MTV IN EUROPE

“ONE PLANET—ONE MUSIC.” Like so much of today’s advertising rhetoric, the phrase sounds like a revolutionary socialist slogan. Or, rather, since it sounds like one, we know it must be an advertisement. This particular phrase belongs to MTV Europe, a service that began transmission in August, in what is probably the most important step along the road to a world television system since Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to set up a “fourth network” in the U.S. (adding the Fox system to his TV interests in Australia and Europe).

Music is, after all, the perfect commodity for the development of world television. Like no other format, with the possible exception of sports, it translates easily across national boundaries. And it’s free programming, too. The record companies pay for the videos out of advertising budgets. Never in the history of television has its impulse to sell been so perfectly expressed. In the new media-pop world, Michael Jackson gets paid for a TV special that simultaneosly sells an album, a video and cans of soda pop. This gigantic three-way advertisement is then sold, to TV companies throughout the world. It’s the perfect marketing circle.