VH1 (known as VH-1:
Video Hits One from 1985 to 1994 and VH1: Music
First until 2003) is an American
cable television network based in New York City
. Launched on January 1,
1985 in the old space of
Turner Broadcasting's short-lived
Cable Music Channel, the
original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of
MTV by playing
music
videos, but targeting a slightly older demographic than its
sister channel, focusing on the lighter, softer side of
popular music. The channel was originally
created by
Warner-Amex Satellite
Entertainment, at the time a division of
Warner Communications and owner of
MTV. Both VH1 and its sister channel MTV are
currently part of the
MTV Networks
division of corporate parent
Viacom. While
VH1 still occasionally plays music videos and the
Top 20 Video Countdown, its
more recent claim to fame has been in the area of music-related
reality programming, such as
Behind
the Music, the
I Love
the... series, the
Celebreality block of programming, and
the channel's overall focus on
popular
culture.
Early history of VH-1 (1985-1994)
Format and VJs
VH-1's aim was to focus on the lighter, softer side of
popular music, including such
musicians as
Carly
Simon,
Tina Turner,
Elton John,
Sting,
Donna
Summer,
Kenny G, and
Anita Baker, in hopes of appealing to people
aged 18 to 35, and possibly older. Also frequently featured in the
network's early years were "videos" for
Motown and other 1960s
oldies consisting of
newsreel
and
concert footage. It was introduced on
January 1, 1985 with the video performance of "
The Star-Spangled Banner" by
Marvin Gaye.
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 VJs 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
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 favorites such as
Whitney Houston,
Elton
John,
Madonna,
Janet Jackson, and
Céline Dion, still received heavy play as
well.
New Visions
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 many different musicians guest-hosted the program, but
eventually musician/songwriter
Ben Sidran
established himself as permanent host.
VH1: Music First (1994-2003)
In December 1994, VH1 rebranded itself as
VH1: Music
First, following a ratings decline in the early 1990s. 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. Additionally, the network
began to expand its playlist of music videos to include more rock
and rap music. Old episodes of
American Bandstand could regularly
be seen on the channel. By that time, the channel's
ratings were beginning to fall.
Video Countdown
As part of VH-1's rebranding as "VH1: Music First" in 1994, the
channel launched a new series, the
VH1 Top 10 Countdown,
that counted down the top ten music videos played on VH1 each week.
A combination of record sales, radio airplay, video spins,
message board posts, and
conventional mail would decide the order of the
countdown. A rotating cast of
VJs picked up hosting duties for the
show over the years. The series expanded from ten to twenty music
videos, becoming the
VH1
Top 20 Video Countdown, in 1999. VH1 Top 20 Countdown is
premiered every Saturday morning at 9:00 and also shown on Sunday
at 8:00 and lastly on Tuesday at 9:00 during the same week.
Pop-Up Video

The second "Music First" logo, used
from 1999 to 2003.
the fall of 1996, VH1 premiered
Pop-Up
Video, in which music videos were accompanied by "pop-ups"
(also known as "bubbles" or "info nuggets")--small enclosed areas
of the screen containing facts about the band or artist, such as
career highlights, discography, biographical details, quotes, and
anecdotes.
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. Episodes have ranged from
Aaliyah to
Stryper to
Queen, as well as others such as
Meat Loaf,
MC
Hammer,
Fleetwood Mac,
TLC,
"Weird Al"
Yankovic,
Britney Spears,
Selena,
Petra,
Pantera, and
Eminem,
with more episodes being produced periodically. By the late 1990s,
the show began 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.
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
The Bee Gees,
David Bowie,
Johnny
Cash,
Michael Jackson,
Eric Clapton,
The
Clash,
George
Clinton,
Sam Cooke,
Crosby, Stills, Nash &
Young,
The Doors,
Aretha Franklin,
John Fogerty,
Marvin
Gaye,
The Grateful Dead,
Guns N' Roses,
Jimi Hendrix,
Elton
John,
Janis Joplin,
B. B. King,
Led Zeppelin,
John Lennon,
Curtis Mayfield,
Pink
Floyd & Syd Barrett,
The
Pretenders,
Queen,
Bruce Springsteen,
Tina Turner,
U2,
Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Neil Young and
The
Who.
Save the Music Foundation
During its "Music First" days, VH1 created the Save The Music
Foundation, which 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,
Mariah Carey,
Shania Twain,
Gloria
Estefan and
Celine Dion, and the
"special guest"
Carole King. The most
successful of these "diva" shows was produced in 1999 featuring
Whitney Houston,
Tina Turner,
Cher,
LeAnn Rimes,
Mary
J. Blige,
Faith Hill,
Chaka Khan,
Brandy, and special "divo"
Elton John. It became a huge success and was
featured in the following years starring
Diana Ross,
Donna
Summer,
Destiny's Child,
Shakira,
Anastacia,
Dixie Chicks, and
Jessica Simpson. Some artists such as
Whitney Houston,
Mariah Carey,
Aretha
Franklin,
Mary J. Blige,
Celine Dion,
Cher and
Faith Hill
featured two VH1 concerts.
