Institutions and Audiences - Chip James

Institutions and Audiences

Institutions play an important part of the media industry as they are the creators and distributors of the media. General examples of modern day institutions include Disney, Kerrang!, Channel 4 etc. It is vital for us to consider the range of institutions available for us in relation to the music video industry, as to know what aspects/conventions to include in our music video to appeal to these institutions. These institutions each have their own unique style and as such they each have their own individual audiences. If our video isn’t similar to others shown by these channels, then it won’t have the same appeal to the audience, and ultimately we will lose out on potential audiences and profit which could be made from the effective advertisement.

With each institution having their own unique style, each institution also specialises in specific genres, such as Kerrang! which specialises on rock and heavy metal music. If a song were to feature on a channel which specialises in an opposite genre, then this could affect the overall image of the song/band/film (if it is promoting a film), for example if a rock music video were to feature on a grime genre channel then this would affect the image of the music video.

The earliest music channel to broadcast a music video is MTV in 1981, with ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ being the first music video to be aired on MTV on the first of August 1981. As MTV is the oldest music channel to show music videos they have had a chance to expand and diversify their genres across multiple channels, with the earliest music video programming being a mix of genres including rock and pop music. MTV has expanded across multiple channels with each channel targeting specific target audiences, allowing for specific programming. Despite this development the original channel, MTV1 still exists. MTV was originally only available in America, with the channel later expanding in 1997 with MTV UK which was a channel for the UK and Ireland, this was later re-branded as MTV One in 2007 and it inevitably changed back to MTV UK in 2009.

MTV is one of the most popular music channels available and is so as the main channel doesn’t stick to a specific genre (although favouring the main stream chart music), this is to increasing its audience exposure as well as increasing its viewership figures. The new MTV UK channel was a big success with it being broadcast to well over 10 million homes in the UK and Ireland. However as the institution diversified and expanded to multiple channels, the main channel has become less about music videos, now tending to show reality televisions programmes and teen comedies such as ‘The Hills’ and ‘South Park’, giving the channel a teenage to early adult market, with a balanced mix of male and female viewers. However the channel still features music videos alongside its scheduled programming, often with the most current music videos featuring between the advert breaks, or with some having a set premier time on the channel. Namely Kanye West’s ‘Runaway’ music video which is a 30 minute long feature, which had its own set premier slot on MTV’s main channels schedule.

In 1998 MTV released a new channel to Europe called M2, this channel specialised in alternative rock and indie music. This is because it joined MTV’s over spin off channels such as MTV Dance, MTV Base and MTV Hits, and fit the area of the music market which MTV had yet to target/specialise in. M2 allowed its audience to vote for the songs and music videos they saw on the channel, enabling them to control the channels programming, as well as the brand image presented to them. The MTV Networks team felt the channel was being seen as far different from the MTV brand and in 2000 the channel was renamed MTV Two to keep with the franchise and match its US counterpart. However this rebranding didn’t change the format of the channel at all. As a new element to the channel, MTV Two diversified online, being one of the first ever 100% Adobe Flash websites and allowing audience complete control over the channels content, with audiences choices’ being aired in the early hours of the morning on the website. MTV Two was again rebranded in 2010 with its new name being MTV Rock with a similar approach to the channel as that of MTV2 Europe.

Another of MTV’s spin off channels includes MTV Hits which was released in 2001, the aim of this channel was to play the newest chart music non-stop within specific ‘zones’ on the channel, this allowed audiences to watch during their favourite zones and enjoy non-stop music they like. These zones would vary between urban, pop, dance etc. As well as this MTV also released a channel called MTV Base in 2007 which had a heavier focus on urban music, aiming to a niche youth market. MTV Base also featured genres like R’n’B, hip-hop, reggae and soul, blending a mix of the genres within the programming. Within recent years MTV Base has conformed to some of the style of MTV One and is now showing programmes as well as music videos, fitting its younger youth market.

The music video we will be creating will be within the rock genre, as such when considering the MTV channels to play our video on we would be considering MTV Rock the most out of all the other channels, as it is the one channel that specialises in our genre of music. We would also consider MTV One as it could be previewed alongside our short film which could get a slot on the channel. The problem with previewing our music video on MTV Rock is that it is a young channel and has proved to be unreliable through how many changes MTV has made to it, currently the genre of the music which is shown on MTV Rock is lighter indie rock, which is a contrast to the rock music we are looking at for our music video, this may mean that the audience of MTV Rock will be different to the audience we are looking for.

An alternative to MTV is the sister-channel VH1, which was launched in 1985. VH1 approached its programming in a similar way to MTV, focusing on playing music videos which would appeal to the masses. When VH1 was first released it was the golden years of Rock and Roll and this was VH1’s initial focus for its program, then moving on to more popular sounds of that generation. However in modern years VH1 has taken a similar advancement to MTV1 and is now focusing less on music videos.

Another alternative to MTV comes from EMAP (East Midlands Allied Press) which is a magazine publishing company which released Bauer Publishing. Within recent years the company has released television and radio adaptations of their best-selling music magazines (Q and Kerrang!). Q TV was released in 2000 and focused on a similar genre to that of its magazine, which are indie, rock and alternative music. It adopted a typical ‘jukebox’ programming format, offering their viewers full control of what music videos are played on its channel, viewer’s phone up and their request is added onto the queue. Although this format was removed in 2004 with the channel now offering more organised viewing.

Kerrang! was released a year later than Q, in 2001. With the focus on a heavier sound, centring on rock, heavy rock and nu metal genres. The idea of the channel was to be less related to its magazine origins and appear more of a ‘tie-in’ to the brand. The channel had a similar ‘jukebox’ style to Q offerings its audience its entire list of music videos which could be added to the queue. The problem with this format from our point of view is that, adding our video to a list of all the ones available on Kerrang! means there is less of an opportunity for our video to actually be played on the channel unless our band is well known within this market and will be voted for by our audience. However within recent years Kerrang! has added to this approach with new music video related sections, such as popular bands favourite choices of music video, or showing a history of popular bands. Despite Kerrangs! rough and heavy design the channel itself focuses heavily on censorship of material, opting to remove any profanity, violence and references to religion or drug use and self-harming from their music videos.

An alternative channel to Kerrang! would be Scuzz, and independent music channel, which is owned by CSC Media Group. Scuzz was launched in 2003, and it promotes itself as ‘Total’ rock, despite playing a range of music which is both similar to Kerrangs! line up and heavier than it, opting to play more screamo and heavy metal music. A constant message Scuzz uses on its channel is to ‘rock hard, only with Scuzz’ reflecting the channels heavy metal attitude, as well as showing its independence from other channels. When considering the genre of our music video, Scuzz would be a likely choice for the heavier songs we could use.

From this research I can conclude that the best options for our music video to be played on would be either Scuzz or Kerrang! depending on how heavy our song is. Both of these channels have a teenage audience, which is ideal when considering our music video is promoting our short film, which has a similar target audience. A lot of music videos available on both of these channels have references to college and high school already, meaning the ideology and themes of our film and music video will fit in well on either channel. As well as these, if we opt for a lighter rock song, there is potential for our music video to feature on MTV One, shortly before the premier of our short film, with the film later making its television debut on the channel. MTV One has a youth audience of similar age and situation to that of our short films target audience and as such the channel could be ideal, to reach a mass market.