EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
History of Rock, 1970-Present
John Covach, University of Rochester
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Rise of MTV Notes taken on March 4, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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on August 1, 1981, MTV launched its all-music, 24-hour cable TV
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nobody had ever done anything quite like this before
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an important moment in the history of rock music
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as MTV develops, it changes the music landscape
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the business of music
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the ways people are able to get to music
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in a way that the Internet and file sharing has changed the music business in a significant way
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second half of 70s
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rise of Disco
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rise of Punk, which led to New Wave
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continuation of bands which adapted to the more homogenous 80s music format
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Corporate Rock
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often seen as lower quality music
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but nevertheless has become a staple of rock and roll until today
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the origins of MTV
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not in the music business at all
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but in the cable TV business
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to understand the history of MTV, we need to know the history of cable TV
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arose in places where regular television broadcasts via antenna were obstructed somehow
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e.g. south of Pittsburgh where there is a mountainous region
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a valuable service to run a cable
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economic and pragmatic benefit
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also useful in cities where there are tall buildings
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provided premium entertainment
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movies
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special sporting events
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normally you wouldn't get on broadcast television
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we take this for granted today with the Internet
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but this was even before people had VCRs
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the idea of seeing a movie in your own home without it being on broadcast television and interrupted by commercials, was unheard of
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something that was entirely new and a service worth paying for
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1972 HBO
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one of the first companies active in providing premium entertainment
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Home Box Office
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already active in 1972
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an all movie and events channel
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1979 ESPN
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all sports
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1980 CNN
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24-hour cable news
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1981 MTV
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before you could find video DJs on cable
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but this was the first channel dedicated exclusively to music 24-7
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Saturday Night Live commercial
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a cable TV company
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they laughed at the idea back then of a 24-hour weather channel, 24-hour golf channel
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cable was only in very limited regions of the country
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but people started to realize that if you had cable, you had many more options of entertainment
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cities and municipalities were convinced to lay the cable in
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so MTV starts with a relatively limited audience and begins to grow
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when it was first developed, there were two schools of thought on what that channel should be
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1. Michael Nesmith
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former Monkees guitarist
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MTV should be channel that should show real artistic content
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give artists the ability to do things with video that would push the boundaries
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2. others
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MTV should be like radio with pictures
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use videos to promote records, sell advertising, just like the FM stations do
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similar to what David Sarnoff did with TV after WWII
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went with the commercial music broadcasting route
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it wasn't seen at the beginning as a rival to FM radio
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but it turned out that it was
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first problem
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the availability of promo videos
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in the UK many bands made promo video
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since UK countries were far apart
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Australia
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New Zealand
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Canada
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you make a video and send it
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in the States, the approach was more to send the band on tour
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when MTV launched, they played
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Video killed the Radio Star by the Buggles
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English new wave band formed in London in 1977 by singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoffrey Downes
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they had a video at the right time
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otherwise would never have become popular in the States
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the first couple years there were mostly British bands on MTV for this reason
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it was difficult to convince bands to invest money to create a music video
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few people in the music business thought these videos were going to do them any good or make them profits
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not that many people had cable yet