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,
MC
Hammer,
The Monkees,
Meat Loaf, and
Def
Leppard.
VH1 continues to air "Movies That Rock" on a regular basis,
expanding to include movies not produced by VH1. The subject matter
remains mostly focused on music and musicians.
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.
Other past trends
rockDocs was the title under which VH1 aired 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 five-part series on the history of hip-hop and rap, a
four-part series on the history of heavy metal,
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 and
N.W.A.: The World's Most Dangerous Group, featuring the
narration of comedian
Chris Rock, which
chronicled the rise and fall of
N.W.A.
VH1 endured criticism for
Music Behind Bars, which mainly
focuses on musicians in custody. Critics have claimed prisoners,
mainly those convicted of murder, should not be entitled to any
exposure, especially nationally.
The channel aired
Where Are They Now?
from 1999 to 2002. It featured former celebrities and their current
professional and personal statuses. Each episode was dedicated to a
specific genre, ranging from past
child
stars to
Aaron
Spelling's notable productions, to controversial news
figures.
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. Having saturated its
Behind The
Music series (and spinoff
BTM2, a 30-minute version
that told the stories of current chart-toppers), gotten past the
point of showing music videos on a regular basis, and endured a 35%
ratings decline over the past several years, the network began to
target the pop culture nostalgia market just like its sister MTV.
The network primarily plays reality shows now.
I Love the... series
In
2002, VH1 broadcast a ten-part
series entitled
I
Love the '80s. The idea was taken from a
BBC series, first broadcast
in
2000, in which current
entertainers and pop-culture figures offered their take on the
trends, events, and personalities of another decade. The success of
VH1's
I Love the '80's, coupled with the growing nostalgia
for ever-more-recent times, led the network to create a parade of
similarly-themed programs. These ranged from
2003's I Love the '70s, to
further variants like
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
2, along with the non-decade-based
I Love the Holidays and
I Love Toys.
The format of these shows 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.
Life imitated art on June 22 when VH1 premiered
I Love the New Millennium
focusing on the years 2000-2007.
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. In 2008 and early 2009 the
channel premiered the "
100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs,"
"
100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs," "
100 Greatest Songs of
the 90s," and "
100 Greatest Songs of the 80s."
40 Most Awesomely Bad
In 2004, VH1 began this mini-series category with "50 Most
Awesomely Bad Songs...Ever." Additional series in this group
include "40 Most Awesomely Bad Dirrty Songs...Ever," "40 Most
Awesomely Bad Break-up Songs...Ever," "40 Most Awesomely Bad #1
Songs...Ever," "40 Most Awesomely Bad Metal Songs...Ever," and "40
Most Awesomely Bad Love Songs."
Celebreality
VH1 also touts its
Celebreality programming block of
reality shows featuring celebrities, anchored by
The Surreal Life, which mimics
MTV's
The Real
World, instead placing celebrities from the past into a
living environment.
The word "celebreality" is a portmanteau combining the words
“celebrity” and “reality” and is generally used to describe reality
TV shows in which celebrities participate as subjects. The term
appears to have been coined by Michael Gross, writing for The
Toronto Star on May 12, 1991. In his article, entitled “Celebrity’s
New Face,” Mr. Gross used a hyphenated form of the word
(“celeb-reality”) to describe the tendency of certain contemporary
celebrities to downplay the traditional trappings of
Hollywood glamour. “You could see the new
celeb-reality on display at this year's Oscars,” wrote Gross. “It
is Kathy Bates and Whoopi Goldberg, not Kim Basinger and Michelle
Pfeiffer. It is Jeremy Irons in black tie and the sneakers he says
keep his feet on the ground. It is Kevin Costner, fighting small,
important battles, winning big, but reacting with modesty and going
off to party privately. The new celebrities are human first, famous
second.”
The next known citation of the word is by Joyce Millman, writing
for The New York Times on January 5, 2003. In an article entitled,
“Celebreality: The ‘Stars’ Are Elbowing Their Way In,” Ms. Millman
wrote: “Celebreality, the junk genre du jour, turns the notion of
reality TV upside down. Instead of real people acting like
celebrities on shows like "Survivor," "Big Brother" and "The
Bachelor," celebreality gives us celebrities acting like real
people on shows like "The Osbournes," "The Anna Nicole Show" and
"Celebrity Boot Camp." I'm using the term "celebrity" loosely here
— we're not talking about Russell Crowe, Julia Roberts and Dame
Judi Dench eating bugs and scrubbing latrines. No, the celebrities
of celebreality are a motlier crew, like, well, Mötley Crüe's Vince
Neil, the former rap superstar M. C. Hammer and the wee ex-Michael
Jackson ornament Emmanuel ("Webster") Lewis. Those three will be
setting up housekeeping together on Thursday in "The Surreal Life"
on WB, a celebreality spin on MTV's "Real World." Not to be
outdone, ABC sends a Baldwin brother (Stephen), a supermodel
(Frederique) and a former "L.A. Law" star (Corbin Bernsen) to
Hawaii for "Celebrity Mole Hawaii," beginning Wednesday.”
