When MTV launched in 1981, it was the calm before the storm of the music video era. Fast forward to 1984, the legacy music channel held its inaugural Video Music Awards (VMAs). Among the winners was Michael Jackson for “Thriller.” The iconic music video is highly acclaimed by MTV, VH1, TIME, and the Library of Congress, and is one of the most popular music videos of all time. The 13-minute music video’s revolutionary impact was a huge wake-up call for artists about how quality visuals could propel their career trajectories.
The disruption resulted in artists and their teams bringing their A-game to viewers’ TV screens with the help of hefty music video budgets. From MTV’s TRL to BET’s 106 & Park, music videos were placed on a high pedestal and widely celebrated. However, as less revenue and digital streaming have greatly shifted the music industry, there has been a visible decline in the quality and effort towards music videos.
As music video premiere events have become way less of a trend, viewers aren’t as engaged as they were from the 1980s to the 2010s. In April 2024, The Guardian reported on the correlation between the decline in active viewership resulting in lower music video budgets. Photographer Olivia Rose shared with the outlet that while around $30,000 could be enough for a quality music video in earlier times, now, the money would go toward three visualizers for three songs instead.
Visualizers range in style: looped video clips, series of clips limited to one or a few backdrops, and animation are popular approaches that are taken. The massive trend of artists posting fewer official videos and more official visualizers spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. During a time when everyone was on lockdown, artists and their teams had to put their creative hats on. Moreover, similar to other industries, the music industry took a big financial hit leaving less money to create elaborate visuals and spawning more visualizers.
The transition to more visualizers comes at a suitable time with the rise in artists landing breakout singles through TikTok. The social media app has been tied to dwindling attention spans.
While visualizers have served as a saving grace for indie artists who may not have the funding yet to create full-blown music videos, even global mainstream artists such as Drake, Tems, and Tyla have also been tapping into the trend.
For those who may question why artists of such status would be fond of releasing official visualizers, “time is money” is the reasoning. Instead of big artists and their teams taking weeks to both film and edit music videos, they can opt for a less intricate process and put more time and creative energy toward the studio or preparing for live performances, their bread and butter. It’s also a way to pump out numerous visuals at a time to coincide with album rollouts. Along with official visualizers, lyric visualizers and official performance videos are additional newer ways artists keep fans engaged with their music. Since the days of the pandemic, artists have been laser focused on the power of online engagement.
Despite the pros of visualizers such as lower costs, people question if visualizers have as much replay value as music videos. It’s a potential downside since it’s more likely for a fan to rewatch a music video with a compelling storyline and top-tier cinematography rather than a mundane loop. Also, does the plethora of visualizers contribute even more to the oversaturation of visuals? If so, this may decrease the likelihood of visualizers standing out and helping artists’ songs sell.
Whether or not visualizers have more pros or cons remains a question, but according to a report from Business Research Insights, the music visualizer market is expected to grow significantly over the next decade due to technological advances.
There is a group of music industry professionals who believe music videos are a necessity for those who want to have longevity in the game, but it’s clear that artists aren’t letting up on visualizers anytime soon.
