VH1: Difference between revisions

VH1
	The VH1 logo now.The VH1 logo now.
Type	Cable network (music and pop culture)
Country	United States
Availability	National
Owner	MTV Networks (Viacom)
Key people	Tom Freston - President, MTV Networks
Launch date	January 1, 1985
Former names	VH-1 (Video Hits 1), VH1: Music First
Official website	http://www.vh1.com

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Revision as of 01:34, 27 March 2006

VH1 (spelled VH-1 (Video Hits One) until 1994) is an American cable television channel that was created in January 1985 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (then a division of Warner Communications and then-current owners of MTV, which originally came up with the idea of the channel). It and sister channel MTV are currently part of the MTV Networks division of Viacom.

With then four-year-old MTVs popularity rising drastically among teens, VH1 began with the intention to capitalize off of the success of the music video. However, VH1's aim was to focus on the lighter, softer side of popular music, including such musicians as Elton John, Sting, Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Kenny G, and Anita Baker, in hopes of appealing to people between the ages of 18 and 35, and possibly older. It has also historically played more adult R&B than its sister channel.

While VH1 still occasionally plays videos, its more recent claim to fame has been in the area of music-related reality programming, such as the signature show Behind the Music and The Flavor of Love, featuring Public Enemy member Flavor Flav.

Early history

File:Vh1 firstlogo.gif

The very first logo of VH-1 (1985-1987).

File:Vh1 old.gif

An updated version on the first logo (1987-1994). At Christmas time, the "V" would be turned upside down to resemble a Christmas tree.

File:LOGO VH1.jpg

In 1994, VH1 rebranded itself as VH1: Music First.

Early Years and Music First branding

From the start, Video Hits One was branded as an urbane version of its sister/parent channel. It played more jazz and country artists than MTV and had a higher rotation of urban-contemporary performers. Its early on-camera personalities were New York radio veterans Don Imus (of WNBC and now WFAN); Frankie Crocker, program director and DJ for WBLS; and Tim Byrd of WPIX-FM (now WQCD), a station whose eclectic ballad-and-R&B oriented format mirrored that of VH-1. Rosie O'Donnell later joined the outlet's veejay lineup.

The format left room for occasional ad-libs by the VJ, a godsend for emcees such as Imus and O'Donnell. In true Imus style, he used a 1985 segment of his his VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon Sade a "grape" for her oval-shaped head.)

VH-1's popularity poop(AC)]] to adult top 40, now including musicians such as Ace of Base, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, and other slightly more rock-oriented, popular music than what it had originally played, though AC favorites such as Des'ree, Elton John, Madonna, Céline Dion, and Mariah Carey still received heavy video play in 1994, as well.

By 1996, VH1 was heading down the same path as its sister station, MTV, choosing to focus more on music-related shows than on actual videos. Old episodes of American Bandstand could regularly be seen on the channel. By that time, the channel's ratings were beginning to fall. As a result, the channel began to lose money, verging on the brink of bankruptcy.

Pop-Up Video

Things changed very drastically for VH1 in the fall of 1996, with the premiere of Pop-Up Video, a very successful and popular show which offered tidbits of information as music videos were being played. "Pop-Up" television has gone on to become something of a cultural phenomenon, appearing on episodes of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Drew Carey Show, Brady Bunch reruns on sister Viacom channel Nick at Nite, and even a special episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

Behind the Music

In August 1997, VH1 again hit it big with the premiere of the first of the network's flagship shows, Behind the Music. The show features interviews and biographies of some of popular music's biggest stars qualified to be profiled on the series. The premiere episode featured Leif Garrett. To date, there are episodes on everyone from Queen Latifah to MC Hammer to Fleetwood Mac to TLC to "Weird Al" Yankovic to Britney Spears, with more episodes being produced sporadically.

Legends

Shortly after, VH1 created a companion series, Legends (originally sponsored by AT&T), profiling artists who have made a more significant contribution to music history to qualify as "Legends" (that is, those artists who do not fit in the category of Behind the Music biographies). The artists profiled so far have included Marvin Gaye, Phil Krauth, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Doors, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Pink Floyd, The Bee Gees, and U2.

VH1 Divas

In 1998, VH1 debuted the first annual VH1 Divas concert and featured the "divas" Céline Dion, Aretha Franklin, Shania Twain, Mariah Carey, and Gloria Estefan, and the "special guest" Carole King. This show is notable in that VH1 stated sometime afterwards that singer Mariah Carey demanded to be filmed from only one side of her face at all times. As the show was being shot, they purposely filmed her from all sides and then made light of her demand on an episode of it's popular program "Pop Up Video". The caption jokingly stated that Carey needs to be filmed from the right side only, whereas the beautiful Twain can be filmed from any side. The show was a success and other hugely successful shows were produced in the following years featuring "divas" Whitney Houston, Cher, Donna Summer, LeAnn Rimes, Mary J. Blige, Diana Ross, and Faith Hill. Elton John was also featured as a "divo" in one concert.

