Showing posts with label MTV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MTV. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

MTV Video of the Year Awards, 1984-2024

MTV:

Videos of the Year, 1984-2024

Three years after the birth of music television with MTV, the network introduced its annual video awards. While multiple categories were established, this page recognizes just those songs which won for Video of the Year. Originally winners were determined by a panel of music video directors, producers, and record company executives, but viewers have voted on the winners since 2006.

Check out other “songs of the year” lists here.

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First posted 1/28/2021; last updated 1/4/2025.

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Friday, November 3, 2023

Aural Fixation: Today’s Music Doesn’t Suck. You’re Just Lazy.

Aural Fixation:

Today’s Music Doesn’t Suck. You’re Just Lazy.

“Aural Fixation” is a music-themed column I wrote for PopMatters.com from 2011-2013. They are no longer online there, but I have reformatted them here at the DMDB blog with additional videos, photos, and links, such as where to buy referenced albums. I have also used the title “Aural Fixation” for any essays I have written outside of PopMatters.com as well. To see the essays, check out the Dave’s Music Database Aural Fixation page.

The essays from PopMatters.com have been gathered in book form as Aural Fixation: Essays from a Music Obsessive. Essays written from 2009 to 2011 have been gathered in the book No One Needs 21 Versions of “Purple Haze”. You can purchase the essays in book format here.

Nothing screams, “I’ve arrived! I’m now irrelevant!” more than the petulant whine that “Today’s music sucks.” It’s almost a litmus test to acquire one’s AARP card or get that ten-percent senior discount on coffee at the local eatery.

However, it isn’t just Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) and Generation Xers (born 1965-1980) raising canes and screaming at young whippersnappers to get off their lawns. Some millennials (born 1981-1996) have even acquired “grumpy old men” status. An article in Global News says people start dismissing new music around the age of 33. “They find modern music less relatable than what they were listening to during their crucial coming-of-age musical years (approximately 13 to 23).” GN

A study in Music and Science confirms that people “disproportionately recall memories from when they were 10 to 30 years old.” NS When it comes to music, people are more likely to know music from and choose their favorites from this era. NS In other words, regardless of age, people will reminisce more fondly about the music of their youth.

The study cited in Global News also explains that those with three decades under their belt are more likely to return to the era of their youth and mine stuff they overlooked the first time around than to explore more recently made music. GN No problem. There’s no mandate to embrace the new. However, if you’ve chanted any of the following mantras, you’ve proclaimed that you’ve given up.

  • Radio never plays anything good anymore.
  • MTV used to play actual music.
  • We didn’t need autotune in my day.

Technology has continued to grow even if you haven’t. Guess what? Radio and MTV are not where it’s at anymore. Here’s a revelation for you – music isn’t – and most likely has never been – marketed to your age group. Since the rock and roll era launched in the 1950s, music has been targeted to the youth. That means if you’re over thirty years old, you might have to work a bit harder to find music you like. It isn’t spoon fed to you anymore.

The good news is that if you’ll put in a little effort you have more opportunity for new music discovery than ever before. According to an article from Music Business Worldwide, 43 million new tracks will have been uploaded to Spotify and other music streaming services by the end of 2023. MB To dismiss all of today’s music would therefore require listening to 120,000 new songs a day MB and not liking a lick of it. Not one song. One melody. One note.

That’s a helluva lot of music to dismiss. You sound pretty stupid to say you don’t like anything from an entire era of music, especially when you’ve barely listened to any of it. Let’s also consider how a proclamation that “today’s music sucks” requires the complete setting aside of irony. After all, didn’t we universally roll our eyes at our parents for telling us our music was crap? How is it different now? Why can we toss aside our kids and grandkids’ taste without cringing even slightly at our hypocrisy?

Here’s some truth for you. It’s possible to enjoy your music – from whatever era, whatever genre – without condemning others’ tastes. I know! It sounds unbelievable, but it’s true. Look, I get it. People are very passionate about their music. Music is very personal to people. That, however, is exactly why not to lash out at others’ tastes. I believe music is more connected to one’s soul than any other art form. People care deeply about their music. When you attack another person’s music, you attack their souls.

