CHANNEL 5

One positive shift, though, or from John Peel's occasion- and oldies like Neil Diamond Empty has been the increase in al and incongruous Top Of and the Moody Blues. This is black music on the station. The Pops appearances. The a shrewd move, catering as it Visions? MTV was accused of racism VJs love just everything. does for the increasingly im- in its first years of life. Black This abdication of criticism portant older audience for 'I want my MTV eventually acts were almost entirely ab- is not nearly as common on pop, who no longer go out to became the opening line of a sent, while white acts play- American TV as many people gigs, but still seek the excite- hit song (Dire Straits' Money ing soul or funk were aired - think but it does represent a ment of pop performance. For Nothing), but the slogan provided their rendition was cross-media trend towards Ironically, the new bound- was first heard five years sufficiently lame. These the fusion of advertising and ary-breaking service has ago, in advertisements for days more black faces can be product. MTV is at the centre found a surprise success MTV:Music Television, the seen: rock-orientated dance of developments like Miami story in reruns of the Monk- world's first all-music cable music from Prince, Michael Vice (working title: MTV ees TV series. The Monkees TV channel, based in the Jackson and Tina Turner has Cops), Sigue Sigue Sputnik, have just completed a lucra- USA. found a firm place, alongside and the growing corporate Rock stars like Mick Jagger the m-o-r sounds of Lionel sponsorship of pop, where and Pete Townshend leered Richie and Whitney Houston. the relations between pro- into camera and implored But MTV's real saviour has duct and promotion are in- American kids to demand the been Run DMC - wholesome creasingly indistinct. Every- new service from their local black lads who sugar their thing on MTV is a promotion cable station: 'Call your raps with heavy metal guitar, - from the station ID, cable operator now, and say, and denounce drugs, crime through the advertisements, 'I want my Emm tee vee!' As and all things immoral. Their to the videos themselves, the service celebrates its duet with white rockers which advertise other pro- fifth birthday this year, it is Aerosmith (Walk This Way) ducts. now as much a part of the US created the perfect MTV What are we to make of the pop establishment as Jagger cross-over and received politics of MTV? Left ver- and Townshend. heavy airplay all summer dicts have veered from the MTV has already had an long. outrageously optimistic impact beyond its size. The This 'play safe' strategy has assertion that music video station is available to nearly taken much of the early buzz pioneers a radical subver- 30m Americans, although re- out of the format. And the sion of realist broadcasting MTV video jocks cently less than 1% have impact on record companies ... to the usual condemna- been tuning in. However, in Britain and elsewhere can tions of lyrics and image. But tive reunion tour of the US, MTV's real impact is the only be negative, because it is no use bemoaning the and CBS are about to shoot a 'gatekeeping' role it plays in they must sign and market ascendancy of the image on remake of the series, using the US pop market. acts with one eye on the cru- MTV, since visual style has new actors. How can a 60s In its early years the ser- cial American market. always been at the very heart bubblegum group who were vice was credited with MTV's originality lies in its of pop. And left efforts to considered hopelessly un- breaking British 'new wave' significance for television, 'analyse' pop narrative are cool at the time become the music that had hitherto been not music. Perhaps it heralds often no more convincing. cult heroes of the ? The considered too radical for a new attitude to TV con- In the US this summer prog- answer lies partly with pop American radio. Bear in sumption, or perhaps it con- ressives and feminists de- video and MTV. Many of to- mind that this crusade was solidates existing patterns; bated the meaning of Madon- day's stars have achieved headed by the likes of the either way, the episodic na's hit Papa Don't Preach, fame precisely because of Thompson Twins and Ho- structure of MTV is best ex- and its video (featured heavi- their miming and 'acting' ta- ward Jones but, still, MTV's perienced casually, paying ly on MTV). Its critics say the lents, and failure to play on playlist in those days was attention sometimes to sound song and the video preach an your own records is no lon- more innovative than radio. or vision only and dipping in anti-abortion line, telling ger considered a breach of The appeal of the British from time to time for more young girls to 'keep their trust (Frankie Goes To Hol- bands came from the strik- concentrated viewing. You babies'. But facile content lywood boast about it). ing visual impact of their don't sit down and watch analysis like this is no more MTV has helped to change videos, whose popularity MTV, you absorb it; videos, helpful than the overblown the way we think about pop with MTV exerted an unseen ads and zappy graphics flash formalism of the post- and performance. And its in- influence on British pop, as it across the screen in an unre- modernists, who embrace fluence extends way beyond boosted the fortunes of some mitting flow, 24 hours a day, the anti-realist impulse in the cabled living rooms of acts - and not others - in a almost unbroken by the dis- music video, while neglect- the USA. MTV has also key international 'territory'. crete 'programmes' we ex- ing its uncritical core. spawned European imita- But the innovation that pect from broadcast TV. Some critics see hope in the tors, some of them very pale established MTV has waned. The' VJs' (Video Jocks) who imminent demise of MTV indeed, like the Virgin Re- Nowadays its playlists are used to pop up between each and pop video. But MTV has cords/ Television indistinguishable from its clip are now seen less fre- been expanding. Last year venture Music Box. My radio counterparts. MTV's quently, giving the channel the media corporation hunch is that MTV is here to lifeline to young middle- an even greater sense of hav- Viacom International bought stay, and may eventually America sustains old wave ing no authority or anchor. the channel from its original find its way onto the dereg- British rock from the likes of But this approach lends itself owners Warner-Amex (as ulated airwaves of the UK. Yes, ELP, and Genesis; while to extremely uncritical part of a $570m package) and We might sneer that empty 'alternative' music is pushed coverage of pop. You won't quickly established a second visions make the most sound; out from the prime-time slots catch the VJs displaying the service (VH-1) for older but they also attract the most into late Sunday and Monday kind of cynicism that leaks viewers, featuring more advertisers, too. • night shows. out of The Tube, Whistle Test black artists (strictly m-o-r) Andrew Goodwin

43 MARXISM TODAY DECEMBER 1986