Internet Killed the TV Star: Music Videos Disappear From Music Television

For a solid decade, MTV's flagship music program--Total Request Live, or TRL for the abbreviation-obsessed Internet generation--was one of the only things legitimating the "Music" descriptor in the network's moniker, a hyperkinetic American Bandstand for millennial youth. Now, after airing daily countdowns of popular music videos over the past ten years, MTV is pulling the plug on TRL, announcing a star-studded two-hour series finale for November 16. Almost simultaneously, the station launched a new online initiative, MTV Music, opening up its vault of music videos for on-demand and completely free consumption. In my travels through the blogosphere this week, I focused my energies on responding to two blog posts that address these separate developments. The first, "MTV Killed the Video Star," is an emotional reaction to the impending cancellation of Total Request Live by the contributor "cerealmom" on Because It's Our Prerogative, a provocative pop culture blog. The second, "Do You Still Want Your MTV?" is a brief evaluation of the MTV Music website by Bob Sassone, a writer for TV Squad--a blog devoted to breaking television news and fan-friendly commentary. My comments addressing the authors of each post can be found at their respective blogs and are reproduced below.

MTV Killed the Radio Star
Comment
Thanks for your passionate and humorous take on the end of Total Request Live's ten-year run on MTV--or, if the Associated Press article you cite is to be believed, the hiatus declared by the network to "give [TRL] a break after an unprecedented run." I personally doubt that TRL is ever coming back since the program's success relied as much on the personality of the VJ as its interactive elements. As you point out, it is difficult not to associate the show with the mercurial Carson Daly (see image above left), a much-maligned figure in popular culture but also an oddly reassuring presence of calm amidst a daily circus of screaming teenagers and flash-in-the-pan pop music acts. Whatever your opinion of Daly, he at least stood out from the succession of bland talking heads or eccentric fashion plates that emerged after his departure. And considering that you reference other music video countdown shows that are or have been superior to much of TRL's run, I would be interested to know your further thoughts on MTV's presumptive replacement for the show: Feedback Nation MTV, or FNMTV. By choosing a host with built-in celebrity recognition--Fall Out Boy guitarist Pete Wentz--and pairing performances from major label artists with video premieres of independent acts such as No Age and She & Him, it is clear that MTV is trying hard to re-create the buzz surrounding TRL's heyday.

I must also take umbrage with your assertion that "finding new music that actually challenges you is hard when you are all alone on the endless interweb." On the contrary, I think that such independence allows one to deliberately seek out artists and songs that exist outside the major promotional pushes of record companies and the radio industry. The development of direct-distribution sites like MySpace Music and the presence of so many well-written music blogs on the Internet have democratized the distribution of popular music. It might take a little bit of searching, but the resources similar to the ones you desire (based on your invocation of the dearly departed Muxtape) are not impossible to find.

"Do You Still Want Your MTV?"
Comment
In your reporting on the launch of MTV Music, I must say that I enjoyed your enthusiasm for the MTV of a bygone era--when it was, as you so succinctly state, "THE MOST IMPORTANT TV STATION IN OUR LIVES." With the recent cancellation of the last bastion of the music video on "Music Television," Total Request Live, it seems as if the network is willing to abandon the format. And while I can also appreciate the nostalgia that permeates the MTV Music project, it is clear that MTV has strayed about as far from its original 1981 mission--to play music videos and disseminate music news--as conceivably possible. A look at MTV's typical daily schedule and even the curiously redundant title "MTV Music" underscores this sad irony. I cannot help but think that this is worrisome for the future of music videos as a whole. There is little economic incentive to produce music videos without a broad platform for exhibition and although the Internet has picked up some of the slack from television, it is inconceivable to think that more than a few videos each year could reach the type of cultural saturation common in the 1980s and 1990s.

It is interesting that several other comments on this post have mentioned a desire to see MTV Music evolve into a full-scale cable channel as a sort of hybrid between VH1 Classic and MTV's barely-adequate once-a-week video premiere show FNMTV. I, for one, do not think a channel like this would be successful because of the pop cultural evidence that the music video is barely respected as an art form anymore. The video for Rick Astley's 1988 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" (see image above right) is both a "Top Rated" and "Most Viewed" clip on MTV Music, undoubtedly on the strength of its popularity as an absurd online practical joke. Despite MTV's best efforts to highlight long-lost classic videos and artists obscure to MTV's target audience, how is MTV Music anything than lip service to the obsolete product that made the network rich? I also want my MTV, but I do not expect to receive it anytime soon--at least not in any form that I will embrace.

