How Cole Bennett used YouTube to revive the ‘MTV’ music video genre in Hip-Hop

By George Hewitt

At one point in time not too long ago, MTV was the go to channel for music lovers to access their favourite artists newest songs, and most importantly, their music videos. Launching itself into the mainstream in 1981, airing ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ by The Buggles and never looking back. MTV became the hub of music media, with music videos becoming a vital part of promotion in the industry, if you had a great music video, you were halfway to a hit single.

During the height of MTV’s popularity in the 2000’s, alongside the continued rise of the Hip-Hop genre, artists such as 50 Cent, Snoop Dog and many more became renowned for their videos and as a result, artists relied on music videos to an extent in order to promote their latest songs. 

At some point during the 2010’s, MTV began moving away from music videos and entered into the reality TV sphere, and with the rise of social media coinciding with this change in content, MTV faded into the background of the music space. Platforms such as YouTube were on the rise, allowing audiovisual media to be made and shared by any and everyone, including music videos. 

Lyrical Lemonade had a meteoric rise to popularity during the late 2010’s, bringing back the quirky, in your face celebration of Hip-Hop and Rap culture in 2016. Artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, Juice Wrld and Ski Mask The Slump God, all from the ‘Soundcloud’ era of Rap, shot to fame after collaborations with Lyrical Lemonade, bringing billions of viewers on platforms such as YouTube, and millions more than the traditional timeshift format used by MTV. 

Using new media platforms as an outlet, Lyrical Lemonade, created by Cole Bennett, used what Vernallis reffered to as the mixing board aesthetic, where the use of new digital technologies could be used alongside and unique creative freedom (as the videos are not as much focused on promotion of the songs but as added value to the audiovisual experience) to revive the excitement around music videos in Hip-Hop, and carry forward the media form into a new era that continues to push the limits of post-cinematic audiovisual media in music today.