Take it from Plato, the Greek philosopher born 2400 years ago. He said, music “gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything.” He also said, “Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.”

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First posted 11/3/2023.

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Saturday, October 21, 2023

The Top 100 Videos of All Time

Music Videos:

All-Time Top 100

This was the first best-of list posted on the DMDB Facebook page back on February 5, 2010. It has been updated to include an aggregate of more than 70 lists in addition to various video awards and YouTube plays. See sources at bottom of page.

Spotify Podcast:

Check out the Dave’s Music Database podcast 40th Anniversary of MTV based on this list.

1. Michael Jackson “Thriller” (1983)
2. Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer” (1986)
3. Aha “Take on Me” (1985)
4. Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
5. Beastie Boys “Sabotage” (1994)
6. Fatboy Slim “Weapon of Choice” (2001)
7. Dire Straits “Money for Nothing” (1985)
8. Madonna “Like a Prayer” (1989)
9. Guns N’ Roses “November Rain” (1992)
10. Johnny Cash “Hurt” (2003)

11. Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” (1983)
12. Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity” (1997)
13. Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U” (1990)
14. Pearl Jam “Jeremy” (1993)
15. Run-D.M.C. with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler & Joe Perry “Walk This Way” (1986)
16. Smashing Pumpkins “Tonight, Tonight” (1996)
17. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee “Despacito” (2017)
18. Talking Heads “Once in a Lifetime” (1981)
19. R.E.M. “Losing My Religion” (1991)
20. Foo Fighters “Learn to Fly” (1999)

21. Beyoncé “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) ” (2008)
22. Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975)
23. Madonna “Vogue” (1990)
24. Weezer “Buddy Holly” (1995)
25. Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf” (1982)
26. Cyndi Lauper “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1983)
27. The Police “Every Breath You Take” (1983)
28. Pinkfong! Kids’ Songs “Baby Shark Dance” (2016)
29. Nine Inch Nails “Closer” (1994)
30. OK Go “Here It Goes Again” (2006)

31. Britney Spears “Baby One More Time” (1999)
32. OutKast “Hey Ya!” (2004)
33. Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” (1983)
34. Robert Palmer “Addicted to Love” (1986)
35. Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” (2009)
36. Michael Jackson “Beat It” (1983)
37. Fatboy Slim “Praise You” (1999)
38. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers “Don’t Come Around Here No More” (1985)
39. The Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star” (1979)
40. Metallica “One” (1989)

41. The White Stripes “Fell in Love with a Girl” (2002)
42. Psy “Gangnam Style” (2012)
43. The Cars “You Might Think” (1984)
44. Blur “Coffee + TV” (1999)
45. Herbie Hancock “Rock-It” (1983)
46. Chris Isaak “Wicked Game” (1991)
47. Ed Sheeran “Shape of You” (2017)
48. Korn “Freak on a Leash” (1999)
49. Marc Ronson & Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk!” (2014)
50. Michael Jackson with Janet Jackson “Scream” (1995)

51. New Order “True Faith” (1987)
52. Wiz Khalifa & Charlie Puth “See You Again” (2015)
53. Aerosmith “Janie’s Got a Gun” (1990)
54. Nirvana “Heart-Shaped Box” (1993)
55. George Michael “Freedom ’90” (1990)
56. The Replacements “Bastards of Young” (1985)
57. Madonna “Express Yourself” (1989)
58. Justin Bieber “Sorry” (2015)
59. TLC “Waterfalls” (1995)
60. Red Hot Chili Peppers “Californication” (2000)

61. Don Henley “The Boys of Summer” (1984)
62. Eminem “Without Me” (2002)
63. Soundgarden “Black Hole Sun” (1994)
64. David Bowie “Ashes to Ashes” (1980)
65. Radiohead “Just” (1995)
66. Taylor Swft “Blank Space” (2014)
67. Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (1988)
68. Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” (1987)
69. Van Halen “Right Now” (1992)
70. Van Halen “Hot for Teacher” (1984)

