Research into music channels-Miss Georgiou (Updated)

Music Channels
4/7/14
Vazl

Music channels have been an important factor in the promotion of music videos. Channels such as: MTV, have provided the audience with videos that represent conventions of their music video genre. Later on, branches of the MTV corporation such as VH 1 started to release music videos of a set genre in order to supply a niche audience with a channel dedicated to them in order to attract more viewers that like the set genre. This way, it eased MTV with the songs they can release as each channel follows a set target audience. For example, MTV has a target audience of 11-35 year olds. Meanwhile, VH1 pike up the older ages (18-45) which results in more revenue for the MTV network as they would not miss out on the extra viewers.

Music channels:
-MTV
MTV's Target audience is between 11 and 35 year olds. It plays a variety of chart music under the following category: pop, indie, rock and country video songs. This way it can cater for a mainstream audience as it will only play music popular for everyone. The most played artists are Ed Sheeran, Iggy Azella and Tinnie Tempah. The idea of the logo is quite brilliant as its colours are very simplistic which implies that they do not want to offend anyone. Another feature is that the TV is written in a graffiti font which implies to the audience that the channel is also aimed at entertaining a younger audience. The channel is owned by MTV Network or Viacom after 2011. it owns several channels: MTV2, MTV Jams, MTV Hits, mtvU, MTV Tr3s, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, CMT2 and CMT Pure Country^3.


-VH1
VH1's aim was to focus on the lighter, softer side of popular music, including such musicians as Olivia Newton-John, Kenny Rogers, Carly Simon, Tina Turner, Elton John, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Sting,Donna Summer, Rod Stewart, Kenny G, and Anita Baker, in hopes of appealing to people aged 18 to 45. It uses a similar approach to MTV with its produce of fresh videos which are softer for the audience. As with MTV, VH1 produces songs of the following genre: pop, indie, rock and country video songs. While the logo uses similar colours to MTV (which indicates that the TV is indicating for being unoffensive), however the font of the logo is more curvy and less graffiti like which indicates that the TV channel is aimed at small niche groups that listen to songs from older periods such as the 80`s and 90`s.

4 Music:

4 Music It is the only Channel 4-branded channel within the Box Television network. It is available on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Smallworld Channel. Similarly to VH1, it is a sister channel (But not of the same network as VH1 is) of the Box Television Network. 4 Music has the following sister channels: 4seven, Channel 4, Film4, E4, More4, Heat, Kerrang!, Kiss, Magic, Smash Hits, The Box. This suggests that the network that own 4 Music is interested in becoming a network conglomerate. 4Music`s playlist targets audiences of the age group 16-34years. The music that is aired on this channel is mainly chart based as it keeps the audience up to date whit what the most popular songs are. However, while the other music channels have one or two chart playlists, Channel 4 uses a multi-based playlist which targets separate niche target groups. Lists such as “The UK Airplay Top 20” and “UK Hot 40”. The mainly aired artists on the channel are: Calvin Harris, George Ezra, Will.i.am and The Saturdays. The logo is appealing to the target audience because it uses bright pink to appeal to the eye of audience members that are custom to seeing such colours at the disco. The memorable logo with graffiti writing further aids the audience to memorise the station as it uses simplistically shaped objects and the usage of using the '4' as the background.

Interestingly, Viva started life in 1993 as a German music TV channel which promoted mostly English-language music videos to the German markets. From the licensing contracts the channel sent a message to its public that it refuses to play major German-speaking artists to them. Time Warner executives Tom McGrath and Peter Bogner assembled a group of record labels that included its very own Warner Music, EMI Music, Polygram Records and Sony Television along with Frank Otto, Apax Partners, and Austrian producers Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher of DoRo Productions to spread the channel outside of Germany. The British channel was officially launched on 26 October 2009 by Alexandra Burke, with an exclusive live performance of her single "Bad Boys". Viva's target audience is mainly in the age group 13-23 which is similar to the two previous channels. The music genre that is aired on the British television is mainly urban music which includes top music artists, such as: Usher, Pharrell Williams, Sam Smith, Jason Derulo and Snoop Dogg. Currently the company is owned by the Viacom network, which is also known as MTV Network. According to the official top chart, the current top 5 artist are: Nico&Vinz, Kiesza, Magic!, Nicky Minaj and One Republic. The logo used is a much more advanced derivative from the original German logo which reminded the audience of the German battery company “Varta”. The logo uses bright colours in order to attract the younger audience. The florescent green and pink are contrasting one another to make the music channel more reminiscent to colours used by the “yoof”. Another reason was that MTV wanted to use these two colours as they were fresh to show that they want to attract younger audiences that can watch more appropriate content. Also It was fresh as the channel taken over by VIVA was too confusing. The block letters used symbolise the making of a bold claim that the channel is exciting and that it is “Cool” to look different. 

