Music Channel Research 27/9/12

In the current generation, music dominates the television industry with dozens of channels dedicated to purely just music videos and music related shows. Off the top of my head I can name at least 10 different music channels, and still that isn't half of them, which shows the popularity of music channels of todays generation. As I have already made the decision of choosing the R&B genre for my music, it is important for me to research the music channels that specialise in showing R&B music, so that I can conclude to what channels would be most appropriate in showing my finalised video.

MTV
MTV is an entertainment channel shown 24 hours a day which is operated by the Viacom International Media Networks Europe. In just the UK and Ireland, this music channel is used in over 10 million homes, and as it is an American owned company it also features in many other countries. When the channel was first produced in 1997, the only programmes that it showed were Euro Top 20, MTV Select, MTV News, MTV News Weekend Edition, Non-Stop Hits, US Top 20 Hitlist UK, Stylissimo, The Big Picture, Up 4 It and The Lick. Some of these shows, such as Non-Stop Hits and US Top 20 Hitlist UK are primarily music channel programmes, but it also shows some reality programmes which became more popular as the channel grew. 
Today, the channel of MTV has completely removed all music features and only concentrates on reality shows - however, the company of MTV did this because they grew more channels to feature on more specific content. Examples of these are MTV Music which now includes all of the music videos that used to be shown on the MTV channel, as well as channels such as MTV Live (showing live performances), MTV Base, MTV Hits, MTV Dance, MTV Rocks and MTV Classic. Speaking for themselves, the content and genre of music on each of these channels are very similar to one another - for example, MTV Dance showing dance musics and MTV Rocks specialising in the rock genre. This is a good move for the MTV channel because it gives more opportunities for audiences of each genre to experience the music that they want rather than watching just one channel for all of them - this means rock music fans are able to just view the music videos of this genre rather than sitting through classical music too. 

If my music video were to be played on some of MTV's channels, I think it would fit into the MTV Base, MTV Hits and MTV Dance as the genre fits with the rest of the videos shown on these channels, and the beat is quite fast paced and typically something someone could dance too. Also, the target audience of my music video is the same as the genre's and videos shown on these channels as teenagers and younger adults are more likely to listen to a song with a base and a dance rhythm.

4Music

Channel 4 is an exceedingly popular brand which controls 7 different channels - Channel 4, 4Seven, Film4, More4, E4, 4Music and 4oD. It is only the 4Music channel that shows music videos, and the genre varies as this channel generally shows music videos in the charts. For example, some examples of the shows are Official Top 20, The UK Airplay Top 20 and The Fresh Music Top 20 chart. These programmes show the top charts of the current time which means all different types of genres are shown - therefore appealing to all different audiences. My music video would obviously only feature on this music channel if the song had reached into the charts, which I know the song has actually already done so. 

However, the reason why this may not be one of the most popular music channels for audiences is because some people might not enjoy listening to or watching videos of mainstream music and therefore only want to view music of their favourite genre's. This means the channels of MTV and the decision they made to split their channels up into genres was a good idea for the purpose of the audience.

Some other music channels are examples such as Viva (another mainstream chart show, which also features some of the same reality shows as MTV), Scuzz, Kerrang, VH1 and Fuse TV (which all specialise in the genre of rock, punk, heavy metal and some indie). 

Why have I done this?

I chose to look at two of the most popular examples of music channels to find out what genres they specialise in and decide on which I would most like my music video to be played on. As a conclusion, I think my music video would fit most of them that relate to R&B music such as 4Music (as R&B is a mainstream genre), MTV Hits, MTV Base and MTV Dance (as they all attract the same audience as my music video intends to). 

SOURCES

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_television 

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV

3. http://www.mtv.co.uk/?s_cid=geo-advisory-mtv-com 

4. http://www.4music.com