In the beginning man created the music video. They were produced to promote artists, and to sell more records. They were also entertaining, and people just couldn’t get enough of them.
Fast forward a few decades later, by the early 80’s, music videos were so popular that a television station devoted to playing music videos was created, and they named that station MTV. It was a music station that played 100% music videos all the time, with of course, a few commercials that would play inbetween videos to support the station.
With a large demand for new music videos & advertising on MTV, many artists were given the opportunity to promote themselves while touring, and writing new material. And there was also the ability to explore, and promote new artists. And thus, a wide variety of awesome videos were produced. It was in this moment, that this formula was created…
music stations * (music videos + advertising) = artists are being promoted.
During the 80’s & 90’s, the music stations that we know, including Canada’s own music station, Much Music, followed the same format. There may have been a few changes in the programming (with interviews & live performances), but the majority of content was in the form of music videos. And also, advertising played a role in keeping the music videos on the air (they kinda worked hand-in-hand). Speaking of which, this takes me back to this awesome moment of television…
By the early 2000s, the music industry was doing great. Artists were getting alot of exposure through the means of television, which helped sell tickets for live events. A good example of this, was the number of events that were happening here in Halifax. Does anyone remember Summersault? How about Edgefest, and SnowJam? I sure do. The line-up of artists back than, in my opinion were amazing.
Well, somewhere, somehow, MTV & MuchMusic figured that they could make much more money by putting Tween televisions shows on their programming. And by the mid-2000’S they were running a bunch of lame kids shows and re-runs of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. For most people who were watching MTV & MuchMusic, it was a sad time to turn on the television only to find out that they weren’t playing any music videos at all. And when they were playing music videos, there was little artistic value being played. So, eventually the formula turned into something along the lines of this…
music station * (lame tv shows/music videos + advertising) = garbage
Fortunately for the music videos, and the artists themselves who were being neglected by the music stations, they were able to find their way to Youtube. And as usual, advertising was there to promote the artists making the music videos, thus continuing the long relationship. So we have a new formula, like…
youtube * (music videos + advertising) = artists being promoted.
Simple math, just replace the music stations with youtube (and other video sites), and you get a similar result. Of course, the internet is a different game than television @ promoting artists. And with that, this leads me to the main topic of discussion…
This is a music video for Little Dragon’s “Sunshine” video. As you’ll notice by clicking the link to go to youtube, there’s advertisements everywhere on this page. And not only that, there’s also advertising in the music video promoting ABSOLUT VODKA. The concept here is that advertising is being used to promote the artist, and artists are using their own music videos to promote advertising, in the way of product placement.
For television shows, and movies this is nothing new. There has been advertising, and product placement for years. But for music videos during the good days of MTV, and MuchMusic this was unheard of. Just the thought of advertising in a music video would hurt the credibility of the artist, and why would they? When their band was getting decent video play on television.
But now that “shameless promotion” is more socially acceptable in our society, is it really necessary for artists to include advertising in their own music videos? To compromise their own artistic values?
