1980's part 1

This part of the homework is divided in two parts, one with the music channel part and the other about 'Thriller.'

So in this day and age there are a wide number of platforms dedicated to music videos, one of the main ones are the music channels which we have many of these days. Music channels are completely dedicated to music  therefore they must be connected to music videos. The first music channel was  launched in america in 1981 called MTV which many people will be familiar with today. 

Since MTV there have been many other music channels all over the world, some are exclusive to a particular genre and others with different age groups (niches). As time has gone by such channels as MTV have changed according to the cultures of those times and has stayed successful.

At first MTV was an American cable channel which launched at the first of August 1981 and was the first channels of its kind. At first it was a channel that used to play music videos with an on screen host called a VJ (video jockey) later on the channel changed and became more close to the audience, when people changed so did the channel, keeping up to date with the latest trends in music and knew what the viewers liked. These days the channel also shows many reality TV shows and scripted shows, although it has moved away from the music experience it still holds some musical value.

MTV had also had many sister channels but many of them went independant and some of those channels are MTV2, MTV Desi (Bangra), Nickelodeon, Comedy Central etc. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," were the first words the channel ever opened with which was voiced by John Lack, and then played footage of the first space shuttle launch countdown of Columbia since then the channel still holds some evidence of this in recent times, such as astronauts and space.




Here is footage of the first broadcast and the shuttle launch.


Here is a modern day version taken from the beginning of a show called 'Jackass.' Some of the shows from MTV are 'Pimp My Ride', 'Jackass', 'My Super Sweet Sixteen.'

MTV is also part of the Viacom conglomerate network.

Channel AKA is a TV channel with a different niche compared to MTV. Formerly Channel U this channel is mainly playing music from urban/grime/hip hop culture and is a UK based channel. Many artist such as Tinchy Stryder, Devlin, Tinie Tempah have made breakthroughs with this channel, and also the comedian jazzy.

This is the logo from channel AKA, formerly this channel was called channel U and with its sister channel fizz, but after they were sold and bought by mushrooms TV the both changed names, channel U into channel AKA and Fizz TV to Stars TV

This is Devlin

 Tinchy stryder

Tinie Tempah

comedian Jazzie

Another way this channel is unique is that it shows many videos of upcoming artist which have music videos shot on hand held camcorders, this is to boost the artist's popularity, give them a platform to perform on and to highlight to the public the new fresh talent from the UK. Many artists show their appreciation to this channel in their lyrics, people such as Lady Sovereign, Ironik, Kano and many more.

Another familiar face from channel AKA is the DJ Tim Westwood. before being signed to MTV and hosting a UK version of 'Pimp My Ride' he had his own show on channel AKA and became known through it.

Tim westwood

The next music channel in here is BET (black entertainment television), what's unique about this channel is that they mainly aim at TV for the African American community but also have a lot of other viewers  This channel is very popular and pushes African American hopefuls to success, and is more of a community music channel.

the BET logo

BET started off as a 2 hour program block on Nickelodeon, in 1980 showing many new music videos and black sitcoms, in the year 1983 it became its own channel, the channel was later owned by the conglomerate Viacom in 2003

These days we still have BET and the channel has growth massively, it's like many other big channels has its own award ceremony which gets a massive audience worldwide, as well as that the channel also has a walk of fame including names such as Micheal Jackson, Boys 2 Men and Whitney Houston.