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In the internet age, when ‘For You’ pages and social media feeds run at a million miles per hour, the art and appeal of music videos have depleted. Audiences aren’t interested in watching videos that run past three minutes when most TikToks last under 60 seconds, and they certainly aren’t interested in sitting around in front of the television and watching ten music videos in a row. But it wasn’t always this way; there was once a time when MTV was a huge force in the music industry.

Early work on the music video, was inevitably located on a series of fault lines between music and sound and the visual, between high and popular culture, and between dominant and alternative representations.

Firstly, we will review the multiple histories of the music video, before discussing music videos, celebrity performances, gender and the sensual body. From this point, we will discuss the recent shift towards music video as an aesthetic form in its own right and in relation to a range of new audiovisual aesthetic practices, and then situate contemporary music video in its contemporary digital, mobile and social media environments.

A more recent track from Rod Stewart, ‘She Won’t Dance With Me’, followed Benatar’s video before the channel devoted some time to a group of rockers from across the Atlantic, The Who. ‘You Better You Bet’ was the fourth music video played by MTV, a track that had been released just a few months prior to the launch of MTV. 

Music videos are intrinsic to their very existence as vehicles for celebrity performances. As a promotional tool, its function is to launch, reinforce and maintain the celebrity image, the presenting a new aesthetic, body and image as fast as the celebrity machine will allows. Celebrity artists use music videos in a variety of ways, as platforms to reinforce their characters, comment on celebrity culture, and express their political views.

Of course, with the introduction of social media and short-form video content, music videos have since lost the interest of audiences and artists. Attention spans have shortened – why watch one three-minute video when you could skip through ten TikToks simultaneously? But even though interest in the medium has fallen off, music videos still remain a worthwhile endeavour, a way to enhance your artistry and capture a visual moment as well as sonic. 

Reference:

1.Elle Palmer, 2024, What were the first 10 music videos played on MTV?, published by FAR OUT. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/first-10-music-videos-on-mtv/

2. Gina Arnold, Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough, and Michael Goddard ‘Introduction: The Persistence of the Music Video Form from MTV to Twenty-First-Century Social Media’, Music/Video: Histories Aesthetics, Media, 1-14

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