MTV in the 70s?

If MTV had come along in say 1975 or 76, how do you think it would have affected music around that time? I can already see many rock acts losing popularity, since the songs sounded good on radio, but looking at them playing was kind of dull (their concerts did well, but concerts are pretty much a big party anyway). I wonder how punk would be affected as well (it was a visual medium in some ways, but the violence may have scared off mtv).
 
MTV

That is a good question.

Maybe Disco's popularity would have been even stronger because of an MTV-like channel.

Also, you probably would have had some different stars than what you had because asthetics would have been more of a premium. That is what happened in 1981 when MTV launched.

Although, if a channel like that would have happened then, hopefully it would have had different people running it, so garbage like the Real World and Road Rules and Viva La Bam would have been avoided, and they could focus more on music.
 
That is a good question.

Maybe Disco's popularity would have been even stronger because of an MTV-like channel.

Also, you probably would have had some different stars than what you had because asthetics would have been more of a premium. That is what happened in 1981 when MTV launched.

Although, if a channel like that would have happened then, hopefully it would have had different people running it, so garbage like the Real World and Road Rules and Viva La Bam would have been avoided, and they could focus more on music.

If MTV started earlier, you would need different VJs to host the original shows (coinciding with the period when disco/dance music began to take off-imagine the Bee Gees and The Village People screaming "I WANT MY MTV"). This will butterfly away Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn from working for MTV in the 1980s.

Such an earlier debut of MTV might extend the popularity of the disco genre by a couple of more years, and might even expose eurodisco to the American market. And how would MTV viewers react to the popularity of British punk rock?
 
I wonder how it would handle punk...would it be the trendy hip new thing which embraces it or activly try to keep it out?

Punk was a very visual thing afterall. Very about fashion and attitude.
 
Wonder how will that affect Heavy Metal, probably would result in Hair metal never appearing mainly because of timing issue, more commercial metal probably would start at some point but its root would be different
 

The Vulture

Banned
Prog rock might do better than it did OTL, due to the interest of many prog musicians in a visual as well as sonic performance.

For example, look at Keith Emerson's various piano rigs. During performances he would often abuse a Hammond organ in various ways: stabbing down a key with a screwdriver, kicking it, and finally smashing it to bits with a fire axe. Then he would have it reassembled and in full working order in time for the next performance.

Then again, we also have to put on with Genesis performing "Supper's Ready" on the television. Not that I don't like the song, but Peter Gabriel had, um, "interesting" ideas about how to dress for live performance of that particular opus.
 
For reference, here's the Cashbox Top 100 Singles for 1976. Some of these guys will turn out fine, like Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Paul Simon, who all figured out the power of video pretty early in their careers. John Travolta's musical career, meanwhile, was doomed no matter how much face time he got. A couple chart-toppers I could see getting even more coverage:
  • Disco Duck. Rick Dees is a radio guy, but I'm sure he could have put together a funny video for this novelty song. Novelty works when you only have one song you're trying to sell.
  • KISS. They were "too hot for MTV" long before Madonna.
  • Earth Wind & Fire. All of their album covers were this cool. Catch them while they're still in their prime, and they'd beat Michael Jackson to the idea of an epic, news-making, award-winning video.
And a couple worry me:
 
My first thought echoed The Vulture, thinking prog rock would like the visual medium. On the other hand, they'd need to cut down their epic songs into three and a half minute single versions to get airplay.

MTV play was responsible for breaking several obscure bands in the 80s with frequent play of their videos. One that comes to mind is A Flock of Seagulls with I Ran. Part of the reason was that not all bands made videos then, so MTV played whatever they had. If MTV was established earlier, there'd be a lot more domestic fare, and American bands would probably dominate the market more than they did.

As to whether MTV 1976 would have the same impact as MTV 1982, let's ask how many homes even had cable television then. According to the infallible Wikipedia, it wasn't until 1972 that there was original cable programming; cable television had originally been used to transmit free TV in areas where terrain made traditional transmission too difficult. (My family got cable in 1981, because we moved to such an area.) NCTA has the following figures:

1962, 0.85m subscribers
End of 1970s, 16m households
End of 1980s, 53m households

Not much to go on, but MTV would clearly reach fewer people.

Another issue is MTV's original refusal to show videos by black artists. That might have been feasible with the music of 1982, but in the late 70s, you couldn't show videos by the most popular disco performers with that policy.
 
I think the 'pop-punk' acts of the time (which had a different defention of pop-punk then) such as the Ramones and the Vandals would become big as both had the visuals to go along with the music as well as a lack of political music.
 
For reference, here's the Cashbox Top 100 Singles for 1976. Some of these guys will turn out fine, like Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Paul Simon, who all figured out the power of video pretty early in their careers. John Travolta's musical career, meanwhile, was doomed no matter how much face time he got. A couple chart-toppers I could see getting even more coverage:
  • Disco Duck. Rick Dees is a radio guy, but I'm sure he could have put together a funny video for this novelty song. Novelty works when you only have one song you're trying to sell.


  • Novelty can work for more than a single song. Ask Weird Al Yankovic, who has 4 gold records, 6 platinum records, 12 million albums sold, 9 Grammy award nominations and three Grammy awards won. That's better than the majority of "serious" artists do in their lifetimes.

    Torqumada
 
Well, I was actually talking about my own face as well as that of the majority of Americans (at least those with taste anyway). Suicide rates for 1979 would quadruple.
 
This would usher in the dawn of a new genre; Discopunk.

It happened anyway, only they called it industrial.

MTV basically used the shallowest elements of punk style that had attention getting gimmicks but shied away from serious content, the bands that were angriest, most obscene, or smartest.

Punk bands MTV'd play: Ramones, Damned...that's about it. Some of the crossover artists like Talking Heads, Blondie, or posers like Generation X.

Wouldn't go near-Sex Pistols, Clash, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and the entire genre of hardcore.

If the channel debuted in 75, it'd probably play to death the remains of the glam scene.

Also Parliament, Alice Cooper.
 
Lynyrd Skynyrd

I wonder how MTV being around 6 years earlier would have affected a group like Lynyrd Skynyrd and other country rock bands. They played good music, but I don't know if they would have been considered aesthetically pleasing enough to feature on the network.
 
I think MTV coming along earlier makes the process of mass media overkill along with overall cynicism with the music industry come sooner. Sure, certain bands or acts become bigger than they were in OTL, but then they fade out even faster. I think a better question would be "What if MTV or a medium that is similar came later or not at all?"
 
I wonder how MTV being around 6 years earlier would have affected a group like Lynyrd Skynyrd and other country rock bands. They played good music, but I don't know if they would have been considered aesthetically pleasing enough to feature on the network.

Didnt hurt ZZ Top (granted, their music became more synth-based, but they still had the bluesy vocals).
 
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