Promos & Promises: MTV's DNA
This video includes three different "Top of the Hour" clips which were used by MTV to kick off every hour of programming. Additionally, a shorter version of these would play at the halfhour mark. The first was used from launch in 1981 till 1984. It features footage from the Apollo rocket launch and moonlanding, highlighting MTV's logo. The second, from 1984, is quite similar but also includes more colorful highlights in pastel colors, as well as some shots from inside mission control. It also has new patterned versions of the MTV logo. The last clip included here had a very short life span. Rather than the Apollo launch and moon landing, this clips features the space shuttle launching, and a satellite being deployed in space. This clip was found in MTV recorded on 1/22/1986, which is just days before the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at launch. After that tragedy, MTV stopped using space imagery in its promos.
These three thirty-second promos taken from MTV’s first night on the air in 1981 are prototypical examples of the format adopted to address viewers throughout each hour. They edit together clips from music videos with voiceover narration, ending with one of the “promises” to viewers defining MTV. In two out of the three, black and white public domain film footage is appropriated for use.
This MTV promo from 1982 comically has three animals speaking, Mr. Ed-style, about what it is they like about MTV. Essentially, they make MTV's argument about what constitues "video music" and how the visual component of videos might make fans out of people who otherwise wouldn't (and therefore, make record buyers). First, MTV was a source of new music, which radio had shied away from playing. The example here is British electronic act Yaz. Second, MTV brings known groups, but shows them in a different way. The example here is Fleetwood Mac, who happened to be the first band that partnered with MTV for an overall marketing plan for their new album to include video play and music news segments. Third, the example of liking a band because of what their videos look like is Roxy Music. Early in its life, MTV is very much using promos not just to create brand identity, but to define itself for viewers as well as the music industry...those paying for the videos and hoping they sell records.
These four MTV promos from 1982 illustrate the parodic strategies often used in the promos. A couple target medicine ads, and another parodies promos for soap operas. While a couple create their own video, others utilize public domain footage, and all of them include footage from music videos. We can also see variations added to the original promises: “All Day/All Night” and “Better Music through Television.”
This video includes an MTV promo from 1984 which parodies ads for mailorder kitchen items, such as a nonstick pan and the “Ginsu” knife. Included here are the parody, and the opening 30 seconds of two of the original commercials that are parodied.
In this excerpt from a doc about MTV that aired on the Qube network in 1983, head of promo services Marcy Brafman discusses how the MTV promos are produced, including the use of archival footage as a way of producing new culture and preserving cultural history.
This promo from 1985 lists new artists viewers might hope to see on MTV. Some would become major stars (Depeche Mode) or at least have one big MTV hit (Simple Minds). Some would remain forever underground (Minutemen). The promo includes Bronski Beat, whose "Smalltown Boy" video was a Billboard Hot 100 song. The band members were openly gay, but that would not have been discussed on MTV in 1985. However, the producers of the promo did add a pink triangle in the onscreen graphics for the band.
Seven years after launch, MTV promos looked a little different but still included many of the same "promises" of the early promos. This one is for getting MTV in stereo. Like earlier promos, it includes clips from multiple videos, and manipulates audio/visuals to draw attention to multiple channels. Also included in this clip is a bit of 120 Minutes which aired after it in November 1988. In that clip you can see the use of video effects to make the show look a little different from typical MTV vj segments of the time.