Record of the Year: The Unlikely Resurgence of Vinyl

As I discussed in a previous post, the distribution of music over the Internet has forced record companies and retailers alike to re-evaluate their business model and invest more in digital distribution as an appeal to a new generation of creative, computer-savvy consumers. An intriguing, oft-overlooked detail regarding this shift in strategy is that the process of buying music has almost completely transformed from a physical experience to an ephemeral one. The typical consumer can, theoretically, acquire music in a vacuum of extrasensory stimulation: just point, click, and wait for a file to download, with no need to talk to a store clerk and no distraction from the sights and sounds of other music for sale. However, despite the digital format's convenience and efficiency, the emergence of a fervent cult around the unexpected revival of the vinyl long-player (LP) epitomizes a small if determined revolt against the tyranny of modern technology and the reclamation of popular music's tactile personality.

While increased vinyl sales, suddenly materializing after nearly two decades of dormancy, have not revolutionized the business of selling music, the return of the record is highly unusual amidst an environment of slowly eroding "physical sales." Recent articles in the Deseret News of Salt Lake City and the Chicago Tribune discuss the mathematics of this trend, noting that while compact disc (CD) sales suffer double-digit percentage drops, vinyl has claimed and built upon its small foothold in the world of music retail. Record suppliers and manufacturers have noticed an increased demand for vinyl--6 million units 2008, according to the Tribune, a twofold jump from the previous year. Yet these numbers should not be misconstrued. As the aforementioned article from the Deseret News notes, vinyl only accounts for a small fraction of music sales (roughly one percent of all units sold, physical or digital), and CDs still boast a huge market share (almost eighty percent).

Nonetheless, many factors contribute to the resurgence of vinyl while the CD format slowly withers on the music industry vine. The compact disc admittedly has its supporters--particularly those that came of age during the format's 1990s heyday--but the vinyl contingent advances a wide variety of reasons for the format's continued appeal. Adherents often cite a richer sound quality derived from a process free from complicated digital conversion. As explained by Wired magazine, the digital compression process emphasizes the loudness of sound at the expense of its texture while "records generally offer a more nuanced sound." In essence, digital technology imposes artificial limitations on the capacity of the human ear to detect subtle gradations while barraging it with pure volume. This is exhibited to humorous effect on the NewmRadio blog, which compares the digital mastering of Metallica's new Death Magnetic album to the analog mastering on an LP of the band's 1988 release ...And Justice For All. The blog author's technical plea for more vinyl releases actually boils down to an aesthetic concern: "Vinyl demands nuance."

And in keeping with such artistic considerations, the embrace of vinyl by several generations of audiophiles amounts to an expression of individual personality. For some, it is the pure material pleasure of record-buying that is lost in the digital transaction. The uniqueness of LP packaging attracts many buyers, as the size of a vinyl disc allows the consumer to appreciate bigger and bolder cover art, not to mention more legible liner notes. Furthermore, vinyl encourages active listening; it demands maintenance, such as flipping the record once a side has finished playing and, for audio obsessives, listening for skips and needle drops that signal a disc in need of cleaning. This rejection of passivity often carries over to the process of acquiring LPs. For record enthusiasts, it is important to patronize and support the type of independent record store that still carries a large selection of vinyl, especially as these stores continue to go out of business.

Ultimately, the true miracle of vinyl's resurrection is that the demands of the LP market niche are by no means incompatible with the financial goals of the music industry or the desires of the mainstream consumer. The alternative newsweekly Nashville Scene reports that vinyl releases of new albums--especially those on independent labels--now often come packaged with a special coupon for a free digital download of the music on the record, a concession to modern consumers who appreciate both the concrete materiality of LPs and the portability of MP3s. Also, large retailers such as Best Buy are devoting more retail space to turntables and new pressings of both recent and older albums on LP. The design of today's mass market record players, which consciously mimic old radio cabinets, and the conspicuous marketing of canonical classic rock albums utilize the powerful feeling of nostalgia evoked by vinyl to broaden the format's modern appeal beyond the hip, pop culture-obsessed iPod generation. Young or old, classic or avant-garde, the vinyl LP is slowly regaining its cultural cachet after years of consumer indifference. Surely, vinyl has taken its time rediscovering its inherent appeal but, like an old favorite spun for hundredth time, it has finally come full circle.

It's Still Rock and Roll to Me: A Look at the Online Music Zeitgeist

This week I tackled the daunting task of evaluating the web's expansive body of sites and resources pertaining to the critical role of popular music within American culture. Using the criteria established by the Webby Awards and ISMA, I have produced a linkroll of twenty sites (see below right) that display superior functionality and content within an immersive online environment. My goal was to provide a list of links highlighting the best the web has to offer in analyzing the constantly-evolving zeitgeist of popular music and reflect some of the current cultural tensions evoked by each these sites. To aid in my explanation, I group each site within one of four categories as I evaluate their significance to my blog and the web at large.