71. Madonna “Ray of Light” (1998)
72. Duran Duran “Girls on Film” (1981)
73. R.E.M. “Everybody Hurts” (1993)
74. Camila Cabello with Young Thug “Havana” (2017)
75. The Prodigy “Smack My Bitch Up” (1997)
76. Maroon 5 “Sugar” (2014)
77. Justin Timberlake “Cry Me a River” (2003)
78. Tupac Shakur (2pac) with Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman “California Love” (1996)
79. Adele “Rolling in the Deep” (2010)
80. Adele “Hello” (2015)

81. Ed Sheeran “Thinking Out Loud” (2014)
82. Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1967)
83. Maroon 5 with Cardi B “Girls Like You” (2017)
84. Madonna “Justify My Love” (1990)
85. Alanis Morissette “Ironic” (1996)
86. Genesis “Land of Confusion” (1986)
87. Katy Perry & Juicy J “Dark Horse” (2013)
88. Van Halen “Jump” (1983)
89. Aerosmith “Cryin’” (1994)
90. Madonna “Material Girl” (1985)

91. INXS “Need You Tonight/Mediate” (1988)
92. Pharrell Williams “Happy” (2013)
93. Rihanna with Calvin Harris “We Found Love” (2011)
94. Taylor Swift & Kendrick Lamar “Bad Blood” (2014)
95. Christina Aguilera with Redman “Dirrty” (2002)
96. Katy Perry “Roar” (2013)
97. Metallica “Enter Sandman” (1991)
98. The Verve “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (1997)
99. Kendrick Lamar “Humble” (2017)
100. Michael Jackson “Black or White” (1991)

Annual Awards:

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First posted 2/5/2010; last updated 10/21/2023.

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Sunday, August 1, 2021

The 40th Anniversary of MTV

In celebration of MTV’s 40th anniversary, this is a snapshot of significant dates and videos in the network’s early years. This page covers from MTV’s beginnings on August 1, 1981 to the point when the network started to shift away from music and more toward general youth programming in 1992.

Spotify Podcast:

Check out the Dave’s Music Database podcast episode The Birth of MTV which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the cable network by showcasing some of the videos that were instrumental in establishing the format. It debuted August 3, 2021.

August 1, 1981: The Launch of MTV

The first video to air on the brand new network was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. You can see a full list of all the videos which aired during the first 24 hours here.

1982: Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf”

Duran Duran were one of the first bands to become stars because of their videos. The early days of MTV were marked by a lot of videos from British new wave bands. Duran Duran were photogenic, had catchy songs, and grasped the power of video. “Hungry Like the Wolf” was shot in Sri Lanka and captured the atmosphere of the movie The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

March 10, 1983: “Billie Jean” Breaks the Color Barrier

Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” had already hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 when MTV aired the video for the first time. The video has been credited with breaking the network’s color barrier, which isn’t entirely accurate. The network was dominated by white, album-oriented artists, but they did play some black artists. However, “Billie Jean” was considered the video to knock down the doors, a move largely attributed to the president of CBS Records threatening to pull all the label’s videos from the network if they didn’t air “Billie Jean.” That year, Prince, Eddy Grant, Donna Summer, Herbie Hancock, and Lionel Richie followed with videos in heavy rotation.

December 2, 1983: “Thriller” premiered

By the end of 1983, Michael Jackson was the biggest music star on the planet, making the premiere of his epic video for “Thriller” a monumental event. The $900,000 budget was the biggest ever for a music video at the time. John Landis, who’d done An American Werewolf in London, directed the nearly-fourteen-minute, zombie-themed mini-movie and it transformed music videos into a serious art form. It ranks #1 on the Dave’s Music Database list of the Top 100 Videos of All Time.

March 9, 1984: First Top 20 Video Countdown

Four of the videos featured on the first countdown rank in the Dave’s Music Database list of the Top 100 Videos of All Time – the aforementioned “Thriller” at #14, “You Might Think” at #9, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” at #7, and “Jump” at #2. The #1 video that week was Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose.” You can see the full top 20 here.

