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| The Early Days of MTV Music |
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In this present day and age choosing which MTV music videos to watch
can be overwhelming. Every band in existance today, or so it seems, has
their own video. And now that the Internet is an intregal part of our
daily lives, you can see MTV music videos of your choice on demand.
Technology is great isn't it.
Over twenty years ago, a revolution in music programming formating hit the airwaves and invaded the TV screen. This was the MTV music channel. Prior to the advent of MTV, first mtv music video was played between certain shows or during television specials, as shorts or fillers. The MTV programming format was an entirely different concept, with the MTV music channel providing continuous, 24/7 music videos. Every day and at any time of day or night, people could tune in and see as well as listen to, a variety of bands and performers at their visually artistic best. The MTV music channel offered the otherwise unknown bands a chance at fame, while giving viewers new sounds and special-effects enhanced performances. The MTV channel was an instant hit in the music industry and with the public. At first, MTV broke its music segments up into several parts. Each one was hosted by a different person. The host would give insights into the bands' influences, interview band members and even give a short piece on fashions of the time.
During its early years, MTV was one long continuous string of bands of all genres. No distinction was made between genres. Eventually, MTV started to separate the videos into their appropriate areas: Metal, Pop, Rap and Hip-hop.
While radio air time created the Rock god, MTV created the Rock super god. Bands were achieving more and more fame through their visual special effects. Not only could the melodic spirit of the idea be put into music, but it could now be both listened to and watched, much like attending a concert in the comfort of your own home. As MTV music evolved, so did its programming schedule. Eventually the host's air time was expanded, very gradually. What began as just a short one or two minute blurb, became a 15 minute segment. This concept was expanded and eventually these small segments turned into a forum for the host, similar to the standard talk show. This was the beginning of the decline of 24-hour MTV music. Today, only about half of MTV music airtime is devoted to music. The rest consists of reality or comedy shows, band exposes, band documentaries, and tours of musicians houses. Most shows are about an hour long, with the exception of Number One Countdowns, and the Headbangers Ball. With titles like these, MTV music had clearly resorted into a mass media dispensation of music trends. Today there are Number One countdowns for several genres. There are specialty shows, like the Headbangers Ball in which heavy metal rockers are interviewed accompanied by the sounds of their music. Sadly, most of MTV music today consists very little actual music content. From its humble beginnings as a 1980's channel devoted to continuous music, and its evolution to hosted talk shows, reality and comedy shows, MTV has still maintained its mission to bring new music videos into the popular culture. |
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