The first cluster of links concerns a topic that has consumed much of my blogging energies to date: intellectual property, as the protection of copyrights and the notion of fair compensation are firestorms of fact and opinion. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a logical starting point, a professional, elegant site that promotes legal music downloading practices and parental resources. However, the RIAA's site has the feel of a publicity front, whereas the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provides a real environment of consumer empowerment in the "Intellectual Property" section of its website. The EFF's somewhat vague but well-meaning mission manifests itself nicely with links to ongoing legal battles over digital rights. Less pedantic is the blog "Recording Industry vs. the People" which despite its populist biases and distracting advertising layout, is packed with superb content written by a New York-based lawyer specializing in infringement cases. On the other hand, the site of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is dry but easy to navigate and approaches intellectual property rights as a multifaceted issue, counter to the "us vs. them" spirit of the RIAA and the EFF. Finally, FreeCulture.org suggests an interesting alternative to legal wrangling: a community of artists and consumers avoiding a financially-driven model for all types of culture, including music. The site is somewhat sparse in design and content but provides dozens of links to grassroots projects and organizational chapters.

It is important to note that the copyright debate was sparked in part by a revolution in the distribution of music, which includes the resurgence of radio and the development of many non-traditional avenues for broadcasting. The Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an excellent place to keep abreast of seismic shifts in the laws governing broadcasting, but it might be difficult for the average citizen to find useful information buried under a digital deluge of red tape. The online home of Friday Morning Quarterback, or FMQB (see image below left), is a better place for a casual web surfer to find music industry news paired with intriguing information about radio technology. However, FMQB appears to rely heavily on corporate press releases to keep a steady flow of updates. More industry-oriented is Radio 411, which addresses the entire broadcast spectrum (news, music, sports, etc.) with an impressive diversity in content--sometimes too diverse, in fact, as the site attempts to mix useful applications like career-building resources with random news headlines from wire services. The creation of actual listening communities fares better at Live365 Internet Radio, where users can browse a wide variety of radio stations that stream audio over the web and become Internet broadcasters themselves, though the site's interface makes wading through the many amateurish broadcasts more difficult than it needs to be. Conversely, CMJ.com--the website of the College Music Journal--is an appealing site providing chart information and other resources for college radio stations, despite the presence of irritating animated advertisements.

Print publications like CMJ are increasingly building an online presence to tap into the desires of a new generation of consumers that demand more diverse and immediate information. Rolling Stone's "Rock and Roll Daily" blog is a great example of one of the "old guard" putting together a very slick site that tends to address the past rather than the present vanguard of popular music. There is nothing inherently wrong about this type of nostalgia, but Spin Magazine's "Daily Noise" is a better sample of a "corporate" blog that at least brings the discussion on popular music into the current decade. Nevertheless, both blogs have a specific audience in mind and serve them well, if in a sanitized fashion. The highly commercial but quite useful Billboard Music News and Reviews site is perhaps the most up-to-date example of mainstream music journalism; its design is pleasant and accessible even for non-industry types. MTV's Buzzworthy is a little too synergistic for my liking, mostly focusing its coverage on artists most likely to appear on the parent network, but has a unique energy and a generous amount of multimedia that keeps visitors anchored to the site. Conversely, the refreshing NPR Music blissfully exists outside of the mainstream and covers oft-neglected genres, even if the site lacks adequate contextualization for non-aficionados.

Spearheading a new trend of influential music publications that never actually appear in print, Pitchfork Media has the gloss and the clout of a mainstream music news site with the esoterica and elitism of an alternative periodical. Though the site's layout is a little hard to follow, Pitchfork is nonetheless an essential trendsetting site. The "Andy Whitman on Music" blog, written by the Paste magazine journalist, is a more irreverent destination with main page "jump" links that occur too frequently but are worth following. And for people who find Whitman too boring, there is My Old Kentucky Blog, which pushes the concept of the sarcastic-yet-incisive blogger to its farthest limits; however, its coarse brand of "infotainment" is motivated by a clear love for the music it covers. Coolfer, a level-headed music business blog, looks staid in comparison but supplies a rare commodity--staunchly independent commentary on the music industry. Last but not least is Stereogum (see image above right), a hybrid blog/cultural salon that, despite engaging in some triviality, combines unobtrusive and largely ad-free design with crowd-pleasing features like a built-in media player. Features like this elevate the site's status from simple time-waster to unique online destination--a commonality among the sites and blogs of "new" paperless music journalism that has the old periodicals and institutions scrambling to stay relevant.