“You Might Think” had just premiered on MTV that week. It would go on to be the first Video of the Year winner.

September 14, 1984: First Video Music Awards

Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler served as hosts for MTV’s first annual Music Video Awards (often abbreviated as VMAs) ceremony, held at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Among the awards given out were Video of the Year to the aforementioned “You Might Think” by the Cars, Female Video to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” Male Video to David Bowie’s “China Girl,” Group Video to ZZ Top’s “Legs,” and Best New Artist Video to Eurythmics for “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.”

The most memorable point of the night came not from an award winner, but a performance. Madonna debuted her song “Like a Virgin” dressed in a bridal gown and making waves by writhing around on the floor. One of the comments on the YouTube post said it “was the equivalent of breaking the Internet in the 80s.”

Check out the links below to see annual winners for various MTV video awards:

1985: aha “Take on Me”

“Take on Me” was first released in October 1984 and was a hit in a-ha’s native Norway, but didn’t gain an international audience. They re-recorded the song and shot a new video with director Steve Barron, who’d also directed Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me?.” The combination of live action and pencil-sketch animation took 16 weeks to finish. It won six awards at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards and ranks at #3 on the DMDB’s top 100 videos list.

1985: Dire Straits “Money for Nothing”

Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler was inspired to write “Money for Nothing” after overhearing a delivery man in an appliance store lamenting how easy musicians had it. The video played up the same idea with computer-animated versions of two working-class guys commenting on music videos. It ranks at #7 on the DMDB’s top 100 videos list and won Video of the Year in 1986.

March 10, 1986: 120 Minutes Premiered

The show focused on alternative rock and underground videos. One of the most celebrated videos of all time, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991),” made its debut on the network during the program. The classic which is largely credited as the quintessential grunge song ranks #4 on the DMDB’s top 100 videos list.

1986: Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer”

The groundbreaking video combined claymation, pixilation, and stop-motion animation. Gabriel had to lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while the video was filmed one frame at a time. Although MTV didn’t say how many plays it had received, they revealed in 2000 that “Sledgehammer” was the most played video in their history. Nine of the top 10 were from the 1980s. See the article here. The video ranks at #2 on the DMDB’s top 100 videos list, and won the Video of the Year in 1987 as well as eight other awards.

April 18, 1987: The Headbangers’ Ball Premiered

The show focused on heavy metal music. Guns N’ Roses first appeared on the show in October to promote their Appetite for Destruction album and trashed the set. Their single at the time, “Welcome to the Jungle,” became a top 10 hit on the pop charts in 1988 after the success of their #1 single “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Both songs appear on the DMDB’s top 100 videos list.

August 6, 1988: Yo! MTV Raps Premiered

The show celebrated hip-hop music. Run-DMC became one of the most important rap acts of the 1980s. Their song “Rock Box,” from 1984, was the first rap video in rotation on MTV. Their 1986 remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” was the first top 10 rap hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The inventive video cheekily pitted Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry against the rap trio in a battle to see who could outdo the other with them covering together in the end. It appears at #17 on the DMDB’s top 100 videos list.

November 26, 1989: MTV Unplugged Premiered

The show featured artists performing their songs acoustically. Early episodes featured a variety of artists. The very first episode included Squeeze, Syd Straw, and Elliot Easton. Later episodes focused on big-name stars, including Tony Bennett, Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Nirvana, Rod Stewart, and Neil Young. Many of the Unplugged performances were released as albums. Eric Clapton’s was the most successful, going ten times platinum and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year.

May 21, 1992: Real World Premiered

This unscripted TV show followed seven real people thrown into a house together and filmed to see how they interacted. Not only did it launch reality shows, but it marked a shift in MTV’s programming from exclusively music-based to more teen and young-adult programming. Many have since lamented the disappearance of “music” from “Music Television.” In fact, the network did eventually just go by “MTV” and did not refer to itself as Music Television anymore.

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First posted 8/1/2021.