The Vh1 Celebreality block has also aired shows such as:
- My Antonio is a reality
series based on Antonio Sabato
Jr.'s search for love.
- Hogan Knows Best is
Hulk Hogan's reality show.
- Celebrity Fit
Club is a show where celebrities get in shape.
- My Fair Brady is 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
covers the therapy and life of Danny
Bonaduce.
- Celebrity
Paranormal Project features celebrities placed in haunted
locations to explore and perform tasks.
- Strange Love is a spin-off
of The Surreal Life,
following the relationship between Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav.
- Flavor of Love is a
spin-off of Strange Love,
where Flavor Flav tries to find
love.
- I Love New
York,New York
Goes to Hollywood, and New York Goes to Work feature
Tiffany "New York" Pollard, from Flavor
of Love.
- Flavor of
Love Girls: Charm School is a spin-off of Flavor of Love
- Rock of
Love features Bret Michaels
searching for love.
- Rock of Love: Charm
School is a spin-off of Rock of Love with Bret
Michaels
- Daisy of Love features
Daisy de la Hoya, the runner-up of Rock of Love
2, in her own dating show spin-off.
- I Love Money is a spin-off
of Flavor of Love,
I Love New
York, Real Chance of
Love, and Rock of Love with Bret
Michaels.
- Megan Wants a
Millionaire features Megan
Hauserman from Rock of Love
2, I Love
Money, and Rock
of Love: Charm School in her own reality dating spin-off.
The program was canceled in mid-August 2009, a third of the way
through its run, due to show contestant Ryan Jenkins's involvement
in the murder of Jasmine Fiore.
- Real Chance of Love
is a spin-off of I Love
New York and I Love
Money.
- Glam God with Vivica
A. Fox
is a reality show with red carpet diva Vivica A. Fox.
- The Cho Show is a reality
sitcom following the antics of comedian Margaret Cho.
- Ego trip's
The Rapper Show is a reality contest hosted by MC
Serch.
- Ego trip's Miss Rap
Supreme is another reality contest hosted by MC
Serch.
- The Salt-n-Pepa
Show is a reality series following the 90's rap duo
Salt-n-Pepa.
- Charm School with
Ricki Lake is a spin off of Rock of Love Bus with Bret
Michaels and Real
Chance of Love.
Hip-Hop and Rock Honors
Since 2004, VH1 has showed their appreciation for hip-hop and rock
music by honoring pioneers and movements. Hip-hop musicians honored
include
Eazy-E,
LL Cool
J,
2Pac,
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. 2008's sole Rock Honors inductees were
The Who.
Other current trends
On July 1,
2007, VH1 and MHD, the high-definition music
channel of MTV (now called Palladia), simulcast live the entire Concert
for Diana from London, England
, on the birthday of Princess Diana, Princess of Wales.
Although VH1 has drastically reduced its emphasis on music, it does
continue to play music videos (just like its sister network, MTV)
from 4 a.m. until 11 a.m. ET. The overnight block was called
Insomniac Music Theater until August 2005, when it was
renamed
Nocturnal State. As of the beginning of October
2008,
Nocturnal State has been cut down to one hour, and
Fresh: New Music has been supplanted by additional hours
of
Jump Start, thus meaning that VH1 now plays 7 hours of
music daily.
Beyond VH1
VH1 HD
VH1 HD is a
1080i high definition simulcast of VH1.
Only newer shows such as
Rock of
Love Bus,
The T.O.
Show and
Brooke Knows Best air in full
16:9 aspect ratio HD on it however, and most
other programs are shown in
4:3 aspect ratio
with the video
upconverted. The HD
channel is available nationally on
DirecTV,
AT&T U-verse and
Dish Network.
Sister 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 MegaHits: 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 Spanish language channel which mostly
consisted of music videos of Latin pop, rock, and traditional
ballads, tropical, salsa and merengue music. Discontinued February
2, 2008 by MTV Networks to expand normal distribution of mtvU beyond college campuses.
The Internet
VH1's online destination,
VH1.com, launched in the 1990s. In the 2000s, VH1
created
VSPOT, a broadband video channel that followed the
model of
MTV Overdrive, containing the
shows aired by VH1 and
music videos.
VSPOT was renamed to
Video.VH1.com in late
2007.
VH1 around the world
As with other MTV channels, MTV Networks broadcasts international
versions of VH1:
- VH1
Denmark: The Danish
version of
VH1 was launched in Denmark
on March 15,
2008.
- VH1 Europe: VH1
Europe is the VH1 channel broadcast in the European continent as
well as Northern Africa, South Africa and the Middle East.
- 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 Orbit Showtime 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.
- 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 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.
- 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
, TATV, Solo, and Makassar TV, Makassar
(UHF21) and also a full link channel seen on
satellite PALAPA C2.
- 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: Operated by ARY TV Network)
- VH1 Polska: 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 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.
See also
References
External links