Music television

Genre of television programming
the US TV network whose initials mean "Music Television"
Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite, cable, or Streaming Platforms. Music television channels may host their own shows and charts and award prizes. Examples are MTV, Channel UFX, 4Music, 40 TV, Channel V, VIVA, Scuzz, MuchMusic, Kerrang! TV, RAC 105 TV, VH1, Fuse TV and Palladia.

Prior to the 1950s most musical broadcasts were on a radio format. Most radio broadcasts were live music such as Classical music broadcasts—for example, the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In the 1950s broadcast television such as NBC, CBS, and ABC sought to move their popular radio broadcasts to a television format, such as Texaco Star Theater, which went from a radio broadcast to a telecast. As networks continued to abandon radio for popular music broadcasting, the recording industry sought to influence sales by using television as a new vessel for promoting for their artists. The coordination between record companies and television saw the incorporation of musical acts in variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–1971), The Stage Show (1954–1956), and Texaco Star Theater (1948–1956). Columbia records was the first to utilize this method by coordinating the release of a song on CBS's Studio One and then releasing it on audio format by the label on the next day. This practice introduced the success of the televised format for musical promotion. Performers doing specials on variety shows also became common on television. Elvis Presley performed on numerous variety shows over the span of multiple per episodes, playing rock and roll music. His most controversial performance was his appearance on Texaco Star Theater where he did his now signature dance moves of thrusting his pelvis suggestively during a performance of "You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog". This performance served as an opening to have younger and newer music targeted at a younger demographic; previously broadcasts were typically targeted towards the adult audience.

In the 1960s NBC, CBS and ABC formed most of the music television market establishing themselves as the main sources for current music. The shift in production modality started to attract corporate sponsorships such as Ford, who used ad space in The Lively Ones to promote the Fairlane sedan to young car buyers. the first television 24 hour cable network completely dedicated the broadcast of music videos. MTV was pitched to reach and profit from the young adult demographic. The purpose of MTV was to reuse previously made content by record labels for international audiences, which was free, and televise them in America in a top 40 Hits format. In the late 1980s and early 90s MTV began cultivating a lifestyle for teen and college aged student. As video clips began to develop certain images for artist, such as Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, and New Kids on The Block, clothes and paraphernalia for these acts were also marketed along with the distribution of music. Network television started to broadcast reality television shows that were related but not centered to industry musical acts such as MTV Cribs, American Idol, and America's Got Talent which drew larger audiences than music videos. In the 2010s came the appeal of providing more dynamic and fast content such as YouTube channels to premiere music videos and social media accounts with the purpose of staying relevant and continuing to distribute content to the adolescent college age demographic.

The impact that television music has had on music culture is that it allowed for aesthetic and personal style to the lead in terms of importance over sound in popular music. The impact that MTV specifically had was that it was a window into popular trends and clothes fame achieved through television was an integral part of the star making process for the music industry. In the late 90s the expense of creating music video grew from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands which made them less appealing as an easy market source. Starting in early 2000s YouTube and Myspace started removing the need to pay broadcasters for air time and the music industry had found a free replacement. following the launch of VEVO in 2009 the increase of music videos consumed on internet platform surpassed the expectation of record labels. Another aspect that lead to depletion of the effects of music television is that record companies were cutting video budgets and industry paper and moved most up to date content to digital platforms.