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Friday, April 26, 2013

The Death Knell Sounds Again: The History of Music Industry Whining

Originally published in my "Aural Fixation" column on PopMatters.com on April 25, 2013. See original post here.

image from tumblr.com

If the Chicken Little music industry pundits are to be believed, the sky is falling. A business which makes billions of dollars a year can’t stop whining about how illegal downloading, streaming, and Internet radio are sending them to the poor house. There’s one problem with their complaints – we’ve been hearing them since the beginning of recorded music history more than a century ago.
I blame Thomas Edison. Thanks to his indefatigable curiosity and perpetual instinct to invent, he steered the world into the dawn of a new age: recorded music history. In 1877, he laid down a recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, and shortly thereafter, we fell down the rabbit hole.

If it weren’t for his voice-recording phonograph, we might not presently be enduring the horrible curse of being able to listen to any music we want anytime, anywhere, and any way we choose. Damn you, Mr. Edison! Look what fury you hath wrought!

Edison ruined the music industry – or at least how the form in which it was known 136 years ago. Before the invention of sound recording, the music business was built on sheet music sales. Once Edison let the cat out of the bag, the big bucks moved to recording music, away from sheet music distribution.

image from heykiki.com

Stuart Banner wrote a piece for Bloomberg.com (“The First Time Tech Ruined the Music Business”, 14 December 2012) stating:

“The music business was in turmoil at the turn of the century. Technological innovation had made songs much easier to copy, and established artists foresaw their sales plummeting. The companies that had once dominated the industry were rapidly losing ground to upstarts who produced new devices for playing music. The established companies urged Congress to tighten up the law to prohibit copying, while the innovators argued that any such change would only harm consumers.”

Here’s the kicker. While this sounds like a modern assessment of the music industry, it actually describes the state of the business in 1900. Record execs haven’t stopped griping since.

So let’s take a look at the current reasons why a multi-billion-dollar industry would have the public belief the whole system is falling apart – and when these supposedly new problems first surfaced.

The music industry can’t survive with competing formats or delivery systems.

We’ve heard for more than a decade how the compact disc is suffering a slow death at the hands of the MP3. Clearly this is a late-20th/early-21st century development, right? Uh, no. Try 19th century.

Edison's phonograph, image from wikipedia.org

Within roughly a decade of Edison’s invention of the phonograph, Emile Berliner thrust his alternative, the gramophone, upon the world in 1888. It relied on a disc instead of a cylinder, thus introducing the first “my format’s better than your format” battle.

Thankfully, the dilemma never reared its ugly head again – except for the introduction of piano rolls (1896), 78 RPM records (1906), 33 1/3 RPM records (1928), the LP (1948), the 7” single (1951), the cassette (1964), the 8-track (1966), the compact disc (1978), MTV (1981), the MP3 (1990), streaming (1995), Napster (1999), Pandora (2000), iTunes (2003), YouTube (2005), and Spotify (2008). If some of these dates sound earlier than you expected, well, let that be a lesson to you. These formats did not storm the industry and decimate them overnight.  (Source: PBS.org (““Chronology: Technology and the Music Industry”, 24 May 2004).

image from rateyourmusic.com

The industry can’t compete with free, or nearly free distribution of music.

Record companies have lobbed their legal heft at Internet radio and streaming services like Pandora and Spotify in the claim that such services are ruining the recording industry. However, radio first “threatened” the music business over 80 years ago.

image from thesociety.org.au

The ‘20s saw the mass-production of commercial radio. Record companies were so terrified of the new medium that they signed their major artists to contracts forbidding them from doing radio work. As we all know, once every household in America had a radio, recorded music went away forever.

image from sheltonstella.files.wordpress.com

Oh, wait. It didn’t. As has happened dozens of times, the music industry adapted – even if it had to get over its initially panicked reaction, first – and transformed radio into a means to promote music sales.

As for the effect of modern-day services like Pandora and Spotify, Hugo Vanessen notes in a Storify.com article (“The Effect of Spotify and Pandora on the Music Industry”, March 2013) that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said sales actually saw a slight rise in 2012 after 14 years of decline. The article suggests the industry may owe the turn of fortune to Spotify and Pandora. Spotify founder Daniel Ek is quoted in the article as saying, “Old media are always afraid of new media… because when a new media appears on the scene you have to change in order to keep up.” In other words, if the industry would stop panicking and embrace progress, it would be much better off.

