Digital Killed The Video Star

Hello everyone, here is The Big List's first big blog. I've basically just attached this month's ever popular leader column, so enjoy and feel free to comment on it. Not that I'll read it... 

It wasn't so long ago that the music video sprang to the top of the food chain, hunting to near extinction it's favourite prey, the radio star.

Now, barely 30 years into its existence, the last refugees of the format are cowering, dodo like, in the dominating shadow of the digital download.

There were some fascinating examples of the species along the way, however. From the aggressive and fun loving Sabotage, to the surreal efforts of Björk and paradigm shifting Smells Like Teen Spirit, all of which contributed to a thriving ecosystem that entertained us all.

But, the video's natural habitat, MTV, now rarely even shows a music video, instead opting to bring us the intellect haemorrhaging adventures of wealthy people that are so vacant it's a surprise the vacuum in their heads isn't full of neutrinos. In fact, they should scrap the £4.4 billion Large Hadron Collider, and instead line the cast of the Kardashians, The Only Way is Essex, Peter Andre et al, ear to ear in a circle and just fire the photons around that.

Trust me, within the week we'll be neck high in Higgs' bosons, and those involved will probably not even notice.

Getting back to the point, it's amazing how quickly the music industry is transitioning through its latest wave of phases. We've moved from vinyl (which was still best selling format during the birth of the video) to the eight track, to the cassette, to the CD, to the digital download – with the short-lived mini-disc along the way – in less than 30 years.

All of which went on during the life and death of the music video, and this provides us with a very interesting allegory for what may be coming.

Digital downloads seem here to stay, just as the music video once did. Television was so ubiquitous in the western world in the past 40 odd years that no one even saw the computer as the new format, and in the same way, maybe there is something that no one has yet spotted as being the vehicle for our musical consumption in the future. Computer games seem a major candidate, but it really could be anything. Fast food perhaps? Your shoes? Who am I to speculate.

Remember, you can contact me by emailing Damien@thebiglist.co.uk or ruin your future and the generally held opinion of you during an acceptance speech. Or keep your fool mouth shut and try to gain respect for your actions. That goes for most people mind you.