FEATURE:
Box Clever
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Could There Be a Music T.V. Revival in 2021?
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ON this site…
IMAGE CREDIT: MTV
I have written about music T.V. quite a bit through the years. I grew up watching MTV, VH1, and any other form of music T.V. there was available at the time in the 1980s and 1990s. To me, it was the most instant way of bonding with what was happening in music and, when it came to discovery, every week brought new bounty! It could be said that the Internet has replaced the usefulness of music T.V. and, in fact, with Spotify playlists and radio in general, do we actually need anything on T.V. at all!? I would argue that there is an appetite and definite need for music television. Just to side-step a bit, and I also like the idea of a T.V. series that features music of a particular period. There is a Netflix show coming, Everything Sucks!, that is set in 1996 and, no doubt, will explore the soundtrack of the time. In another upcoming T.V. series where the ‘80s Two Tone scene is to be explored, it shows that creators and stations are at least eager to commission shows that feature music at their heart. I have always felt that a 1990s-set T.V. series would not only provide a perfect opportunity to deliver a mixtape of all the varied sounds of the decade, but it would also feed in the culture and political events of the time. Sort of like High Fidelity, the show could feature a record shop or be set in the music industry – like the U.S. series, Vinyl -, and there would be definite value in having a series that has a great central plot and characters; one that grips you and mixes humour and seriousness, combined with a terrific soundtrack.
That is just me imagining but, looking around, and I can’t really see anything like that about at the moment – and I am not quite sure why. Returning to the subject of music T.V. and, perhaps alongside an original series, there does need to be a platform that allows artists to perform and, to some extent, return to the sort of shows we had decades ago. I guess something like Top of the Pops might be out of the question as, not only was it cancelled in 2006, but I think it would just seem odd and forced – and could you really summon up the magic and unashamed cheesiness of that show in the modern age?! It would be more like what we have now with Jools Holland’s Later… show. This is really the only U.K. music T.V. show, and it has been on the BBC since 1992. I do really love the show as the premise is simple: each week/edition, a selection of eclectic artists perform in the studio and there are interviews too. Some have criticised the show for not moving on and for seeming a bit outdated. I feel that the situation we have now is really strange. Jools Holland’s show is not on every week and, for regular T.V. music content, one has to watch cooking or politics shows! I have raised this before, but it seems insane that the only live music one sees on T.V. is on shows that have nothing to do with music.
I know there have been ill-fated attempts at music shows in the recent past – such as the BBC’s Sounds like Friday Night ,- but I think the format was wrong on that show and it was targeted at quite a narrow demographic – very much the BBC Radio 1 crowd. It was good that this show existed but, as it only ran briefly between 2017-2018, I do think there is an opportunity to kickstart something in 2021. I think it has been great that artists have streamed gigs and connected with fans during the pandemic, and there has been more of that visual interaction than we have seen in years. I do feel like a weekly T.V. show would be popular if the concept was right. There are so many rising artists and great musicians who want that platform; there is such a variation of great music in the underground and mainstream artists who could combine on a show. It would be similar to Holland’s show, but there is that opportunity to stretch the concept to include more features. I think Sounds Like Friday Night failed is because it was throwing in comedy sketches and the artists featured were very much narrowed to a young audience. A new show could include more in the way of range, and there are features that could appear. Not to tread on what I have said in the past, but there could be music news, a classic album feature; maybe clips from the music archives (and bits of older T.V. shows), spotlighting of a particular venue each week and so many other things.
It could be quite a packed show that has a good amount of live performances, but there is also these breaks with interesting and promising features/segments. Getting the hosts right would be a challenge, but there are plenty of worthy candidates out there who could more than handle the show and make it a big success. I wrote about music T.V. a while back and got a response that suggested so many artists out there would be open to the show and it would be long-overdue that they had this opportunity to perform on a bigger stage/format. As much as anything, I do not feel that the Internet can replace music T.V. or provide the same sort of benefit. Especially with live gigs being delayed until next year, it is clear that the appetite and demand for live music intense, and next year will see an explosion of popularity and new gigs. With many venues under threat, I do think having a ‘T.V. venue’, as it were, would be useful. I don’t know what other people reckon, but I refuse to believe that music T.V. is a thing of the past and the modern age has rendered it worthless. The fact there are live performances (as such) on T.V. proves that artists need that sort of promotion and there is a chance to create a new long-running format in 2021 that could elicit some of the thrill and memories of the classic music T.V. shows - and have something modern that would reach a lot of people and succeed in its own right. If a balance can be struck and the format is just so, then I think a great new music T.V. show could…
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