Chris Parr is the Vice President for music programminng and talent relations at CMT (country music television), which is a subsidary company of MTV. In this video he gives his insight into how music videos can help music (particularly country music) artists and the role CMT plays in establishing new artists.
The internet has now become the prime platform for discovery of music, especially through the (quite recent - 8 years ago) establishment of Youtube. An interesting point that was mentioned in this video was the ease of discovery of new, up and coming artists, which is beneficial for us as an audience in broadening our musical tastes and marketing for the musicians.
Many have argued that visuals are being put in priority before music, which to a certain extent is true, but no music video no matter its brilliance can compensate for the lack of quality of the music. At the end of the day, the visuals play the role of the intrigue that will hook audiences, the rest is up to the artist to figure out. Parr mentioned that the guarantee of the average person liking country music is low, compared to the possibility they like a particular artist associated with the genre. In a way this is healthy for the music industry, because not only is it allowing great new artists to become popular but also it's becoming more about their individuality and music than the preconceived stereotypes of the genre they belong to. As a result, these stereotypes of music genres are being broken as new music borrows and lends conventions of different genres and increases in individuality. This musical fusion therefore allows for a broader audience and finally, a greater revenue.Youtube is also no secret. Billions of people use this site every single day and a variety of different people discover the same music everyday. This as a result forms a broader fan base from different genres of music, and is again- free publicity stimulated by an audience. As with film, audiences are choosing and making what they want to see and hear, so it's important for an image to appeal to an audience just as much as the music.
According to Parr, it's been particularly hard for country musicians to break free of their genre stereotype and break into the mainstream. Music videos allowed for that to happen and give these musicians a chance to express themselves visually. Particularly since our society is mainly visually stimulated, you can see how important music videos are in forming a musical artists image. Parr also makes the point that music videos are essentially an entry point for niche genres (not only country artists), which gives their music the same chance to be discovered as with other artists.
A music video is a chance for an artist to express themselves and establish their image. It can also help guide the audience to create their own understanding of the music/song, and establish a meaning for themselves. It creates a closer relationship with an audience particularly since audiences are becoming less passive with what they absorb online or TV. And it's not uncommon now for fans to make their own music videos, (it's even become a part of the A2 curriculum) and share their enthusiasm for the music, which as a result promotes the artist (for free) and develops future film makers.
Should the music video be a success, it's then up to the distribution methods to fall into place at the right time- when the hype has been generated and people want a place where they can go and buy this music.
Overview of Points Mentioned :
- Allows to discover new forms of music you may never have thought to listen to.
- Breaks barriers of steretypes
- All music videos from all genres are on the same platform in terms of ease of discovery- we can all acess them
- Expresses what an artist is about visually and lets them break free of any stereotypes- let's them be an individual
- Very healthy for country musicians where audiences may not choose their music because of the "generic genre conventions".
- Gives artists a chance for their music to be heard through capturing audiences with visuals
- Allows merging of audiences from fans of different music genres thanks to the publicity
- National distribution of music after a music video release or show
- Less independent labels in country music when compared to Rock.
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