VH1

VH1
Headquarters	New York City
Ownership
Owner	MTV Networks (Viacom)

VH1 (VH-1: Video Hits One until 1994) is an American cable television channel that was created in January 1985 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and owners of MTV. VH1 and sister channel MTV are currently part of the MTV Networks division of Viacom.

With then four-year-old MTV's popularity rising drastically among teens, VH1 began capitalizing on 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 Tina Turner, Elton John, Sting, Diana Ross, Kenny G, and Anita Baker, in hopes of appealing to people aged 18 to 35, and possibly older. However, they occasionally show specials about hard rock and heavy metal, the most notable being the VH1 Rock Honors, which began in 2006.

It has also historically played more adult R&B than its sister channel, and has rarely played any rap or hip-hop videos. Also frequently featured in the network's early years were "videos" for Motown and other 1960s oldies consisting of newsreel and concert footage.

While VH1 still occasionally plays videos and has "video countdown shows", its more recent claim to fame has been much like that of MTV's, in the area of music-related reality programming, such as the signature show Behind the Music, and its focus on pop culture.

Early history of VH-1 (1985-1994)

Format and VJs

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. This logo was featured in the James Bond film Licence to Kill where a beachgoer wears a t-shirt featuring the logo.

File:Vh1 XMAS.jpg

Christmas logo.

From the start, Video Hits One was branded as an urbane version of its sister/parent channel. It played more jazz and R&B artists than MTV and had a higher rotation of urban-contemporary performers. Its early on-camera personalities were New York radio veterans Don Imus (then of WNBC); Frankie Crocker (then program director and DJ for WBLS); Scott Shannon (of Z100); Jon Bauman ("Bowzer" from Sha Na Na); Bobby Rivers; and Rita Coolidge. Later veejays included Tim Byrd of WPIX-FM (now WQCD), a station whose eclectic ballad-and-R&B oriented format mirrored that of VH-1; and Alison Steele ("The Nightbird" of WNEW-FM). Rosie O'Donnell later joined the outlet's veejay lineup. O'Donnell would also host a stand up comedy show featuring various comedians each episode. As an added touch to make the network more like a Televised Radio station, the early years of the network featured Jingles in their bumpers produced by JAM Creative Productions in Dallas, who had previously made jingles for Radio Stations Worldwide.

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 VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon Sade Adu a "grape" for her oval-shaped head.

Early programming

Typical of VH1's early programming was New Visions, a series which featured videos and in-studio performances by smooth jazz and New Age bands and performers, including Spyro Gyra, Andy Narell, Mark Isham and Yanni. At first, various musicians guest-hosted the program, but eventually musician/songwriter Ben Sidran established himself as permanent host.

VH1 catered to adult top 40, 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, Janet Jackson, Céline Dion, and Mariah Carey still received heavy video play in 1994, as well.

VH1: Music First (1994-2003)

In December 1994, VH1 rebranded itself as VH1: Music First. By 1996, VH1 was heading down the same path as its sister channel, MTV, choosing to focus more on music-related shows than on music 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 went on to become something of a cultural phenomenon. Many TV shows followed suit and had their own "Pop-Up" episodes. These shows include 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 also The Simpsons

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 hourlong show features interviews and biographies of some of popular music's biggest stars qualified to be profiled on the series. The premiere episode featured Milli Vanilli. To date, there are episodes on everyone from Queen to Meat Loaf, MC Hammer to Fleetwood Mac, TLC to "Weird Al" Yankovic, Britney Spears to Selena, with more episodes being produced sporadically. By the late 1990s, the show had begun to run out of artists to profile, leading to the short-lived BTM2 program, half-hour looks into bands and artists whose popularity was rising, but not yet at its peak.

Criticism was aimed at VH1 and MTV for focusing too much on ill-formed vjs and not enough on the music.

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 AC/DC, The Bee Gees, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, George Clinton, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Doors, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, KISS, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, The Who, Michael Jackson and U2

VH1 Save the Music Foundation

During its "Music First" days, VH1 created the VH1 Save The Music 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 project was the brain child of VH1 President John Sykes and was developed by Bob Morrison who was the foundation's first CEO. The Foundation also conducted awareness campaigns, musical instrument drives and fundraising events. VH1 Save The Music Foundation celebrated its 10 year anniversary in September 2007.

VH1 Divas

In 1998, VH1 debuted the first annual VH1 Divas concert and featured the "divas" Aretha Franklin, Céline Dion, Shania Twain, Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey, and the "special guest" Carole King. Other hugely successful shows were produced in the year after, in 1999 featuring "divas" Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Cher, LeAnn Rimes, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill, Chaka Khan, Elton John, and Brandy. It became a huge success and was featured in the following year starring Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Destiny's Child, Shakira, Anastacia, Dixie Chicks, Jessica Simpson was also featured as divas in VH1 concert. Some artists, such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Cher and Faith Hill featured two VH1 concerts.

