How did MTV change the music industry?

MTV began airing on August 1, 1981, as a 24-hour cable channel of music videos. Sources describe it as shifting the record business from selling mainly audio to selling music in which the visual element was as big a draw as the sound. It also helped revive a stalled industry in the early 1980s, though the gains went mostly to major labels and top stars. [1] [2]

Pairing music with film was not new; artists since the 1920s had used films and television for marketing. What changed was scale and cost. According to the University of Oregon text, MTV streamed endless videos into the homes of affluent teenagers whose families had cable, making video marketing affordable to nearly any band with a record deal. Banks, writing in Popular Music, notes that labels had made clips since the 1970s, especially for European television, but did not fully commit to music video until MTV premiered. [1] [3]

MTV's early model relied on free videos from record companies. Entertainment Weekly says the channel started with about 250 clips, and cost Warner a modest $30 million to launch. It was reaching 13 million households by 1983 and was profitable by 1984. As labels saw its value as a promotional vehicle, they invested in more creative, cutting-edge videos. [2] [4]

Banks says music video revitalised a troubled industry in a prolonged recession by renewing consumer interest in pop and by building acts such as Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Boy George through provocative visual images. The Oregon text points to Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982), one of the best-selling albums of all time, and its 14-minute video as cementing MTV's importance, and credits Madonna and Prince with establishing video as essential to marketing. It says the combined stimulus of CDs and MTV had helped resuscitate the industry by 1983. [3] [1]

A 1984 Billboard report cited research that young record buyers were greatly affected by the channel's airplay, and new wave acts such as The Cars, Cyndi Lauper and Eurythmics won at the first Video Music Awards. [5]

The channel's influence had downsides. Entertainment Weekly says its playlist was all white until 1983, when Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" aired, reportedly after intense pressure from Columbia Records. The Oregon text similarly says CBS threatened a boycott. Entertainment Weekly also argues that untelegenic bands were overshadowed by good-looking groups such as Duran Duran. In 1984 Billboard carried an op-ed worrying that past superstars might have been denied contracts for lacking video appeal. [2] [1] [5]

Doherty, in a 1987 journal article, argued that MTV altered music marketing and probably the nature of music itself, making the experience more visual and less aural. The Oregon text adds that the benefits went mainly to major labels and video superstars, while the typical recording musician saw little of the added revenue. It also describes a wave of label purchases by global conglomerates in the 1980s, which it ties to the rebound built on MTV stars and the CD. [6] [1]