No one will buy music if they can listen and share for free.

This brings us to the dumbest move in the music business in recent memory. After Napster hit in 1999, peer-to-peer file sharing exploded. Convinced illegal downloading would bring the industry to its knees, record companies screamed bloody murder and got the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to take on the image-shattering move of suing everyday music fans. After all, if your customer is fleeing from your company, the best way to woo them back is to chase them down with a legal machete and mercilessly (and publicly) flog them, right?

image from news.cnet.com

As far back as the 1890s, the invention of the jukebox meant no one needed to buy music for their home ever again. At the height of its popularity in the ‘50s, the jukebox was a staple at diners and drive-ins. Teens could hang out with friends at the local burger joint and wait for someone else to drop a dime to listen to the latest rock ‘n’ roll chartbuster. Ah, that fateful day when the record companies announced they were closing up shop for good because no one was buying music, anymore.

Oh wait. That didn’t happen? Well, at least not until blank cassettes threatened to destroy the sale of the beloved LP. The record honchos got the 1909 Copyright Statute amended in 1971 so that those horrible teens who swapped albums with friends could be chased down with legal machetes and mercilessly (and publicly) flogged. Wait – is anyone else experiencing déjà vu?

image from theocmd.com

Don’t shed too many tears for those poor record execs. In the ‘80s, they pulled off a major coup: a percentage of the profits from the sale of every blank tape. Once again, they managed to weather the storm.

The availability of individual songs will kill the album.

In 1948, the 12” disc, better known as the LP, was introduced. Within three years, a 7” format – the single – hit the market. The funeral procession for the death of the music industry began immediately.

image from microcosmologist.com

Yeah, yeah. I think you see the pattern by now. The reality was that both formats stuck around for decades and gave customers choices. Of course, with billions of potential bucks to be made, the record company fat cats considered customer choice a negative factor on their bottom lines and set out to destroy the single.

In the ‘80s, blockbuster albums like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., and Prince’s Purple Rain generated hit after hit and sent fans to record stores in droves. By the ‘90s, record company execs made a concentrated effort to squash the single, often creating massive radio hits (No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak”, Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris”) which weren’t available as commercially available singles. Fans had no choice but to buy the more expensive album.

The CD Era: Death of the Single,
image from blogs.houstonpress.com

Think of it like this. If you go to the grocery store to buy potatoes, they are available individually or by the bag. In the digital age, the return of customer choice – and the ability to buy one song at a time – sent the music biz into a tizzy because it can no longer sell you a sack of potatoes when you only want one. Let the violins play.

* * *

I won’t deny that record companies have taken a hit in the 21st century. However, for all their finger-pointing, they may be pointing at the wrong culprits. In an ABC.net article (“The real reason why the music industry collapsed”, 25 May 2012), Nick Ross graphs the number of albums sold per person from 1973 to 2009. There’s an obvious spike in the ‘90s to more than five album purchases per person. The number peaked in 1994, so when Napster launched five years later, the numbers were already in decline. Numbers dipped back to pre-‘90s levels of two to four album purchases per person. The record industry didn’t so much tank as return to normalcy. 

Matthew Lasar acknowledges in an arstechnica.com article (“Did file-sharing cause recording industry collapse? Economists say no”, 23 March 2011) that global recorded music sales had dropped to about $15 billion in 2010 after being just shy of $27 billion in 2000. However, he argues, these numbers coincide with a global economic downturn in the ‘00s.

image from arstechnica.net

A graph at Ultimate-Guitar.com (“Why Music Industry Observations Suck”, 1 November 2011) looks at US sales dating back to 1999 up to projected sales for 2014. It suggests that since 2009, sales have practically leveled off to just shy of $6 billion a year.

Wake up, music industry folks. Technology and consumers are constantly evolving. Instead of fighting to derail technological advances in the music industry you are certain will destroy your livelihood. Figure out how to embrace change. Or don’t. It doesn’t matter. Music, and the way it is delivered and heard, will change whether you like it or not. If you want to blame anyone, though, I say it’s that evil Thomas Edison’s fault.

