Au contraire. I remember seeing crude early videos on a UHF station in Boston in the mid-'70s. For some reason, "Love on a Two-Way Street" sticks in my memory. As BigA said, though, there was no national show or station running music videos 24/7 before MTV. Plenty of imitators quickly sprouted, but all were inspired by Pittman's MTV.
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Survey Shows Gen-Z Not Listening To Radio
- Thread starter Kelly A
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What you had were live performances shows like Bandstand, Hullabaloo, Soul Train, and the like. Artists would perform live. Occasionally The Beatles would make films because they had a film maker on staff at Apple. Prior to that, they'd make movies. But what MTV wanted was something different from a performance video. They wanted to add a visual portrayal of the song. That was a whole new thing.
Agree. How do we get Gen Z's and even millennials to care. Adult AC, Classic Rock, political talk (mostly right), 6-8 commercials in a row. How do we get them interested and what can we offer the younger generation they don't get now in a million other places? I went to buy a radio and it's hard to even find one in a store.
It's too great of a medium to disappear but it needs to figure out how it's going to remain relative to generation who have zero alliance to it.
It's too great of a medium to disappear but it needs to figure out how it's going to remain relative to generation who have zero alliance to it.
"We" (boomers and Gen X'ers) can't. Revival of interest in radio has to be organic, generated within the currently relevant generations. Frankly, while I still listen to radio in the car and -- via phone, computer or apps on my Xfinity Flex -- at home, I'm fine with the gradual demise of the medium in its current form, just as long as I retain access to the things about it I enjoy most: music and sports.
Yes, and...
Even groups not the stature of The Beatles would make videos for appearances on music programs. KHJ-TV used to have "dance" shows (Ninth Street West, Groovy, Boss City, The Real Don Steele Show) seven nights a week in the 60s and early 70s. Frequently, they'd have a video from a group rather than a live appearance.
The Monkees were probably the first to lean heavily on videos with action that had nothing to do with the lyrics (almost certainly inspired by the scenes that accompanied songs in the Beatles' films "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help"). Those were confined to their own TV show, though.
In 1968, the Strawberry Alarm Clock did this video exclusively for use on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In:
It was easy for them, because they were on a film set every week doing their TV show, and one of the producers was Don Kirshner, who would later host a music TV show. They had writers, producers, and visual artists on the team.
But once again, my point was that MTV turned this into the job of the record label promo staff, as an extension of their jobs promoting music to radio, to also promote video for MTV. At first it was the same staff, and then it grew into something bigger.
I do. It's called social media. It's more direct than radio ever was. This way I only invite my friends, not everyone.
The amazing part is that our favorite stars are there too, and fans can interact with them directly. No more going through some creepy old radio guy.
Exactly on the head.
There's a consultant who says radio is the original social media. He may be right, and now the challenge is for radio people to reinsert themselves in the process. This shouldn't be a company thing, but rather a talent thing. If you're talent, this is simply an extension of what you do on the air. I have a friend who invites his listeners to join him online for the show beyond the show. Great idea.
Not quite.
In the earlier days of HBO, before it became a 24-hour channel, it would air music videos to fill the time between movies. HBO was especially fond of Chaka Khan's I'm Every Woman, it seemed.
Then there was Video Concert Hall, which aired between 1978 and 1981 on either the USA Network - it may still have been called the Madison Square Garden Channel then - or on the Satellite Program Network (SPN). Reference: Video Concert Hall
Once again, it's not about the videos. They were being made and shown in various ad hoc ways for years. What made MTV different from these filler shows was that it was a hosted 24/7 channel, and these videos were being serviced in an organized and calculated way by record label promotion teams to influence record sales (the majority of the videos were currents or recurrents). There were rotations that mimicked what people had heard on the radio. But now with the visual element.
So it's not what was done, but how it was done that was so different.
Radio stations don't have access to functional web browsing apps?
Perhaps one of the underlying issues is lazy corporate radio programmers who are out of touch with Gen Z and unwilling to go outside of their comfort zone (i.e. waiting for record labels to drop quality new music at their feet). How many folks in their 20s and early 30s program FM radio stations these days? In the 70s, 80s and perhaps even 90s, there were a ton of programmers in that age range.
The counterargument is I think there truly are many young adults who are turned off by much of the new music from the present day era and do genuinely prefer vintage music or at least tried & true music. Strong 18 to 34 shares for Adult Contemporary and Classic Rock stations are by no means a fluke.
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They can't air unlicensed music. They also can't put TikTok on the radio because it's a trademarked application.
So it's not lazy programmers. It's instead very busy lawyers warning people to be careful.
But we're all very aware of what's happening on TikTok, and the record labels are too.
Some of us get phone calls from A&R people asking what are thoughts are about so&so. Next thing we know, they get signed.
There's a TikTok channel on SiriusXM, but I assume that's a pay-for-play deal. And all it does is play stuff that's currently popular on TikTok. The listener can't interact with it or seek out different songs/artists.
Others seem to be able to do it:
newsroom.tiktok.com
newsroom.tiktok.com
TikTok takes to the airwaves with the launch of Australian-exclusive digital radio station, 'TikTok Trending on iHeartRadio'
By Ollie Wards, Director of Music, TikTok Australia and New Zealand Music is at the very heart of TikTok, and if there's one thing we know, it's that our community are massive music fans. They love w
newsroom.tiktok.com
TikTok Radio launches on SiriusXM today!
A variety of TikTok creators join as channel hosts including Billy (@8illy), Cat Haley (@itscathaley), HINDZ (@hindzsight), Lamar Dawson (@dirrtykingofpop), and Taylor Cassidy (@taylorcassidyj), DJ Ha
newsroom.tiktok.com
No, that was post-MTV. I'm thinking really obscure here. It was a program of random videos, mostly pop and r&b, and definitely early or mid 1970s, well before MTV. Can't even begin to guess what channel it was on, a very fuzzy memory for me and it didn't stay on the air for long.
I remember V-66 well. I used to listen to John H. Garabedian, who owned it before cashing in big by selling it to Home Shopping Network, on WGTR Natick and, before that, on WMEX.
Correct, and I believe they also have a syndication deal that brings TikTok content to certain affiliated radio stations.
Which once again means you need to talk to lawyers, you don't just play a trademarked app on the air w/o permission.
NBC's Friday Night Videos ftw.
I didn't realize the series ran for almost 20 years, from 7/29/83 to 5/24/02.
When looking at the now antiquated video above, it's impossible to overstate the shift that took place with the advent of the internet.
It's so quaint to see them say essentially, "stay tuned tonight thru a bunch of stuff you don't like and thru a bunch of irrelevant commercials for the chance so see this music video by Kool & The Gang."
That notion is utterly absurd from today's perspective.
And that in and of itself completely explains why Gen Z and later Millennials (and all other humans when you boil it down) generally speaking want nothing to do with a medium that isn't on demand, dynamic and social.
I didn't realize the series ran for almost 20 years, from 7/29/83 to 5/24/02.
When looking at the now antiquated video above, it's impossible to overstate the shift that took place with the advent of the internet.
It's so quaint to see them say essentially, "stay tuned tonight thru a bunch of stuff you don't like and thru a bunch of irrelevant commercials for the chance so see this music video by Kool & The Gang."
That notion is utterly absurd from today's perspective.
And that in and of itself completely explains why Gen Z and later Millennials (and all other humans when you boil it down) generally speaking want nothing to do with a medium that isn't on demand, dynamic and social.
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