VH1 has a long way to go if it wants to be a real player in scripted television and catch up to its older sister — whether they can do it without completely ditching music remains to be seen. It reverted to a variation of its old logo as it plays a familiar tune in Maybe the more important note is that music videos are still there, everyday. The new season of Storytellers will make history with first-ever live broadcast by Ed Sheeran live from Dublin, Ireland, on January 24 — giving music fans everywhere a glimmer of hope.
Then again, it recently gave Nicole Richie another reality show and Dating Naked is a real television program, not a Saturday Night Live skit, and it returns for a second season in The decline of music television has been mutually beneficial to both industries, even if it feels like the video star died for the sins of the cable networks.
Videos still spark discussion and outrage, only they are now seen by millions, even billions more eyeballs on the internet than cable could offer. In disbanding the VJs and relegating video stars to the web, the networks can better fight to regain cable supremacy. Hop on here as he tweets about your favorite shows.
Chris Longo is the director of editorial and partnerships for Den of Geek. Skip to main content area. Music videos killed the radio star, but who killed music video television? In , Survivor premiered on CBS and all hell broke loose.
Post-Celebreality: Old Logo, Familiar Tune VH1, at 30, is starting to chase a serious scripted hit, the kind that launches fledgling networks into prominence. Share: Share on Facebook opens in a new tab Share on Twitter opens in a new tab Share on Linkedin opens in a new tab Share on email opens in a new tab Comment: Comments count: 0. Tags: MTV. By self-promoting through mobile phones, television, and the Internet as well as partnering with various media companies including Microsoft, AOL, Virgin Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, VH1 gains greater access to its audience.
VH1 also has departments of Wireless Strategy and Operations and Online Games and Operations that are responsible fordeveloping strategies of establishing connections with its viewers. Not only does VH1 interact with its audience on television and online, it also reaches its audience through applications and a ringtone service on mobile phones.
In the purest form a brand brings its core values to life by supporting a cause or nonprofit partner that embodies those same values. Behind the Music is a documentary-style program that explores the lives and careers of popular music artists. It originally ran from through before being resurrected for the end of the season. The series has earned five Emmy nominations since and has been one of VH1's most iconic shows, remaining "deeply associated with the channel" even while it it was off the air.
VH1 reintroduced the show as a means of appealing to its goal audience, the aforementioned "Gen Mix" consisting of men and women aged There was a fear among the channel's executives that they were losing touch with the core audience, and according to executive vice president in charge of original programming Jeff Olde, it came down to "zeroing in on who our audience is, where they are in life and what things are important to them.
While the older version provided a retrospective and occasionally nostalgic or critical look at artists who were past their prime, in its current iteration BTM focuses on contemporary artists and the issues they face in their lives, the trajectory of which--and thus the resolution of any problems being confronted--are unlike in an episode on Bob Marley, for example as yet undetermined.
This emphasis on artists who are in the process of figuring out their lives forms the basis of VH1's attempt to appeal to the "Gen Mix. BTM is shot in a documentary style, which underscores for the viewer the truth and importance of what he or she is watching. Combining archival footage depicting the artist's childhood and past performances with contemporary interviews featuring the artist and family members, colleagues, and critics, the show creates an atmosphere of omniscience, implying to the viewer that he or she is learning all there is to know about the featured artist, that he or she is being invited into the life of Usher, Fantasia Barrino, Lil' Wayne, or Jennifer Hudson.
In this way BTM is constructed following the same fundamental concept of the "celebreality" shows that VH1 has become known for in the last decade in the sense that it fulfills a desire to gain a window into the lives of the rich and famous. Yet by foregrounding real-life issues rather than outlandish and blatantly artificial scenarios, BTM also invites the viewer to identify with its celebrity characters in a way that a show like "Rock of Love" cannot.
Thus by situating its intimate and frank examination of musical performers in the context of the ongoing struggles they face in their lives, BTM can appeal to those who enjoy "celebreality"-type shows, to those whose interests lie in VH1's traditional focus on music, and those who simply want to see depictions of stories they can relate to on a personal level.
BTM is formatted to draw a viewer in from the beginning, as the introductory pre-title sequence gives a brief overview of the episode's main foci, framed in a slightly sensationalized way. We hear from the narrator, for example, that "her dramatic rise to fame came against all odds," and that "As a teenager, Fantasia Barrino was raped.
From there the narrative goes back to the artist's early life and returns to the present through the course of the episode, emphasizing the issues presented in the opening as a way to interpret the artist's life and career. Hearing and seeing the artist discussing his or her life while seeing images and footage of that life creates a feeling of intimacy between the viewer and the artist and removes much of the sense of distance often found in traditional documentaries.
In its conclusion, BTM episodes prevent the viewer from achieving any sense of finality. In addition to creating a specific appeal to the "Gen Mix," the open-ended nature of the show, in which the featured artist's final path is undetermined, allows the viewer to construct his or her own ideas about what will happen and forces a greater interaction with the program, because there can be no clear resolution.
Where VH1 has always targeted an older demographic, the channel has attempted to diversify its audience by appealing to the Gen Mix young adults between the ages of This shift is due to three main causes:.
Also frequently featured in the network's early years were "videos" for Motown and other s oldies consisting of newsreel and concert footage. Rosie O'Donnell later joined the outlet's veejay lineup.
O'Donnell would also host a stand up comedy show featuring various comedians each episode. As an added touch to make the network more like a televised radio station, the early years of the network featured jingles in their bumpers produced by JAM Creative Productions in Dallas, who had previously made jingles for radio stations worldwide. The format left room for occasional ad-libs by the VJ, a godsend for emcees such as Imus and O'Donnell.
In true Imus style, he used a segment of his VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon Sade Adu a "grape" for her oval-shaped head. It should also be noted that the logo didn't start appearing on the screen during the programming until It was later replaced by a larger type font. In addition, the year the video was made was added to the column that identified the record label the album was released on.
VH1 had a short-lived hour-long program called "By Request" in which viewers could call a hotline number to request their videos.
The videos were aired without introduction by a VJ and the program was soon shortened to thirty minutes, and then scrapped all together. By , VH1 was heading down the same path as its sister channel, MTV, choosing to focus more on music-related shows than on music videos. Additionally, the network began to expand its playlist of music videos to include more rock and rap music. By that time, the channel's ratings were beginning to fall. A combination of record sales, radio airplay, video spins, message board posts, and conventional mail would decide the order of the countdown.
A rotating cast of VJs picked up hosting duties for the show over the years. The series expanded from ten to twenty music videos, becoming the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown , in In the fall of , VH1 premiered Pop-Up Video , in which music videos were accompanied by "pop-ups" also known as "bubbles" or "info nuggets" --small enclosed areas of the screen containing facts about the band or artist, such as career highlights, discography, biographical details, quotes, and anecdotes.
The show started with a broadcast of Ray Davies , during his "Storyteller" tour, and took its name from this first show. In each hourlong episode, artists appear in front of a mostly small and intimate live audience, interspersing musical performances with anecdotes related to the songs' meaning, the songwriting process, audience reaction, etc. The hourlong show features interviews and biographies of some of popular music's biggest stars qualified to be profiled on the series.
The premiere episode featured Milli Vanilli. By the late s, the show began to run out of artists to profile, leading to the short-lived BTM2 program, half-hour looks into bands and artists whose popularity was rising, but not yet at its peak. During its "Music First" days, VH1 created the Save The Music Foundation, which served to preserve and enhance music education programs in local schools. The VH1 Save the Music foundation was established in and purchased new musical instruments to restore music education programs that have been cut due to budget reductions in the past or to save programs at risk of elimination due to lack of instruments.
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