Kerrang! TV is a digital television station owned by Box Television, which is loosely connected to the magazine, Kerrang!. It`s target audience is 16-205 year olds. As of 2005, all of its programme content is music videos that are selected from the voting of the audience via SMS (Text Message). The TV station's playlist is mainly nu metal and pop punk/skate punk, although with some unusual exceptions. Certain bands, such as Tenacious D and Limp Bizkit get higher than average play rates, due to higher rates of text requests. There are also 30 minute segments that often cover artists that are on the playlist, with large numbers of videos. Currently, most noticeable are Green Day, Panic! at the Disco, Paramore and You Me at Six. The station unusually guarantees to play a requested video, however, it may take some time for the video to be played. Often, they will show video countdowns. The station has an annual video countdown called the Rock 100, which covers the 100 most requested videos on the station (Rock or otherwise) in the previous year, and with links between blocks of tracks given by one of the featured bands. In 2005, Good Charlotte presented the Rock 100 from a strip club in Manchester. In 2009, Charlie Simpson voice-overd the show with clips from people's vote in the Download festival.
The logo if the TV channel is brilliant as it is supposedly representing a ticket for a festival. This is trying to imply that the viewers of this channel are massive festival fans and that they like to listen to alternative music groups (Which can be usually listened on a festival).

A music channel that is dedicated to the target audience in which the individual is interested would make him feel special as he would listen to songs that he has been accustomed to since he has been a teenager and there would be no music that he might dislike.

From the analysis of the music channels, I have learned that it is important to choose the appropriate music channel as it would allow us to gain the highest amount of our targeted audience. 

Research into the History of the music video?-Miss Georgiou

History of a music video

3/7/14

Vazl

-Create a list of the ways in which people can consume music videos. Has this changed over the years?

In modern times, people use their smart phones to access other extensions such as: You tube to watch the newest "Keiser Chiefs" video or see an interview with an artist. If not there is always the shared music videos seen on the person's facebook web page. However, in the olden days, not many could afford to have a dial-up modem. In my childhood, the best way to watch a music video in "democratic" Bulgaria, was to watch it on VH1 or MTV. Then record the songs on the cassette player and listen with a funky "Sony" Walkman. Later on the portable CD Players showed up and killed within 2 years the Walkman. However 5 years after that came the MP3 player which slashed the CD player in two and became king. And if you ask my parents, they would say that they listened to the music programme on the only radio that existed in my country (Radio Horizont-Horizon for the English speakers) and then research in the Russian magazine "Pulse". And for my grandparents, It was radio "Moscow" and buying records of "Elvis Presley", from the black market. Thus it can be concluded that music consummation has changed over the years. However, How and why?

Previously to MTV, the music video industry was quite archaic. There were almost none special effects which could be seen from video clips such as AC/DC`s "Thunderstruck" music video (seen below) where the TV audience could see a couple of projectors, a stage and some smoke effects. This kind of a music video could be seen on TV programs such as "Top of the Pops".

Meanwhile music was changing quickly with more and more bands playing less jazz or rock (Like they did in the 50`s and 40`s) and moved to rock sub-genres, including folk rock, blues rock, and jazz rock fusion. The new genres then went on to progress to styles such as progressive rock, glam rock and heavy metal (AC/DC Being a part of the movement as well). By the 1970's punk rock was created, with bands such as the "Sex Pistols". By the 1980's further types of rock surfaced, however the decade was "Blamed" on the "boogie" and disco.
 It was not until 1981 in the USA that a new channel was created which promoted itself on the importance of music videos which led to it ruling over the music industry.Known to us as MTV, the channel gave the ideal opportunity for artists to promote themselves through music videos so that the audience could visually see him. At first MTV was only viewed in the morning, therefore the audience had to wait to see if their favorite music video would be on television. Thanks to MTV, the Music video industry prospered with more and more special effects being built in to the video. Musical videos such as "Sledgehammer" showed to the world from their TV that a music video combined with special effect and computer animations can create an entertaining video.

Thus in February 2005, the world became a witness to the creation of the service (created by three former PayPal employees) known to us as Youtube and has been owned by Google since late 2006. The service allowed the audience and general public to look up their favorite music videos whenever or wherever they wanted to. Interestingly the first video to be uploaded was from one of the creators and is called "We are going to the Zoo". While MTV concentrates only on music videos and has other channels to produce the other types of programs, YouTube has a wide variety of video genres that are uploaded, which led in 2010 for the creation of special Groups and Playlists from corporate users to the mass public with Music videos that are straight from the TV channels. Also music videos have shifted to show from what the content of the lyrics is to how the performers look and what they are wearing. Thus the opportunity given to the artists by Youtube has been fulfilled. As YouTube has become available for mobile and other personal devices, The ease of finding the newest musical video has increased for the average music video consumer.