Thomas Edison with - an iPopd?,
image from farm4.staticflickr.com

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Generation X Wants Its MTV, But It’s a VEVO World Now

Originally published in my "Aural Fixation" column on PopMatters.com on August 29, 2012. See original post here.

image from imageshack.us

Gen X’ers may still want their MTV, but the version they loved is as distant a memory as Valley Girl speak, parachute pants, and leg warmers. Wake up and smell the VEVO.
In the summer of 1981, I was psyching myself up for the treacherous journey known as high school. With my geek identity already firmly in place, my adolescence would not be marked by dances, football games, and parties. No, I was destined to wile away my teen years in my parents’ basement consumed by television, music, and crushes on unattainable celebrities.

Luckily, a source for satisfying all three of those needs entered the world that same summer. MTV, born on the 1st of August in 1981, soundtracked not just my youth, but an entire generation. Kids finally saw what some of their favorite artists looked like and were exposed to new music absent from radio playlists. The channel’s programming was dominated by three-to-four minute music promos designed to steer kids directly to the latest mall to unload their allowances at Musicland, Sam Goody, and Camelot.

Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, J.J. Jackson, and Alan Hunter served as navigators and heartthrobs, ushering in a new era where the jockeys who plugged the hits didn’t just have to sound good, but look good. They became stars as big as the musicians they touted.

Fast forward 30 years and the music video’s homeland has shifted from television to the Internet. The territory once staked by MTV has been snatched up by YouTube – with a huge caveat. Much to the dismay of record companies, the Web belongs to everyone. The dawn of the digital age put illegal downloads in the hard drives of anyone with a browser. YouTube allows any owner of a smart phone to post content which may or may not be copyrighted.

Along came VEVO to serve as the delivery system for “official” videos. To pat themselves on the back, they introduced certified awards this past summer. The awards, modeled after gold and platinum records for albums and singles, recognizes VEVO videos seen by more than 100 million pairs of eyeballs.

Being a list addict, I lapped it up. However, the average Gen X’er might be more inclined to throw up. This isn’t a list populated by early classics like Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” or Def Leppard’s “Photograph”. In today’s YouTube world, Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” rule the roost.

Justin Bieber's "Baby", #1 on the VEVO list

In fact, as of mid-August, 79 of the 100 videos on the VEVO list are from 2009 on. Only two videos date back to the 20th century: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1983) and Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” (1992).

Those two videos could bookend what Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum call the “Golden Age” of MTV (1981-1992) in their book, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (Dutton, 2011). On my Dave’s Music Database blog, I aggregated more than 50 sources into a post on the Top 100 Videos of All Time. It serves as a vivid walk down memory lane for anyone who spent the Golden Age plopped in front of the tube. More than half the videos stem from that era and a mere 13 hail from the 21st century. The newest song on the list, Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” from 2008, is ancient by VEVO standards.

Why such a drastic change? Among Marks and Tannenbaum’s rationale for capping the Golden Age at 1992 was the birth of reality programming. That year’s show The Real World signified a move away from music videos which, in the minds of Gen X’ers, destroyed MTV.

Check out the comments section on YouTube videos for MTV ads and promos of yesteryear. The scathing attacks start with the observation that the “M” used to stand for music. A mix of resentment and reminiscing follows – it reads like someone recalling good times with an ex before things went sour. A colorful array of profanities generally spices up the bitter diatribes.

It may seem unfathomable that the station once renowned for cutting edge videos like Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and Aha’s “Take on Me” now champions reality-TV stars like Snooki and The Situation. However, here’s something my fellow 40-somethings forget: you aren’t 14, anymore.

It’s okay to fondly remember vegging out to music videos for hours at a time or hanging out at the mall and buying the latest cassettes by Journey and Styx. However, even if MTV, malls, and cassettes were still pillars of modern society, they wouldn’t be central to your life anymore. As soon as marriage, mortgages, and mini-versions of yourself (aka children) entered the picture, MTV was jettisoned. It’s hard to make a priority of seeing a Madonna world premiere video when Junior is screeching at the top of his lungs for his bottle.

