Video Killed The Radio Star

On April 1^st 1981 at 12.01 am the words ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Rock and roll’ were announced over footage of the launch of Apollo 11. This was the launch of MTV, a revolutionary idea which transformed music and television history forever. The concept of a television channel which played music videos 24 /7 was designed and created by Robert W.Pittman. It gave music a new found visual literacy and way of promotion for record companies and artists. In its early days MTV helped to launch and introduce artists to the public and was able to influence the music industry. It helped bands and artists with a visual aesthetic as it gave them a way of distributing there music in its intended context.Industry expert , editor for ‘Hits’ magazine, Leonard J.Beer quoted that “MTV is the most powerful force that's ever happened in the music business. You know, you can make a star overnight if they make the right video, and if the right magic happens.” MTV finally broke the colour barrier in 1983 when it played its first video by black artist Michael Jackson with ‘Billie Jean’. Its impact on popular culture also meant that the youth of the 80’s were given access to different genres of music which had previously been avoided on radio stations. However with the expansion of the network over the years, creating sister channels such as VH1, MTV2, MTV Dance and MTV Base, the innovative television channel has undergone a lot of changes. The frequent rotation of music has been replaced by the likes of awards shows and reality TV, which leads to the theory that by the law of nature everything eventually gets replaced. Although music fans now tend to head towards online websites such as MySpace and YouTube to engage with the artist’s work, music videos on television are still relevant even if they are no longer common. With the creation of MTV and its impact on popular culture, videos haven’t just become a source of marketing, neither are they a way of just complimenting the music, they are now an art and can influence how we interpret music. 

Music Moment- Music Journalism