FEATURE:
Screen Dreams
PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Kaboompics/Pexels
Why Is There Virtually No Music T.V. in 2024?
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WHEN I was a child…
PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels
and teenager, there was an abundance of music T.V. I know that this was before the Internet took over and we had options like YouTube. I do not maintain that this has replaced the need for music on T.V. There two are very different. For a start, people do not often watch live music on YouTube and social media. Most people use that for music videos and interviews. In terms of seeing artists perform, television very much has an important role. Also, we still listen to artists perform on the radio. That medium has not really declined. I wonder why there is this disappearance of music T.V. Many assume that it is because music videos are not popular. That TikTok and Instagram has made it redundant. For one, music videos were popular back in the day because they were on television. I think that streaming makes people turn away from videos. If there was a bigger screen and focused way of looking at the latest videos, it would not only mean streamlining the masses of choices. I feel it may help revive that desire fort artists to push the artform so that they can see them on a music T.V. programme. In terms of social media, it has its place regarding promotion and spreading music. You can’t get the same experience of watching live performances, music videos, interviews and features from these platforms. It is more that a lack of options means people assume music T.V. is a thing of the past. We have the excellent and long-running Later… with Jools Holland. Over three decades, it has platformed so many incredible artists. It has its format and niche. I do maintain there is an opportunity for at least one competitor. A show that would have aspects of that – the live performances and interviews -, throwing in features, music news, and an array of other things. Maybe a magazine show mixed with those live performances, it would prove popular. I have said in previous features about music television how there have been attempts in the past. Formats that have not really worked.
I understand it is a hard thing to achieve. I recently read a feature in The Guardian that reported on the closure of music video channels. Fergal Kinney argues how music videos are in decline. That everything is reduced and tighter because of the needs and nature of TikTok. How there are reduced budgets so that you do not get these huge and ambitious videos. That rings true in a sense. I would say that music T.V. goes beyond the video. That live performances, classic videos and albums and all aspects of the music world have a place still on T.V. That we should not rely on the Internet. There is a community aspect to music T.V. Even so, it is sad that closures and reductions mean that nearly all music T.V. is now through the Internet:
“Channel 4 have announced the closure of The Box, 4Music, Kiss, Magic and Kerrang! on 1 July, amid declining eyeballs on linear TV, rising operating costs and plummeting advertising revenue. The stations – which served a hard-to-reach national audience often underserved by the music industry – now “no longer deliver revenues or public value at scale”.
After the rollout of digital UK satellite television in 1998, the new millennium saw an arms race in music broadcasting as corporate boardrooms targeted the bored and music-loving teenager. At their peak, between 2003 and 2010, there were nearly 40 rolling music video channels available in the UK.
While MTV Select, which ran on viewers’ requests, was an early education in democracy (disappointing), shows like VH2’s The Next Song Will Be Great implicitly understood the gamed, double-your-money promise of music TV on young minds. A show about the 100 Best Videos Ever became a highbrow seminar on auteurs such as Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry, and was where I first encountered groundbreaking videos such as Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy, Bjork’s All Is Full of Love and New Order’s Bauhaus-influenced True Faith.
That collision of eras and styles is important. Much has been made of how 2010s streaming flattened 60 years of pop history, but for millions it was the music channels that got there first. This had implications: despite the best efforts of MTV2’s Zane Lowe-fronted Gonzo interview show, it was hard to be quite so thrilled by indie acts such as the Pigeon Detectives and Babyshambles once they were juxtaposed with their obvious indie influences, the Smiths or the Cure. Later, Simon Reynolds theorised about pop music’s addiction to the past, but here was the first time I witnessed contemporary music culture’s fight for oxygen against its own history.
Music TV could foster strange pleasures, too – and I don’t just mean staying up late to catch the version of Rock DJ that doesn’t cut before Robbie Williams rips off his own skin. Grownups would be bemused why, aged 14, I knew all the words to Cliff Richard’s Wired for Sound, but I’d become hooked by the Milton Keynes roller-skating video of this Magic TV mainstay.
In the 2020s, linear music TV is a dispiriting experience: a carve-up between Jools Holland, BBC Four’s Friday night archive Top of the Pops programme and Sky Arts’ bewildering clash of Andrea Bocelli arena shows and boomer-friendly reunion rock. What remains of music TV is nostalgia for an ageing broadcast audience: Tony Blackburn’s That’s 60s channel or Mike Read’s Heritage Chart Show. Like a lot of things about living in the UK, it is run poorly, without love, and in the slavish service of an imagined community of retirees”.
The fact that nostalgia music television is popular is not only about reliving the past. There are aspects of those shows that can be translate and updated for modern audiences. Music venues are closing and struggling. They are under-financed. Music television has that opportunity to provide exposure and opportunity for rising artists and established alike. At a time when so many artists price fans out, it is this affordable option to see them perform. New music videos of any budget could be shown. It means they are not overlooked. Artists would feel inspired to reinvest in music videos. Mixing in older albums and nostalgia together with the cutting edge. A variety of genres and artists featured. Discussion and interviews. Music T.V. is not just about videos. There is so much to feature and highlight. The sad thing is that there is not enough investment in and care of a previous institution. I like the fact that Later… with Jools Holland continues and shows no signs of ending. That proves that music T.V. is not dead. It is about getting the right format. When that does happen, the market could grow. Lacking investment and faith in music T.V. is a dangerous thing. The more we lean into TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, the more insular and private music becomes. Songs and videos get shorter. Also, TikTok seems aimed at younger music fans and artists. Where do older artists find a space and crowd?! The vinyl revival and growth shows there is a lust for the tangible. People wanting something that last longer than digital music. I feel the same about music television. A longer-form show where you have to engage, rather than watch short videos or rely on having a short attention span. The death of music television is not here yet. We need to ensure that it never is. One of the reasons I am so passionate about music is because of music T.V. and all that it gave to people of my gnereation. To lose that would damage and deny the new generations coming through. To ignore and discount music television would be…
A real tragedy.