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"What was the nature of MTV? For me it was insatiable desire. That's the very nature of Americans. We want what we don't have. One of the characteristics of the
by hos234 7y ago
"What was the nature of MTV? For me it was insatiable desire. That's the very nature of Americans. We want what we don't have. One of the characteristics of the consumers in the early 80's was Shop till you drop. 'I want it. I don't know what it is but I want it.' - Dale Pon, Advertising exec part of the MTV launch campaign in Aug 1981 [From the book I Want My MTV - Tannebaum & Marks]
With MTV giving birth to Micheal Jackson and Madonna the Celeb-industrial complex understood its potential. And here we are 40 years later with a large part of the world run by Celebrities.
- jacquesm 7y agoMichael Jackson was making music before MTV even existed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jackson_5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jackson_5 He was 6 at the time. MTV started almost two decades later.
- hos234 7y agoAnd there were music TV programmes before MTV. What changed the game was the concept of a Music Video. Read the book or the history of media about the impact of that moment.
- jacquesm 7y agoMTV also did not come up with the concept of a music video, in fact they were about a half decade late to that particular party. You are making a bunch of unqualified statements that are incorrect and then you tell others to read books?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoMJ must have had half a dozen albums, a movie or three, and half a dozen years of solo career outside the Jackson 5 - who he was singing with for about a decade - by the time MTV got around to launching. All the Thriller video did was boost sales of albums from the already-a-celeb worldwide. His celebrity was launched by being young, cute, and part of a very famous family. Basically being born into that family was enough.
- hos234 7y agoPlease go and watch music videos before MTV and after. Music videos changed what stardom was.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoCourse they did, but that wasn't MTV's doing. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody invented the music video as we know it, in 1975. That was the groundbreaking event that changed everything. The video was as important as the single. Every act from that day on wanted to duplicate or surpass "that video". The Buggles "Video Killed the Radio Star", was a hit in 1979. It was used unchanged in MTV's launch transmission two years later. Music programmes were increasingly built around videos and clips, rather than performances. You'd get mostly videos with perhaps just one or two acts miming along to their single, or playing in the studio. By 81 all significant releases came with a video. MTV was just a place to play them back to back. Videos were very well established and expected by then. Which is no doubt why MTV launched. Video certainly changed style over the 80s, and every other decade, just as they had 1975-81, but what doesn't evolve over a decade? The 80s brought more emphasis on production and direction. By the mid and late 80s videos were being shot on film, ran longer with far bigger budgets. Acts were starting to be created for video first, and with MTV and other music programmes in mind.
- jacquesm 7y agoSpot on.
- soylentcola 7y agoAs I understood it (obviously with some exceptions), music videos were an expense for the band/label that fell under the general purpose of promotional material (like posters, magazine ads, etc.) Of course they were a chance to be creative and have fun as well, but that can be the case for any promo material. The thing with MTV was that it was such a low cost concept for a network. Instead of paying for programming like most TV, music videos were essentially free (if not sold to the network in a reversal of the typical TV transaction). It was like a paid infomercial for bands and albums, except actually entertaining in its own right.
- B1FF_PSUVM 7y ago> a large part of the world run by Celebrities Funny, I get exactly the opposite impression - that celebrities are just distractions to keep people entertained ...