Diversification

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 late 2002.

VH1 also plays music from Latin artists such as Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias, Thalia and Shakira.

Movies That Rock!

In 1999, VH1 aired its first original movie, a bio-pic on Sweetwater. Their third original movie (which aired in 2000), Two of Us, focused on a fictional meeting between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Over the next three years, they made over a dozen movies, including bio-pics on Ricky Nelson, M.C. Hammer, The Monkees, Meat Loaf, Pink Floyd and Def Leppard.

VH1 continues to air "Movies That Rock" on a regular basis, expanding to include movies not produced by VH1. Typically, these movies air on weekday afternoons and on weekends. The subject matter remains mostly focused on music and musicians, though it recently aired the Looney Tunes movie "Space Jam" which deals with sports.

rockDocs

rockDocs is the title under which VH1 airs various music documentaries, both those produced by VH1 and those produced by third-parties. Such documentary series produced by VH1 include And Ya' Don't Stop, a four-part series on the history of hip-hop, Heavy: The Story of Metal, and The Drug Years, which tells the story of various drug cultures that changed America. Films produced by other studios have also been aired as rockDocs, including Woodstock, Madonna: Truth or Dare, Tupac: Resurrection, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!, a documentary on the Beastie Boys and most recently Last Days of Left Eye which documented the last month of Lisa Lopes's life from the band TLC.

Music Behind Bars

VH1 endured criticism for having a show that focuses on musicians who are in jail. Critics thought that prisoners, mainly those convicted of murder, should not be entitled to any exposure. [1]

Current era of VH1 (2003-present)

In 2003, the network changed its focus again, dropping "Music First" from its name, and introducing their new and current box logo, seen at the beginning of the article. 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 just like its sister MTV. The network started increasing the number of reality shows with a programming block called Celebreality. Today, they include shows like I Love New York, Flavor of Love, Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, The Surreal Life, Celebrity Fit Club and Hogan Knows Best. It even has a brand new comedy, called I Hate My 30's.

I Love the...

The shift began in late 2002, with the success of the I Love the 80s 10-part series. This spawned I Love the 70s in 2003 (when the network's new logo was introduced), based on the BBC 2000 series of the same name [2]. 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. More recently, VH1 premiered I Love the 80s 3-D and I Love the '70s Volume II, along with the non-decade-based I Love the Holidays and I Love Toys.

The format of these shows (various entertainers giving their takes or opinions on popular culture) has been repeated for the weekly program Best Week Ever. In a sketch on FOX's MADtv envisioning an as-yet fictitious "I Love the 00's" show, VH1 was referred to as "the bitter comics ragging on real celebrities" network.

The Greatest series

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

40 Most Awesomely Bad...

In 2003, VH1 began this mini-series category with "40 Most Awesomely Bad Dirrty Songs...Ever" [3] cataloguing hit sexy songs that failed to score with music critics for cause. Additional miniseries in this group include...

"40 Most Awesomely Bad Break-up Songs...Ever" [4]
"40 Most Awesomely Bad #1 Songs...Ever" [5]
"40 Most Awesomely Bad Metal Songs...Ever" [6]
"40 Most Awesomely Bad Love Songs" [7]

CelebReality

VH1 also touts its "CelebReality" programming block of reality shows featuring minor 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 CelebReality block has also aired such shows like Hogan Knows Best (Hulk Hogan's reality show) Celebrity Fit Club (a show where marginal-at-best celebrities get in shape); Strange Love (a program spun off from The Surreal Life, following the relationship between Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav); Flavor of Love (a show spun off from Strange Love, where Flavor Flav, "hype man" of the hip hop group Public Enemy picks a lover out of multiple women); My Fair Brady (another spin-off from The Surreal Life, which follows the relationship of Christopher Knight, who played Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch, and Adrianne Curry, who won the first season of America's Next Top Model); "Breaking Bonaduce" which covers the therapy and life of Danny Bonaduce; "Celebrity Paranormal Project," in which minor celebrities are placed in haunted locations to explore and perform tasks; and (most recently) I Love New York, and Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School which are a spin off of Flavor of Love.

Flavor of Love series

One of VH1's most popular CelebReality programs was Flavor of Love. Because of its major fanbase, it has spawned several spin-offs:
Flavor of Love (Season 1)
Flavor of Love (Season 2)
Flavor of Love (Season 3) Confirmed - Release January 2008
I Love New York
I Love New York 2
Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School
Rock of Love with Bret Michaels
Rock of love 2 with Bret Michaels Confirmed by Vh1

Also I Love New York 2 You Cast It aired so viewers can vote on who meets New York.

