MTV’s Televised Music Videos Introduced New Advertising Methods and a Visual ‘Artist Image’ that Revolutionized the Recording Arts Industry

• The creation of MTV brought a new way for artists and management labels to advertise through music videos. 

• Music videos allow artists to create an image for themselves, which helps develop loyal fan bases that wished to emulate them.

• MTV’s music videos became the foundation for music videos that stream on other platforms such as YouTube and Vevo, which can help aspiring artists be discovered.

Before the emergence of MTV (Music Television), artists could only promote themselves and reach new audience segments through the radio.  Having only one avenue for exposure led to a lack of consumers' brand identification with artists and difficulties in building the type of loyalty that results in albums flying off the shelves.  The onset of MTV cultivated a new type of platform, through which labels and artists could now market to potential consumers through music videos.  The popularity of this new media format had an immediate impact on the music industry, and its prominence within the space has made music videos an important element of an artist's content creation, especially with the rise of media sharing sites such as YouTube. 

The establishment of MTV in 1981 brought about a new way for artists and management labels to advertise through music videos.  Music videos are primarily short films that play a song from an album, which back in its inception, were shown on TV channels. The music label and management of an artist/bands are able to control their image and save money by not having to take the artists on extensive promotional tours to build a following. Until MTV and music videos became popular, artists would only be seen at concerts or live public appearances; afterwards labels would be able to take one video, send it to MTV and have it streamed in many slots for mass viewing.  With repeated performances playing on MTV’s twenty-four hour channel, MTV provided the recording industry with a better alternative to simply advertising through words. 

MTV introduced a new way of advertising for artists through music videos, as well as the idea that a single song could market a full album.

The key element of MTV’s revolutionary method of music promotion was the creation of one, single song as the driving force in the marketing of an entire album.  While the concept of a 'single' seems commonplace in the music industry today, this manner of marketing an artist was not as typical at the time.  The success of one song would likely result in the video viewer going out to purchase the whole album. 

MTV's introduction of the music video ushered in a new art form that combined the audio aspects of the radio, as well as the visual imagery of the TV screen.

With the invention of the music video, artists were able to incorporate both audio and visual imagery together.  While hooking an audience with music quality and sound has always been integral to an artist’s success, familiarizing consumers with an artist’s style and persona via visual means could strengthen his or her brand. In that sense, the melody and lyrics of a song could only do so much.  The visual element that music videos added to the repertoire of an artist allowed for a deeper relationship between artist and fan, and in many ways helped provide an avenue for greater identification with an artist’s lyrics and themes.  The music video became a new and evolved art form for artists to not only expand their creative expression, but foster richer connection to fans by providing additional insights into their lives and emotions.

  

Artists were now able to express themselves visually through these music videos, and by doing so, create an image for themselves that would develop a larger fan base.

Aside from providing a new medium for marketing to a mass audience, music videos also allowed artists with a new ability to more personally craft an image for themselves.  This image would solidify the identity of the artists and cultivate a fan-base that was unique to him/her.  So, while MTV’s main focus was on providing entertainment to the public, its music videos also became tremendous cultural transmitters. Cultural transmission is defined as 'passing on culturally relevant knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, from person to person or group to group'.  Now an artist or band’s image became extremely important because they would be able to develop a ‘cult’-like following in which individuals who identified with them would desire to act and dress like them.  For example, hair bands and their establishment within culture of the 1980's was primarily due to success of bands such as the Motley Crue and the aesthetic of their fashion and look playing well on the music video format.  An end result to music videos having this element of cultural transmission allows them to set what is included in known culture. This helps to create new and loyal fans who wanted to be in on the trends. 

 

These music videos were the building blocks for popular video streaming sites, such as YouTube and Vevo, which now can also help aspiring artists get discovered.    

Data excerpted from 2014 Nielson Music U.S. Report 

MTV’s music videos became the   foundation for music videos  streamed on other platforms as well.  While “listening” to music might have once meant simply that, the modern method of consuming music frequently engages more than auditory senses. YouTube and Vevo are two such platforms that demonstrate the power of user-generated content in combination with audio and visual imagery.  Both sites allow users to upload, share, and watch videos.  MTV and its music videos paved the way for this development- they created a new demand and a new lust for music videos.  The popularity of these videos is astonishing – as shown on the Nielson chart shown above.  This chart displays the top music videos streamed in 2014.  Among the top three are Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass with ~188 million views, Idina Menzel’s Let It Go with ~183 million views, and Katy Perry’s Dark Horse with ~181 million views.  Additionally, music videos today play a key role in the music space beyond impacting the marketing plans for super stars like the above. With the popularity of media sharing sites such as YouTube, and the ease of sharebility afforded by social media, music videos, albeit at typically a lower production quality, can help aspiring artists get discovered. Megastars such as Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen both benefitted from the exposure of these channels, and “do it yourself” versions of the music video.

Music as we know and consume it today would never have been possible without the introduction of televised music videos by MTV.  From Video Killed the Radio Star, which aired on one MTV channel in 1981 to 2012’s Gangnam Style with over two billion hits on YouTube, music videos have certainly changed the way the world experiences music.