Shifting Time: Video Culture 1976 - 1996

Follow the link below to go to a lecture I recently gave for the Channels Australian Video Art Festival (September 18-21 2013). In this lecture I explore some of the characteristics of the video generation. I am using the term generation here in the broad sense of referring to a specific social group or, put another way, a particular cohort made-up of three generational types: Generation Jones, Generation X and Generation Y.(1)

What makes-up the video generation are individuals who grew up as children, teenagers or young adults between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s. Such individuals had formative years of media exposure that were directly influenced by a number of changes that were occurring within the realm of consumer electronics. For one thing, the video generation went through the transition from an analog based environment to a digital one; in other words, they went from using media technologies like record players and the cassette Walkman to CD players and the CD Walkman (and in the area of visual media the transition was from VHS tape to DVD).(2) The video generation also experienced the last stages of the mass broadcast period. By the late-1970s, early-1980s, mediums like television were transitioning into what is often referred to as the era of narrowcasting. 

One of the key things that characterised this transition was the development in cable and satellite network television (or subscription TV) which, at least in the countries like the United States, was being adopted by consumers as early as the late 1970s. The cable-satellite platform had an immediate impact upon the television industry because it represented a new way of addressing audiences. As Patrick Parsons has said (speaking about the US market): "From an industry dominated by three national networks, television evolved into a multichannel environment in which viewers had access to dozens of highly specialised program choices." (3) In other words, the broadcast model of cable was based upon diversity and attracting niche audiences rather than on finding mass appeal for a limited number of shows.

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But, perhaps, the most defining feature of the video generation was the revolution in home entertainment technology that occurred with the introduction of the Video Cassette Recorder (VCR), a technology that had a number of impacts upon the home viewing experience. One of the most crucial of these impacts was time-shifting. As I discuss in the lecture, time-shifting can be understood in a number of ways; however, in its simplest sense, time-shifting refers to the act of recording shows broadcast on television and watching them at a time that is more convenient. Among other things, this deceptively simple act of personalising home viewing helped to create a new kind of active audience.

In addition to explaining the various ways VCR technology shifted time, I also explore the role that the VCR had in creating not only another ancillary or secondary market for theatrically realised films, but also a new market for film distribution; namely, the straight-to-video film (which has its contemporary counterpart in the straight-to-DVD film). As I discuss, drawing on the work of Tom O'Regan, the VCR played a significant, indeed indispensable, role in bringing about new market formations for film distribution and consumption, new market formations that continue to shape our current digital revolution. (5) 

In order to illustrate my argument I show clips from two documentaries that have recently come out on VHS culture: Rewind This (Josh Johnson, 2013) and Adjust your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector (Dan Kinem & Levi Peretic, 2013). 

To listen to the lecture please click on this link: 

https://vimeo.com/77479592

Endnotes

(1) The label Generation Jones is generally used to refer to those born between 1955 and 1967. It is used to distinguish a generation of people who, in the words of social commentator Jonathan Pontell (the man credited with coming up with the label), "are neither Boomers or GenXers" but rather a social group with their own particular attitudes and sensibilities. For more information see Jonathan Pontell's article in The Independent: "Clegg's rise is the sound of Generation Jones clearing its throat". Also, visit the website http://www.generationjones.com/ My overall point here is that the video generation was made-up of different cohorts of people and also different age groups. 

(2) DVD did not actually enter the retail market for consumer electronics until 1997. However, by the end of the millennium, it had already started to dramatically strip away analog video's market share of film distribution (including rental distribution). For more information see Mark Parker and Deborah Parker's (2011)The DVD and the Study of Film: The Attainable Text. 

(3) Patrick Parsons, "The Evolution of the Cable-Satellite Distribution System", Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Vol. 47, Issue 1, March 2003, pg. 1. 

(4) First aired in August, 1981, MTV was the most popular and influential 24-hr music video cable channel of the 1980s (and it, and its sister channels like Video Hits One, have continued to cater to large television and online audiences (see "Move Over, MTV" http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-08-21/move-over-mtv). Although it should be pointed out that, since the mid-1980s, the MTV network has also broadcast event based shows, such as "The MTV Video Music Awards", and also non-music programs. The image above is taken from the first stream of images that were broadcast by MTV at 12.01 am Eastern Time. MTV CEO at the time, Bob Pittman, has explained why imagery from the Apollo 11 space flight was used: 

"We were trying to figure out what icon we were going to use to say, 'This is a change in TV.' So we had this idea that we were going to use the words, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Those were Neil Armstrong's words, so we sent a letter to Neil Armstrong, saying 'We're going to use this...unless you tell us no.' We had the video already cut. Every hour, it's supposed to say,'One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' [then sings top-of-hour music]. Literally, the week before, we get a letter from him, saying, 'No, you can't use it.' Then we have the decision, do we have to scrap this whole iconography? And Fred Seilbert convinced ourselves that it was OK to be more abstract, that we didn't have to say it. We could still just have the video there and the guy jumping around on the moon...And that's the way we went. But the whole idea was to use the space motif, which was very hot at the time. You know, the shuttle was just coming out [Space Shuttle Columbia launch]. To really say, 'We're new, different, cutting edge etc.'" (See MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video, Greg Prato, 2010, pg. 31) 

(5) Tom O'Regan, "Remembering Video: Reflections on the First Explosion of Informal Media Markets through the VCR", Television and New Media, Vol. 13, Issue 5, April 2012.