Comprehensively explain the nature and purpose of music videos

Tv music video channels have been broadcasting for over 30 years, starting on August 1^st 1981 with the main music channel, MTV.  From this developed many other channels that broadcasted music videos of different genres and for different reasons. For example Kerrang! Was developed in 2001, broadcasting nu metal and pop punk artists round the clock, such as Green Day, You Me at Six and Panic! at the disco. MTV itself has many different sub-channels that cater to different genres and interests. Below are a list of the channels and the genre they broadcast:

MTV Base ~ Active from 2005 mtv base combines R ‘n’ B, hip-hop, reggae and dancehall in order to cater to the African market. (1 (TVSA, 2016))

MTV Classics ~ The channel that originally launched as VH1 Classics developed into simply MTV Classics. The channel plays music from 1940s onwards ranging from official music videos and concert footage. The channel first aired “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles in 1981. The channel was rebranded in 2010 as MTV Classics.

MTV Dance ~ The channel broadcasts electronic dance music, starting in 2001 it began having only a night-time programming slot. This was due to the popularity for these music videos peaking on the night instead of the day.

MTV Hits ~ Launched on 2001, this channel developing the highest amount of views as it airs the most recent and popular music videos to target the main target audience of teenagers and young adults. It encourages the viewing of music (promo) videos through their shows such as Euro Top 20 and The Official UK Chart.

MTV Rocks ~ Launching on 1998 the channel broadcasting music videos from the alternative and indie scenes to cover the urban charts that have been developed.

 

 

 

MTV have developed a large range of variations of itself in order to attract people to watch music videos for all genres in order to promote the music and to cater to both the artist and the audience, for example the development of the MTV Rocks channel was in order to helps get that genre’s message across to the audience. The difference between music channels is that most are genre specific which means that more people will watch certain channels because it caters directly to their interests for example it allows people who are into pop music to switch to a channel that only shows the latest poo music videos.

Music video have developed a larger following online and through streaming for example through MTV Music which is an online presence to give users the ability to watch the most recent music videos. The use of the internet encourages of the audience to download and purchase the artists songs this is because the user is already on a site which gives them the ability to download the content on that particular site instead of having to search for the link in order to download it or buy it. Other music video sites such as YouTube which since its release in 2005 it has developed a sum of 1 billion users each month, with the most subscribed music channel being “JustinBieberVEVO” with 26 million subscribers then “RihannaVEVO” with 23 million. These create and notify users of new uploads to encourage them to watch the music videos that have been released in order to promote the song even more through their ‘personal’ accounts.

VEVO is a hosting service which allows sites such as YouTube to work with them in order to make the publishing of the music videos more effective in order to get it out to the public quicker.

 

 

 

 

Music videos exist in order to promote and encourage people to listen to a song in order to increase sales of the record for the artist and therefore increase their reputation and their popularity. However for artists such as Michael Jackson who don’t need the money they use it as a creative medium to create things such as short film in the form of a music video, which is what he was well known for, as he worked with directors such as Martin Scorsese. However the main aim of music videos are to increase record sales, however in the 21^st century it is to increase downloads on sites and apps such as ITunes and Amazon.

When creating a music video there is an aim to achieve in the end the most common being to increase sales for the song this either being through physical records or through downloads. However there are other aims, for example there may be a message that the artist is trying to get across or a story which can be shown through the music video and therefore allows the artist to use the medium to their advantage.

The music video also helps an artist create and develop a persona or profile and also help them enhance their reputation, this is done through sharing the music video which creates a hype the song will there for get a huge viewing if the music video goes viral. Music videos are typically ego driven and are used to promote the selling of concert tickets or merchandise the increase the income that the artist is bringing in for the record label. The end goal for most artists is to win a Grammy or a Brit award for example a tweet from Demi Lovato stating “I will get a Grammy nomination one day” portrays the approval that comes with the end goal of achieving a Grammy or Brit award in order to enhance their importance and to develops a large ego boost for the artist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bib

1. TVSA (2016) MTV base. Available at: https://www.tvsa.co.za/channels/viewchannel.aspx?channelid=38 (Accessed: 13 December 2016).