Late 1990s to 2003

File:Vh1 4.gif

An updated version of the Music First logo in 1999.

In the late 1990s, VH1 continued to get more diverse and teen-based with its music selection, and with that, the network updated its 1994 "Big 1" logo. Various late-night rock shows have been shown on VH1, featuring alternative rock and metal videos from the 1980s and 1990s. VH1 eventually warmed up to harder rock acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Foo Fighters, and Metallica, and their new videos are generally added into VH1's playlist right away.

By the early 2000s, VH1 even began to play mainstream rap musicians. The latest videos by Eminem, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Missy Elliott began to be shown in VH1's rotation and even started to crop up on VH1's top 20 countdown, as of early 2003.

Save the Music foundation

During its "Music First" days, VH1 was involved in a foundation that served to preserve and enhance music education programs in local schools. The VH1 Save the Music foundation was established in 1997 and purchased new musical instruments to restore music education programs that have been cut due to budget reductions in the past or to save programs at risk of elimination due to lack of instruments. The Foundation also conducted awareness campaigns, musical instrument drives and fundraising events. It still exists as of 2005, but with a much lower profile.

Movies that Rock

In 1999, VH1 aired its first original movie, a bio-pic on Sweetwater. Over the next three years, they made over a dozen movies, including bio-pics on Ricky Nelson, M.C. Hammer, The Monkees, Meat Loaf and Def Leppard.

After 2003

In 2003, the network changed its focus again, dropping "Music First" from its name, and introducing their new and current box logo, which can be viewed at the top. Having saturated its Behind The Music series (and spinoff BTM2, a 30-minute version that told the stories of current chart-toppers) and gotten past the point of showing music videos on a regular basis, the network began to target the pop culture nostalgia market.

I Love the 80s

The shift began in late 2002, with the massive success of the I Love the 80s 10-part series in late 2002 (based on the BBC series of the same name [1]). This spawned I Love the 70s, which was not nearly as successful. Eventually, VH1 caught lightning in a bottle several times more with I Love the 80s Strikes Back, I Love the 90s, and I Love the 90s: Part Deux. Recently, VH1 premiered I Love the 80s 3-D, the third edition of I Love the 80s, which profiles more happenings from the 1980s, and I Love the Holidays, a 90 minute special which focuses on holidays, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Day. The format (various entertainers giving their takes or opinions on popular culture) has been repeated for the weekly program Best Week Ever. VH1 has just introduced a new show to the line-up, called I Love Toys, which counts down the 100 best toys ever created.

The Greatest series

VH1 also produces its "The Greatest" series, in which a similar format is used to count down lists like "The 50 Sexiest Video Moments", "100 Greatest Songs of Rock 'N' Roll", "100 Greatest Songs from the Past 25 Years", and "100 Greatest Kid Stars". In 2001, Mark McGrath hosted quite possibly VH1's most ambitious and impressive miniseries "100 Most Shocking Moments of Rock and Roll History", which compiled a list of the moments in music history that changed its course and shook its foundations.

VH1 also touts its "CelebReality" programming block of reality shows featuring B- and C-list celebrities, anchored by The Surreal Life, which mimics MTV's The Real World, instead placing minor celebrities from the past into a living environment. The network also has a list of the "Awesomely Bad Songs" that made the artists' singles the worst. Different themes in this format include "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad No. 1 Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Dirty Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Metal Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Love Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Breakup Songs" and "20 Most Awesomely Bad Songs of 2004".

It should be noted that the network does play music videos -- just like its sister network, MTV -- in the overnight hours. The overnight block was called Insomniac Music Theater until August 2005, when it was renamed Nocturnal State.

Spinoff Networks

Like MTV and Nickelodeon before them, VH1 also launched spinoff digital networks as part of 'The Suite From MTV. Initially, four VH1 spinoff networks were formed, which were:

VH1 Classic: Primarily classic rock music videos, movies, and concert footage.
VH1 Country: An all-country music video outlet and sibling network to CMT, which became less dependent on music videos starting in the 2000s.
VH1 Mega Hits: A channel which played mostly top 40 adult contemporary videos from throughout VH1's history, from the 80's to the 00's.
VH1 Soul: Classic and neo-soul music videos from yesterday and today.
VH1 Uno: A mix of Latin pop, rock, and traditional ballads, Tropical, Salsa and Merengue music.

