sometimes i wonder what music would be like these days if it werent for the music video..i think of how many people that didnt become stars because their look wouldnt translate well in music videos and how many untalented artists such as Britney Spears became popular based mostly on their image in music videos..altho some artusts such as Duran Duran,Prince & Michael Jackson had the talent to go along with their excellent videos.....so the question is do you wish the music video would had never taken off or are you glad music videos exist despite the downside that it brings
[Edited 9/23/04 18:47pm]

The last 3 Janet singles defintiely would've.

Sonic Youth's "Disconnetion Notice" video

I think video budgets have gone insanely overboard to the point where lower-budget clips are not shown. I guess that has to do with the sheer volume of clips being produced as well. Videos were cool in the 80s when videoplay was almost random, and some bigger artists still had embarrassing effects.

For the most part yes. But we'd be missing out on some great eye candy as well. They're are many great music videos that I'm glad got made. And about 99% that are just pure shite and a waste of film.

No!


If only mainly 'cause of Jacko, Hammer, Janet, even Prince! I love dancing and Michael sort of brought back dancing to the masses of kids like me! Kids wouldn't of danced if it wern't 4 video artsits like jacko!


I love music video's.....u can do anything u want with one.....u don't have to sing in it, be in it, and it don't have to make sense.....

Too much emphasis is put on music videos these days. The quality of the music was much better before the days of music videos.

I used to enjoy music videos back in the early 1980s because it was a chance to see the artist other than appearances on Soul Train, American Bandstand, or Solid Gold. Videos back then weren't really about telling a story but showing the group. A lot of them were shot on a sound stage and some them became artistic. Very few were considered "mini-movies" until Michael Jackson and Madonna came around and changed things. Those were cool too but when people get on a bandwagon, they will beat a dead horse to death.

Back in the day, the album came out first and if there even was a music video, it came out later. The focus was on the quality of the music, the video was just an extra little bonus "goodie", simply a glimpse of the group. Nowadays, the whole focus is centered around the music video and the music is secondary. The video comes out long before the album and if an artist doesn't get video airplay, he/she doesn't make it.

Music videos as a whole have gone to the dogs. Maybe why that's why you rarely see music videos on video music channels anymore. All you ever see is reality shows like "The Real World" and "Road Rules". MTV was the first to practically abandon music videos, VH1 was next, and now BET is following suit. I can remember when video channels were music videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

would music have been better without music videos? depends... without videos, probably Christopher Cross would be tagged the undisputed King of Pop today? but who knows...

thesexofit said:

somehow i doubt we'd all be living our lives to the plot of Footloose if Michael Jackson hadn't put out videos.


people were dancing long before the MTV age....

So true, there were dance shows like American Bandstand, Soul Train, and even local dance shows. Saturday Night Fever was a whole movie based around dancing.

You don't need a music video to see dancing and as far as people dancing because of them.....how many people do you see doing those choreographed dances in clubs.....NONE! The few that do are laughed out of the club.

I think it'd be unique to see how the music business would be if videos had never happened.

Radio always had single airplay, but with videos it really became style over substance. There's artists that would've never had a hit single or album if t wasn't for MTV. That changed the bar instead of how artists were seen, heard, and marketed.

Now you have to have the video, the t-shirt the single and MAYBE the album if you're a big fan. MTV changed the face of music (when they played videos) in the fact that an artist turned into a brand name and a commodity that was sold literally at face value. 3 minute commercials designed to peak your interest, and because of that many artists' actual albums fall by the wayside.

I personally wish sometimes people would choose which songs get videos made out of them more carefully. Now it's driven by easy singles and how well it can be marketed to the TRL crowd. There are however thankfully a few artists like Peter Gabriel and Bjork who have always tried to challenge the medium and stay true to their art.

I guess I'm just a cynic wishing the music business didn't so heavily lean into the business side of operations instead of actually finding great artists that can be cultivated by word of mouth instead of making another one-hit wonder that will go into obscurity after making the execs a ton of cash.

With the internet and internet downloading becoming more and more the norm, I hope there's new and unique approaches to marketing and that music videos can be viewed as art again instead of it being just commercials with a soundtrack.

Very true. It's not even about making music any more, it's about making big money for major corporations.

Yes, music would have been much better off without videos. Music is now style over substance for the most part and it is all about image.

vainandy said:

I wish at least maybe independent artists can keep doing things their own way without another hand in their pockets and find greater and greater success.

I think that'd be the biggest middle finger to the way the music business is being run now.

Oh c'mon. I save so much money on porn now that I get MTV in my house.

Remember the whole Napster/file sharing thing? I wonder how many artists truly suffered because of it as opposed to the major corporations. I know the only things I downloaded were out of print songs so the artist suffered in no way because the music was not available for me to buy. As far as the youngsters downloading the current stuff, the corporations were losing more money than the artists because they take the majority of the profits.

Now you have to pay to download. You better believe, someone with more clout than measly little artists raising hell had to be behind that battle to win.

What do you mean "now you have to pay to download"? Jeez...

Oh yes.

Novabreaker said:

You do?

With Madonna/ MTV partnership another genre of artist evolved: music/video artist.(I'm leaving Michael Jackson out of it because he was successful with the Jackson 5 and in his own right long before the popularlity of MTV.) With performers like Madonna, Janet, then Britney, the music is part of the entire package. Since I'm a fan of musical theatre, I love the type of overall-all productions these artists bring to the industry.

There is still some great "straight-up" music out there, but many of the "musicians" don't really get involved in music videos. Young blues artists Johnny Lang or Susan Tesdeschi, for example, don't really have many (any?) music videos. The fact is MTV or VH1 doesn't seem to be their "thing." However, these and other amazingly talented people have developed a following in spite of their subsequent lack of exposure on high profile music networks.