The Battle For Your Eyes

It’s been a long time since anyone instinctively turned on their TV set for a music video fix. Waiting patiently in the hope that something good might appear has been made redundant in the age of ultra-fast streaming online video, and MTV knows it; the network has steadily reduced its music video content to such an extent that it’s a surprise to find they haven’t shunted the annual VMAs ceremony to one of their smaller outposts. YouTube is now the place where most people get their music video kicks, and statistics compiled by TubeMogul indicate that these short promotional clips are dominating viewing habits on the site. TubeMogul estimates that 76.5% off all views in the Top 25 uploads on YouTube have been provided by major music companies.

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Chris Brown and the Death of the Music Video

So video didn’t kill the radio star after all. For a while back there, it even seemed like the two mediums were happy to co-exist. Radio proved to be a remarkably resilient beast, while video became an artform in its own right via innovative work from directors such as Russell Mulcahy, Spike Jonze, and Michel Gondry. Certain posthumous commentaries on Michael Jackson’s career recalled the halcyon days of MTV, and how he became the first African American artist to gain heavy rotation on the network. Jackson did more than that-—his “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” videos helped establish MTV as a powerful force in the American pop culture landscape.

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