Exploring the Evolving Music Video Scene
Music videos are one of the most remarkable kinds of visual culture in the world. Crafting a visual story to accompany one’s music can allow audiences to connect deeper with a song, and communicate a meaning that may have been abstracted through audio alone. Serving a multiplicity of purposes outside of just promoting music, the music video has also stood as a cultural event of sorts–not just a spectacle anxiously anticipated, but an iconic, highly referenceable text among fans and the public alike.
There are a number of present day music videos whose YouTube views reflect this kind of intense engagement, but they mainly seem to circulate outside of the western, English language realm. According to Kworb, 2023 saw that, excluding Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers”, the top 10 most viewed music videos on YouTube were all from non-western, non-English language artists. However, if we look at the most viewed music videos of all time, more western artists are featured on the list. All just over or nearing 10 years old, we have to wonder why current music videos from the most popular western songs are not pulling numbers even slightly comparable to the billions of streams they amass on other platforms. With the visible shift in the way music videos have been regarded and consumed, we can explore how technological development has disrupted the trajectory of western artists and their music videos to a noticeable degree.
To examine this shift we must delve into the contemporary history of music videos to see how the culture has changed. We can go back to the 80s and 90s, in specific, which marked an important time for music videos. This period saw the rise of televised music videos on channels such as MTV (Music Television) that once exclusively played music videos. These channels have been regarded by numerous publications and scholars as the entertainment vessels that helped reignite popular consumption of music videos amongst youth. In 1981, MTV premiered their first music video: "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. Over the following decades, many influential videos would debut on the channel, including Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time."
Similar to films, television shows, and the songs themselves, music videos began to garner traditional awards, and these programs would gain popularity as well. 1984 saw the first ever MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), which quickly became a vehicle for some of the most iconic performances in pop culture, reinforcing the popularity of music videos at the time. Some of which include Madonna’s 1984 “Like a Virgin” performance, Britney Spears’ 2001 performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” and Lady Gaga’s 2009 performance of “Paparazzi.” In the same year the VMAs premiered, the Grammys introduced an award for “Best Video, Short Form,” which later developed into the “Best Music Video “ category we have today. This kind of acknowledgement incentivized both artists and labels to make videos that could garner attention, push boundaries, and create trends. Additionally, it also emphasized music video’s cultural impact—specifically for youth, who looked to popular music artists and their aesthetic personas for identification and inspiration.
Like most modern media, digitization and the Internet have had an overwhelming effect on the ways and the frequency at which content is consumed, with the music video being no different. So stepping into the start of the 2000s, when music video channels started to steer further away from music-based television, other digital platforms began to rise up as the dominant source for artists to promote and debut their music videos. Youtube quickly became the hotspot for labels to distribute their music videos, making it the place to go if you wanted to have what Rolling Stone calls the “al la carte” method of music video consumption.
YouTube not only offers on-demand music videos but also allows unsigned or independent artists to distribute their work, which can potentially reaching millions of users. Today, it also contributes to Billboard chart calculations and provides artists with a secondary revenue stream. Fan-man music videos were also very prevalent on YouTube–some gaining relative virality and promoting their original counterparts in the process. These videos were a specific past-time for children and adolescents in the late 2000s and early to mid 2010s. Consequently, the 2010s would pump out some of the most viewed music videos of all time, and for major hits there was likely to be a conversation surrounding the music video, or views that reflected active and continuous engagement in the product. In 2024, this extent of commentary and engagement appears to be happening to a significantly lesser degree with general audiences.
One of the most glaring reasons for this is streaming. With reports from IFPI that music streaming subscriptions are on the rise, the music video is not the central or foremost destination for listening to new music. This general decrease in video necessity has severely impacted the way artists and labels allocate their time and money for videos. Large and small artists alike are opting for different kinds of marketing tactics and other types of promotional materials to accompany their songs. This includes the use of social media platforms such as TikTok. Looking closely at the world’s quick adoption of short-form content, it is no wonder that the average four-minute music video has been sidelined. It demonstrates how short-form music content and visual culture is becoming even shorter to be more easily digestible. It also suggests that there is less focus on how music is addressed visually, and a certain contentment with the abstract.
That is not to say fans are not invested in artists’ visual representation to some extent. Since the release of her acclaimed album RENAISSANCE, Beyoncé fans online have been expressing with vigor their need for videos to accompany the album. Known for her exciting and impactful visuals, Beyoncé’s music videos are a perfect example of the art form's importance. One of her most acclaimed videos, “Formation” by Melania Matsoukas displays narratives about Black culture. At the time. it sparked widespread conversations about police brutality and other injustices done to the Black community in America. Many smaller artists have similarly utilized the music video to visually express a slew of important social issues.
Streaming has come as an obstacle for video attention, but music videos are a pillar of visual culture that must not be undervalued by both labels and audiences. With smaller budgets, and fewer pairs of eyes, the western music video landscape has shifted tremendously in the past decade. With all this change in the industry, it is important to continue to support the art form and remember how music videos have the power to be evocative, subversive, and an expansive vessel to tell stories and connect with audiences.