Hip-Hop and Rock Honors

Since 2004, VH1 has showed their appreciation for hip hop music by honoring pioneers and movements. Musicians include Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G., and Public Enemy. All of the shows have been taped in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

On May 25, 2006, Queen, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, and Kiss were the inaugural inductees into the VH1 Rock Honors in Las Vegas. The ceremony aired on VH1 six days later.

In 2007, ZZ Top, Heart, Genesis and Ozzy Osbourne were inducted into the VH1 Rock Honors. This show was aired on My Network TV.

Current trends

Although VH1 has drastically reduced its emphasis on music, it does continue to play music videos (just like its sister network, MTV) from 3 a.m. until 10 a.m. ET. The overnight block was called Insomniac Music Theater until August 2005, when it was renamed Nocturnal State.

VH1 aired a made-for-TV movie in 2006, called Totally Awesome, a spoof of the 1980s.

On July 1, 2007, VH1 and MHD, the high-definition music channel of MTV, simulcast live the entire Concert for Diana from London, England, on the birthday of Princess Diana, Princess of Wales.^[1]

List of programs broadcast

Affiliated channels in the U.S.

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. Others later joined the staple, including:

VH1 Classic: Primarily classic rock music videos, movies, and concert footage.
VH1 Mega Hits: A channel which played mostly top 40 adult contemporary videos from throughout VH1's history, from the 80's to the early years of the 21st Century. Due to low viewership, the network was discontinued. The satellite space was utilized by corporate parent MTV Networks to launch Logo, a general entertainment network targeted at the gay and lesbian community. Logo airs two music video-based programs, NewNowNext Music and The Click List: Top 10 Videos.
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.
VSPOT: VH1's broadband channel.

International channels

VH1 India

In December 2004, MTV India and Zee-Turner teamed up to bring VH1 to India. In India, VH1 is a 24-hour pay channel that will cater to the 13–35 age group and is India's most famous and esteemed international music and lifestyle channel.

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 VH1 was launched in Brazil on November 21st 2005. However, VH1 Soul had been available to digital cable subscribers since 2004.In 2007 VH1 Soul stopped being available in Brazil.

VH1 European

VH1 European broadcasts from Warsaw to Central Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and parts of Northern Africa. The pan-European version of VH1 is very different from its American counterpart. VH1 European has never ceased to be a proper music channel, playing a wide variety of music programs on a daily or weekly basis, for a total of about 21 hours of music videos being shown every day. Many specialist shows contain accurate selections of music videos linked by common themes (Smells Like The 90s, Flipside, Chill Out, So 80s, Sunday Soul, VH1 New, The Rock Show...). During the only 3 daily hours of non-music programming, several shows from VH1 US or MTV US can be found, including documentaries (The Fabulous Life Of...' and 'The Rise and Rise Of...'), Behind The Music, old episodes of Beavis & Butt-head, The Osbournes.

VH-1 Classic Europe is also available to viewers all over Europe 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 non-stop music channel aimed at teenagers called MTV2 Pop. However, VH1 hasn't really disappeared from German television, since it's still available in its pan-European version.

VH1 Indonesia

In Indonesia, VH1 programming also airs on MTV Indonesia at 5 and 7 pm, and on local terrestrial channels such as Jak-TV, Jakarta, STV Bandung, TV Borobudur, Semarang, and Makassar TV, Makassar (UHF21) and also a full link channel seen on satellite PALAPA C2.

VH1 Italy

In Italy the European version of VH1 was launched in Italy on October 1st 2007 on SKY Italia Channel 708 and on FASTWEB and Alice Home TV IPTV.

VH1 Latin America

On April 1, 2004, VH1 Latin America joined MTV and Nickelodeon Latin America targeting audiences 25–49 years old. Until then, the VH1 main channel available for Latin America was the original US version. 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 Pakistan

(Coming soon, Operated by ARY TV Network)^{[citation needed]}

VH1 Poland

Launched (or rather renamed) on December 1, 2005. The channel is aimed at people in Poland over 25. The channel was formerly known as "MTV Classic" and (especially in its last months) was the same as present VH1, airing the same programs for the same target group.

VH1 Romania

(coming soon)

VH1 Russia

VH1 Russia launched on December 2, 2005

VH1 UK

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

VH1 Export

VH1 Export is the technical name used for the version of VH1 European available in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Levant territories broadcasting via satellite, exclusively from the Showtime Arabia pay-TV network. In Africa (on DStv) and Thailand, on UBC 33. The channel is exactly the same as VH1 European, but with different adverts.

References

^ http://www.vh1.com/events/concerts/diana/

External links

[1] ttp://www.vh1.com/events/concerts/diana/

[1]