On June 30, 2005, VH1 Mega Hits was replaced by LOGO, Viacom's channel targeted toward the gay and lesbian community, because of low viewership and the guaranteed channel spectrum to launch LOGO in as many households as possible without having to negotiate channel carriage.

International Channels

VH1 Australia

Since March (April for Optus customers) 2004, VH1 has been available in Australia on Foxtel, Optus Television and Austar.

VH1 Brazil

The Portuguese-language version of the channel was launched in Brazil on November 21st 2005. However, VH1 Soul is available to digital cable subscribers since 2004.

VH1 Europe

VH1 Europe broadcasts from London to continental Europe. The line-up mainly consists of documentaries, including series like 'The Fabulous Life Of...' and 'The Rise and Rise Of...'. Most strands of programming identical to VH-1 UK, but with different schedules and advertisements.

VH-1 Classic Europe is also available to many viewers and is, at present, entirely devoid of advertisements, with round-the-clock music videos.

VH-1 Germany

During the mid-1990s, a German-language version of VH-1 was broadcast, featuring more adult music than MTV, and using the original 1985 US logo. It proved unsuccessful and eventually had to make way for a mobile-content teen channel called MTV2 Pop.

VH1 Poland

Launched on December 1, 2005. The channel is addressed to people in Poland over 25.

VH1 India

In December 2004, MTV India and Zee-Turner teamed up to bring VH1 to India. In India, VH1 will be a 24-hour pay channel that will cater to the 16–44 age group. General Manager Keertan Adyanthaya said it would be India's very own window to international music and lifestyle.

VH1 Latin America

On April 1, 2004, VH1 Latin America joined MTV and Nickelodeon Latin America targeting audiences 25–49 years old. The Spanish-language channel is tailored for the market and feature a mix of music and entertainment with local and international-recording artists, as well as original programming.

VH1 Latin America was launched in the second quarter of 2004 with its initial distribution in Mexico via pay TV. The network is also to be made available throughout Latin America with additional distribution to be announced.

VH1 UK

VH1 UK targets 25–44 years old, and has much of the same content as the main US channel. There are also two sister stations in the UK VH2 and VH1 Classic.

VH1 Indonesia

In 2005, VH1 Indonesia was launched aired in Indonesia. VH1 present in local television in Indonesia such as Jak-TV, Jakarta; TV Borobudur, Semarang; Makassar TV, Makassar (UHF21). VH1 Indonesia target is 25–44 years old. VH1 also aired in MTV Indonesia at 5.00-7.00 pm.

VH1 Thailand

Launched on 11 August 2003, VH1 is broadcast in Thailand on UBC 33, the cable channel. The only 24 hours international music channel in Thailand.

VH1 Export is a version of VH1 UK available in the Middle East, Africa, and Thailand.

Popular VH1 programs

External links

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 The format left room for occasional ad-libs by the VJ, a godsend for emcees such as Imus and O'Donnell. In true Imus style, he used a 1985 segment of his his VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon [[Sade]] a "grape" for her oval-shaped head.)
-VH-1's popularity and clearance (number of cable systems carrying the channel) was minimal until the fledgling network was acquired by [[Viacom]] (along with MTV, [[Nickelodeon (TV channel)|Nickelodeon]], and [[Showtime (television)|Showtime]]) and placed into the [[MTV Networks]] stable. In [[1994 in television|1994]], in a bid to make itself more noticeable, VH-1 started to market itself as the "new VH1: Music First," and dropping the hyphen from its official name, and introduced its new "Big 1" logo. It altered its format slightly from [[Adult contemporary music|adult contemporary (AC)]] to adult top 40, now including musicians such as [[Ace of Base]], [[Melissa Etheridge]], [[Sheryl Crow]], and other slightly more [[Rock and roll|rock]]-oriented, popular music than what it had originally played, though AC favorites such as [[Des'ree]], [[Elton John]], [[Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna]], [[Celine Dion|Céline Dion]], and [[Mariah Carey]] still received heavy video play in 1994, as well.
+VH-1's popularity poop(AC)]] to adult top 40, now including musicians such as [[Ace of Base]], [[Melissa Etheridge]], [[Sheryl Crow]], and other slightly more [[Rock and roll|rock]]-oriented, popular music than what it had originally played, though AC favorites such as [[Des'ree]], [[Elton John]], [[Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna]], [[Celine Dion|Céline Dion]], and [[Mariah Carey]] still received heavy video play in 1994, as well.
 By [[1996 in television|1996]], VH1 was heading down the same path as its sister station, MTV, choosing to focus more on music-related shows than on actual videos. Old episodes of ''[[American Bandstand]]'' could regularly be seen on the channel. By that time, the channel's [[Nielsen Ratings|ratings]] were beginning to fall. As a result, the channel began to lose money, verging on the brink of bankruptcy.