Tag Archives: MTV

Apple, Cutting Edge, Music

I want my Apple Music TV— Apple launches twenty-four hour music video streaming channel in the U.S.

Apple will revive and improve the past with non-stop music

In the 1980s and 90s, MTV and VH1 dominated television sets, bringing the novel concept of music videos to new heights. Today, those channels have gone in different directions, shifting their attentions towards reality television to near-humorous degrees. Meanwhile, like many forms of entertainment in the twenty-first century, music videos have been siphoned off to the Internet, finding homes on YouTube, Vevo, and Facebook.

Read More: Apple iPhone 12 Pro Models are Coming Immediately and There’s More

Now Apple is trying to get in on and rekindle the music video action with a new project that feels both retro and advanced all at the same time.

Apple Music TV launched in the United States on October 19th, offering a twenty-four hour live stream of music videos and other music related content such as interviews, concert footage, and more. This is far from Apple’s first leap into the music industry, as it launched Apple Music and Apple Music 1 (formerly Beats 1) in 2015— not to mention that the tech company was once synonymous with iTunes and the iPod. However, Apple Music TV is the company’s first deep dive into music videos.

In many ways, Apple Music TV emulates old school outlets like MTV and VH1, as it streams content constantly like a visual radio station. Unlike its ancestral predecessors, though, it does not have advertisements (for now) and its accessibility is not tethered to a cable subscription. Instead, users access Apple Music TV through the AppleTV app, which already comes with most smart TVs. 

Given the declining popularity of music videos over the past few decades, one must question whether or not Apple Music TV is a worthwhile investment for the company. Apple has recently put a lot of its eggs into the streaming basket, launching Apple TV+ in 2019 and emphasizing its new status as an entertainment conglomerate with the AppleOne bundle. The company has also gotten experimental on the streaming front with innovations like the Apple Fitness+ exercise app.

Exclusive video premieres, music documentaries and much more in store for Apple Music

In today’s age, a music video-focused channel is yet another daring outing for Apple. As aforementioned, though, Apple has some deep roots in music, and therefore goes into this world with a bit of preexisting infrastructure.

For example, Apple Music produces its own music, which Apple Music TV can help promote. The same concept applies to Apple’s radio stations like Apple Music 1, Apple Music Country, and Apple Music Hits. They can all work in tandem to raise Apple’s bar across all musical platforms.

Furthermore, although music television has been around for decades, the industry is ongoing. Apple Music TV aims to find new ways to celebrate and cover it. On Fridays, for example, the channel will focus on new releases, airing never-before-seen videos. This week, it will debut the music videos for Joji’s “777” and Saint Jhn’s “Gorgeous.”

Likewise, on Thursday, the channel will narrow in on Bruce Springsteen, playing videos both old and new, plus interviews and fan events, to promote The Boss’ new album “Letters To You.” These are the kind of special events that the channel will celebrate and distinguish itself through.

Such is the win-win nature of Apple Music TV— for every piece of new content, there is a backlog of old material; and for everything that is outmoded, there is always something cutting edge on the horizon. Evidently, even in today’s age, there is more than enough material to keep a music-streaming channel fresh and relevant. 

Luckily, Apple also has enough name brand recognition to televise events and promote content for some highly influential artists. This reputation for quality and appeal might be Apple Music TV’s greatest tool in trying to resurrect a bygone kind of television.

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Entertainment, Music

1984: The Year MTV Peaked – U2, Prince, The Police, Madonna and Michael Jackson

(editor’s note: this is the opening salvo in our new :]FuturePast[: series: a look at the past through the eyes of future generations, re-immersion in events and feelings of other times and other worlds.)

George Orwell, author of “1984” – Montage / Lynxotic / Medium

Setting the Stage: 1983

It’s 1983. Cable TV is in it’s infancy. The Macintosh is still barely a glint in Steve Jobs’ eye. MTV is one-and-a-half years into it’s lifespan. FM Radio is the well established “4k of audio” and signals are received on home stereo systems (and in cars)…

Video of the original MTV countdown to launch from 1981. NASA public domain footage was used, partially for budgetary considerations…

A music video is in heavy rotation on the known but not yet omnipresent 24 hour “video jukebox”. Four odd scruffy characters buried under overcoats ride on horseback through a barren winter landscape as if on some 19th century scouting mission in a Scandinavian war. This is U2 1983, still not well known in the USA. That will change, as will so much else in the next 18 Months.

https://youtu.be/_LpIuPbUKvM
The clip played heavily on MTV in January, 1983 – U2: New Year’s Day

MTV began, in essence, as a way to produce low budget content, “promo videos clips”, paid for by record labels, and broadcast them to create the first ever TV-Radio fusion station.

In keeping with the FM Radio vibe, VJ’s like Nina Blackwell, Mark Goodman and Martha Quinn would introduce each clip, radio style, and each came mainly with a Radio-DJ background and experience.

Although the station was primarily oriented towards Hard Rock initially, which was also an FM Radio staple, things began to change drastically in 1983. For example, the video for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, already a radio hit since its release in January, was also added into heavy rotation in late March 1983 on MTV.

Followed by “Beat It” which conveniently (for MTV audiences) featured a guitar solo from Eddie Van Halen, and the crossover into a broader music mix began.

“Every Breath You Take” from The Police was also in heavy rotation in 1983 leading the commercial wing of the post punk “New Wave”.

Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” along with videos from Eddy Grant (“Electric Avenue”), Donna Summer (“She Works Hard For The Money”) and Herbie Hancock (“Rock-it”) solidified the initial transition to a more inclusive music / video mix:

1984

By the beginning of 1984 MTV had already achieved a status of major music industry influence toward making and breaking the hits. Among the general public the station’s output was consumed almost as a first “National Radio Station” for the USA. A radio station that just happened to broadcast from your cable TV and included video clips along with the tracks.

More often than not, going to a party at that time meant MTV blasting at high volume from a stereo system (cleverly attached to the cable box’s output) with the videos unwatched somewhere on a connected TV. Although flat screens were still a distant future dream, projection TV could increase the screen size (though not the resolution) of the signal.

FM Radio playlists mirrored that of MTV and vice versa. From the peak in 1984 MTV maintained a video clip heavy playlist until 1995 when videos were gradually pushed out by “reality shows” and other programming.

After the success, in both unit sales and radio / MTV airplay, of Prince’s LP “1999”, released on October 27, 1982, his next project would fully integrate video and film with his songs and performances.

Price was about to explode onto the world stage in 1984. In collaboration with Albert Magnoli (director for the feature film “Purple Rain”), and even taking directing credits himself for his “When Doves Cry” video, a barrage of both traditional radio hits, a feature film and multiple music video promos were released in well timed succession.

At the peak in the summer of 1984, price had the #1 Movie (“Purple Rain”), #1 Single, (“When Doves Cry”) and #1 LP, (“Purple Rain”), simultaneously. A feat that no one has replicated before or since. His income that year was rumored to be in the fifty million dollar range.

By the end of 1984 three twenty-six year olds, Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson had established themselves at the top of pop, in large part due to MTV exposure and hit videos.

Coming in the next :]FuturePast[: installment: On January 22nd, 1984 this little TV commercial was shown at Super Bowl XVIII, announcing an odd little machine with big ambitions:

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