artist’s image to an audience who already appreciate the genre of the artist. Often television producers will create hype around the video, making the artists appeal lives on chat shows etc. , this is very successful in created desire for the video, and building unbearable anticipation for the video.
As I have mentioned before MTV is a powerhouse in terms of showing pop videos. MTV has spread into 342 million homes all over the world, having over fifty channels over the world it has became a national phenomenon, but it started as a humble cable channel…. August 1st 1981 was the day history changed, MTV launched and the MTV generation found there calling. Two months after its inception MTV has 2 million viewers, and within 2 years viewership had grown into 10 million, giving videos more meaning every year.
MTV then branched out into celebrity and began to have VJ’s (Video Jockey), one of these being ‘Adam Ant’ (mentioned before hand) who introduced each video to the rapidly growing viewer ship. Then in 1983 Michael Jackson insisted that his 14 minute video for ‘Thriller’ should be aired fully. MTV claimed it was ‘too long’ but some people assumed it was because he was black. Eventually the video was shown and became one of MTV’s most requested clips of all time, in addition to this Thriller sold 800,000 copies in one week, the MTV promotion was never questioned for the success of the album.
By the end of the 80’s the relationship between MTV and the music industry was without question, even spawning the VMA’s (video music awards) , a ceremony that entirely commemorated the music video in all its forms. In 1989 MTV went political broadcasting from behind the iron curtain; additionally in 1992 MTV broadcasted presidential elections, hoping to raise awareness within its young audience. 1996 signalled MTV to be the first music channel to air online, 9 years before you tube and a year later MTV UK was launched, increasing the viewer ship by 2 million. Finally in 2000 MTV’s revenue was announced as $3.04bn, a landmark victory for any channel, let alone one that shows music videos.