You outgrew MTV’s demographic 15-20 years ago. Whereas they haven’t aged in that they maintain an ever-vigilant pursuit of the youth market. Ehow.com says today’s MTV is targeted toward ages 12 to 25 (“What Are the Demographics of MTV Viewers?”, 17 May 2009). When the kids started turning to other sources for music, MTV had to overhaul its programming to stay relevant and profitable. Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes is quoted in I Want My MTV as saying “at some point the ‘M’ in MTV changed from ‘Music’ to ‘Money.’” Network executives aren’t going to alienate their teen and twentysomething base just because Generation X feels nostalgic.

Once upon a time you may have huddled around the lockers in high school halls to profess Tawny Kitaen’s hotness in Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”. Today’s adolescent whips out a smart phone to show off her homemade video of her singing Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” with her BFF. Meanwhile ,you now gather around the water cooler with co-workers to spout lines like, “Here we go again” when someone asks which political party you’re backing in the USA’s Presidential election.

Even if MTV had never strayed from music, Katy Perry’s “Firework” and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” would rule the roost these days, not Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. As proclaimed in the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”, the first video to air on MTV, “We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far / Pictures came and broke your heart.”

It’s time to let go, Generation X – and get your VEVO on.

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Saturday, April 22, 1989

Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” hit #1

Like a Prayer

Madonna

Writer(s): Patrick Leonard, Madonna (see lyrics here)

Released: February 27, 1989

First Charted: March 10, 1989

Peak: 13 US, 13 CB, 13 GR, 13 RR, 3 AC, 20, RB, 134 CN, 14 AU (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 2.1 US, 0.85 UK, 5.0 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 356.87 video, 335.13 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Madonna’s return to the Billboard Hot 100 charts after a nearly year-and-a-half absence was marked by her third collaboration on a #1 song with Patrick Leonard. He had also worked on her hits “Live to Tell” and “Who’s That Girl?” He remembers “Like a Prayer” initially having bongos and Latin percussion. They abandoned that and went with a gospel sound with church organ and a choir led by Andraé Crouch instead. He also recalls that “it was written and the lead vocal was recorded within three hours.” FB

Madonna saw her career at a plateau. Her “shocking sex themes…and the ditzy dancefloor stuff…were becoming outmoded.” TB She needed something more “intellectually satisfying” TB and came up with a song that “probes deeply into the lines intersecting sex and religion, and she gives it one of her most fervent performances.” SS The song thematically focused on a girl’s love of God as the only male figure in her life. WK In a biography by Mary Cross, she says “the song is a mix of the sacred and the profane…[that] still sounds catchy and danceable.” WK Author Toby Creswell called it “a beautifully crafted devotional song in the guise of perfect pop.” TC Medium’s Richard LaBeau called it “one of the…best pop songs ever made.” WK

Still, the song’s mix of sex and religion raised eyebrows for some. For example, in the first verse she sings, “When you call my name/ It’s like a little prayer/ I’m down on my knees/ I wana take you there.” Leonard suggested changing the words so it didn’t sound like a reference to fellatio, but Madonna was determined to keep the double entendres intact. WK

The video proved controversial as well. Madonna signed a $5 million deal with Pepsi and used a commercial during the Grammys – which Pepsi said was seen by 250 million people – to launch the song. SF However, the Vatican condemned the “Like a Prayer” video and fundamentalists threatened to boycott Pepsi because of what they considered blasphemous images. FB Pepsi ended up pulling the spot. The video, which included images of burning crosses and Madonna kissing a black saint, portrayed a forbidden interracial love affair and was steeped in religious symbolism. The video won the Viewers’ Choice MTV Video Music Award and in 2005 was voted the most groundbreaking music video of all time. WK

The song was the top-seller of the year in Australia and Canada. WK It hit #1 in those countries as well as the United States, the UK, Japan, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. WK

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First posted 11/1/2019; last updated 5/1/2024.

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