Whatever happened to …

… music videos?

Hands up if you remember when MTV was announced.  It was big.

Non stop music videos.

It was great.

Not only could you listen to your favourite music but you could see the story behind them!  I remember coming home from work and the kids were glued to the television.

It didn’t stop with MTV.

Next came the Canadian version – MUCH.

Then, BET.

and then CMT.

Or in some order.  I honestly don’t know that!

Somewhere along the line, the music died.

Now, when you flip to these channels, it’s reruns of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Three’s Company, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Friends, The King of Queens, and others.  (I just pulled up the guide on the television and grabbed some of what I saw)

There’s not a movie video in sight.  To add to the pain, these are all in standard definition; no high definition channels seem to be available.

Just this week, I found that there was a new channel on free preview and that was the inspiration for this post.

Yes, it’s also in standard definition too and it’s clumped together with the above channels.  It’s called Stingray Retro and it is devoted to playing music videos from the “80s, 90s &00s”.  It’s now my wakeup channel.

How’s your love of music and knowledge for a Sunday morning?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

• What does MTV stand for?
• What does BET stand for?
• What does MUCH stand for?
• What does CMT stand for?
• What happened to these channels and their music video format?
• Do today’s musicians create music videos?  If so, what’s their platform?
• Did the music video format enhance your understanding of the music?
• Did you have a favourite video musician?  I’ll admit a fondness for videos from Shania Twain, Rod Stewart, Sinéad O’Connor, Aerosmith, and …
• What was the first video shown on MTV?  Ah, heck, I’ll include it in the post.  It’s also one of my favourites.  The piano player playing two pianos at the same time still blows me away.  And, you could probably point out wardrobe faux pas for each of those in the video.
• Did YouTube and Vevo kill the video star?

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