Music Channels and Festivals

Zoe Ramsdale-Clark

MTVMTV is an American basic cable and satellite television programme owned by the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group and is a subsidiary of Viacom Inc.

The original purpose of the channel was to air music videos, with its main demographic being young adults, however, this has evolved and is now mainly targeted at adolescents and teens.

The first ever music video that was shown on MTV was ‘The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star.’

The chosen videos and the decision on what would be played was guided by on air personalities called ‘VJs’ or ‘Video-Jockeys.’

In 1984, the channel produced its first MTV Video Music Awards show, or VMAs. The first award show, in 1984, was punctuated by a live performance by Madonna of "Like A Virgin". The statuettes that are handed out at the Video Music Awards are of the MTV moon man, the channel's original image from its first broadcast in 1981. Presently, the Video Music Awards are MTV's most watched annual event

4Music4Music is a music and entertainment channel in the United Kingdom. The channel launched in the summer of August 2008.

4Music is the sister channel for Channel 4, E4, Kerrang! and Smash Hits. and is owned by Box Television (Bauer Media Group/Channel Four Television Corporation)

Some programmes that were aired are: Today’s 4Music Top 10, Your Official Top 20, UKHot40, 4Music Doubles and many others.

4Music has coverage at both V Festival and T4 on the Beach (this festival closed down when T4 finished in 2012) and they have a stage at both events.

V FestivalV Festival is an annual music festival held in England on the penultimate weekend in august.

The idea came from Pulp’s front man Jarvis Cocker who liked the idea of being able to play on 2 different stages, in 2 different locations over 2 days. He got together with his management who thought it was a good idea and they decided that other artists should be brought in as well.

The first V Festival took place in the August of 1996 where the show took place in Victoria Park, Warrington and Hylands Park, Chelmsford.

It was typically a rock music festival, however over recent years there have been various pop artists getting involved.

The music festival is sponsored by Virgin Media and was televised on Channel 4’s sister channel 4 music. However, in 2014 the rights were sold to MTV.

Some artists that have performed at V have been: Blur, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Oasis, Kasabian, The Killers, Snow Patrol, The Goo Goo Dolls, Lily Allen, Taylor Swift, Passion Pit, Kaiser Chief, Chase & Status, Rihanna, Eminem, David Guetta.

In 2007, V Festival Australia was set up in which there was initially 2 stages but in 2008 it expanded to 4.

In June 2006, Richard Branson decided to launch Virgin Festival which was a spin off of the British V Festival which was held in the United States and Canada.

Reading & Leeds FestivalReading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds, England over the bank holiday weekend in August.

Reading is the senior of the two festivals and was introduced first and is the worlds oldest popular music festival with rock, alternative, indie, punk and metal dominating the line up.

The festivals are run by Festival Republic, divested from Mean Fiddler Music Group.

The festivals usually consist of the following stages:

• Main Stage

• NME/Radio 1 Stage

• Dance Tent

• Lock Up Stage

• Festival Republic Stage

• 1Xtra Stage

• Alternative Tent

• BBC Introducing Stage

Artists that have played there have been: Arctic Monkeys, Green Day, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Blink-182, Ramones, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, Kasabian, Eminem and My Chemical Romance.