MuchMusic USA also began phasing out their music videos for inhouse programs. However, MTV2 rapidly phased out it's music programming for reruns of MTV shows. Both MTV2 and MuchMusic USA were finally available. With the introduction of digital cable boxes, the number of available channels increased to 9999. Neither channel found a home on basic cable, as by the 90s all 99 channels on a typical cable box had been filled, while channels like Animal Planet, FX and TV Land were ahead in line waiting for an open slot. At the same time MTV launched MTV2, a 24 hour music video channel which claimed to air any music video from any year or genre, irregardless of the song's chart position. In the 90s they partnered with American company Rainbow Media who would own a channel called MuchMusic USA which would simulcast the MuchMusic channel. Actually, Canada's MuchMusic had been around since the 80s, but could not broadcast in the United States as US law prevents foreign owned media outlets from broadcasting here. As both channels reduced the hours when music videos aired, they relied more on programming their playlists based on the current Billboard pop charts, airing videos for recording acts already in the top 40, and not airing videos for new releases.įor a brief moment it seemed as if the music video scene would be saved by two new channels. Similarly their weekly airing of movies went from films starring recording artists and musicals, to dance films like Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance, to films like Top Gun because of their best selling soundtrack albums, to movies with no pop music content whatsoever. An example of this was it's award winning series Behind the Music which went from being documentaries of recording artists, to episodes about sitcoms like The Monkees and The Partridge Family, to eventually biographies of sitcoms with no music content. VH1 continued to claim to be the MTV alternative, but while it still had the "Music First" logo, was very sneakily phasing out its music based programming. Most videos were only partially shown, with the bulk of the show being the host interacting with an audience of loud teenagers. One of the few daytime music shows left was TRL which aired a daily countdown of videos, their ranking supposedly based on viewers requests. Weekends were permanently reserved for marathons of their inhouse programs. MTV abandoned it's music video roots, and had basically relegated airplay of videos to the late night hours. By the turn of the 21st Century, watching music videos became a problem.
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