MTV - Gatekeeper for the music industry?

MTV
Gatekeeper for the music industry?

by

Christoph Koch

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. The history of MTV

3. MTV as a powerful gatekeeper

4. MTV′s screening process

5. Influence on MTV from outside groups

6. Interview with Dave Robbins

7. Conclusion

Bibliography

Internet Links

1. Introduction

MTV - an "all encompassing mediator of popular culture" (Goodwin, 1992) or as the Washington Post once put it "perhaps the most influential single cultural product of the [eighties]" (McGrath 1996, p. 8). A trademark that has become a synonym for modern television, fast moving pictures and even a certain lifestyle. ′MTV generation′, ′MTV-like′, ′I want my MTV′ etc.

But MTV is more than entertainment for teenagers and music with colorful pictures around it - It is not only the world′s fastest growing network but also a powerful gatekeeper. It influenced traditional cable television and revolutionized the advertising industry. Whoever makes it onto the playlist of the network can expect his CD sales to skyrocket and his concerts to be sold out. With thousands of bands releasing hundreds of records each year, of course some kind of selection process has to take place. But who makes these decisions? What role does the record industry play? What are the criteria for a successful (and suitable) video that airs on MTV? Is MTV making its own rules or are there also pressures on the network from the outside?

This paper tries to find some answers to these and other questions about the exciting and influential cable network. Its role as an powerful gatekeeper for the multi-million music industry will be examined as well as its strong influence on the content of songs and video clips. Many has been written about MTV, so finding appropriate literature wasn′t really a problem, although not all of it was always up-to-date. Unfortunately I wasn′t able to get in contact with some MTV executives. In the last chapter, however, an interview with radio veteran Dave Robbins from CBS Columbus can be found, who has some interesting views on the cable network. One should nonetheless bear in mind that he is more or less sitting on the other side of the table and works for the competition.

2. The History of MTV

MTV got on the air exactly at midnight on August 1st, 1981. The first video that was aired was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles and of course that choice wasn’t unintentional. The concept of a 24-hour channel dedicated only to music videos was a revolutionary one, considering that there weren’t too many music videos around at that point of time. Only few (mostly British) bands had discovered this medium as an art form and produced small film clips to their songs. Also came the arrival of MTV in an era shortly after the ‘great depression’ in the music industry in 1979 – although nobody would have thought that it would prove itself as one of the remedies against it (Denisoff 1989, p. 1; 54). Most insiders, however, see January 1983 as the ‘real’ launch of MTV, because it was then that MTV got into the cable markets of Manhattan and Los Angeles1. These markets were very important, because now many potential advertisers could actually see the network and MTV was finally present in the two big media centers of North America and received much more attention nationwide (Grossberg 1993, p. 51). Another indicator of a new era for MTV is the fact that Billboard – the most important magazine of the recording industry - started printing MTV’s video clip rotations at that time (Denisoff 1989, p. 96).

After that MTV became increasingly successful and revenues skyrocketed. Advertisers like Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, Levi’s and American Express found out that MTV was the ideal vehicle to reach young and trend-setting demographics. Record companies also recognized MTV’s potential to influence the style and taste of the younger generation and got more and more interested in MTV’s concept of ‘All music, all the time’. Before that they were hard to convince that music videos can be as interesting as a live performance on TV (Matzer 1996, p. 48).

In the course of 1985 MTV’s Nielsen ratings continued to drop. MTV complained that its target audience (12-24 years) was underrepresented in the Nielsen sample, but finally took steps to prevent the numbers from declining even more. The playlist was cut down to 80 clips per week and focused more towards the old rock format while the Adult Contemporary elements that had gained influence were moved to VH-1 (Denisoff 1989, p. 193, 238) In the following years, MTV gained a loyal following, partly because of its quick adoption of emerging music trends like Hiphop or Alternative music. Again and again MTV was accused of racism (Denisoff 1987), sexism (Kaplan 1987, Lewis 1990) and payola (Banks 1996) but neither these critics nor other networks trying to compete with MTV were successful in stopping its triumphal procession in the 1980s and 90s.

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