What Killed the MuchMusic Star?
- Kaley Evans
- Mar 3
- 10 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
How an unknown broadcaster launched an all-music-video channel that became the Nation's Music Station, how technology dethroned it, and how corporate consolidation reduced it to just another station.
** Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series
With the demise of the OG music channel, MTV, still fresh in our minds, what better way to honour such an icon than with a trip down memory lane of the Canadian version, MuchMusic. From how it all started, to how it became the pop cultural icon that defined generations, and what led to its ultimate demise. MuchMusic was more than just the Canadian version of MTV – it was the main-stay pop cultural icon that carved its own identity and made its mark on Canadian culture.
If you’re from the Gen X, Millennial, or Gen Z generation who grew up in Canada, there’s a high probability you watched MusicMusic at some point or another during your adolescence. Whether you watched during their origin years of the ‘80s, their heyday at the turn of the millennium … or mostly knew them for their non-music content, MuchMusic easily defined the adolescent years of all three of these generations. And believe it or not, before YouTube and the internet, the only way you could watch music videos was through MuchMusic – or MTV, if your family was rich enough to afford satellite TV. But MuchMusic was more than just a channel that broadcasted music videos; it was a pop cultural mecca that gave voice to its fanbase, carved its own identity, and shed light on societal topics important to its viewers. And although it left an indelible imprint on Canadian pop culture, it wasn’t so much technology but corporate consolidation that killed this music video star. Or has it really died off entirely?
Origin Story -
On August 1st, 1981, the first-ever music video, Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles, aired on MTV and it sent a clear message: radio was dead and a new era was here — the era of the music video. Now, of course, radio still exists today. But MTV’s message was clear that a new era had arrived: one of music promotion and consumption, all in the form of a channel solely dedicated to playing 24/7 music videos. With their catchy slogan “I want my MTV”, it spoke to the demand from the youth who were looking for a new way to engage with music. And it wasn’t long after its inception that MTV become a pop cultural phenomenon in its own right -- one that not only influenced music and fashion trends, but one that was the primary source of popular music…all while defining a generation’s culture. The groundwork MTV laid out in the early ‘80s would become the foundation for a Canadian version that would come only a mere three years later.
MusicMusic and the Early Daze -
The year was 1972. Having garnered his experience with CBC during the 1960s as a relatively known tv personality but a relatively unknown media executive, Moses Znaimer was denied an opportunity to pursue his creative vision at CBC and ultimately left. Little did he or anyone else know this would be the catalyst for what would later come to define his career and the childhood of generations to come. Landing at CHUM Television, Znaimer, and the British ex-pat producer he hired, John Martin, put together a new show that would later put its owner on the map. This new show featured a less polished but more specialized programming that wasn’t popular with other broadcasters at the time.
By taking the promo videos record labels sent out and combining them with the avant guard style of guerrilla filming Znaimer was already known for along with Martin’s musical knowledge, they created a new music-oriented show called The New Music, followed later by a show called City Limits. And those promo videos? Those weren’t the typical, polished music videos you see today. Back then, they were just videos of the artist playing live with the recorded music dubbed over it. And their only purpose was to promote the songs and artists without the need for costly in-person television appearances.
Fast forward to 1984. Znaimer and Martin take their proven approach to new wave television and created a new music hub created under the umbrella of CHUM Television, named MuchMusic. By this point, MTV already had three years on them, so Znaimer and Martin sought to create a distinguishment between this new MuchMusic and their American predecessor. Where MTV was on the second floor overlooking Times Square in New York City, MuchMusic was on the ground floor of their HQ at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto. And rather than adopting the same approach MTV used of bringing the camera to the scene, MuchMusic flipped it by creating the scene and having the camera be present. “At MTV, they were on the second floor in Times Square and almost untouchable,” recounts former MuchMusic VJ, Rick “The Temp” Campanelli. This “untouchable” approach altered the relationship between the broadcaster and the audience, so much so that MuchMusic decided they would break down those barriers to bring the music to the audiences wherever they were to make it about the fans and their love of music.
The other distinguishment came from Znaimer’s time at CBC, where he noticed most televised shows were filmed using stationary cameras -- which at the time were very large, very heavy, and very bulky pieces of machinery. And in keeping with the break-down-barriers approach, Znaimer and Martin carried their unorthodoxy filming approach over to MuchMusic, with that heavy reliance on the handheld camera not only prevalent throughout much -- pun intended -- of their on-air broadcasting, but it became synonymous with its iconic style. This particular style of filming would later prove to be years ahead of its time when reality TV adopted the same guerrilla style approach many years later.
Both Znaimer and Martin were instrumental in taking MuchMusic from idea to reality, but another key player in its inception was Nancy Oliver, Director of Operations. She worked alongside Martin to develop their own VJ system, with the first set of VJs hired from existing on-air personalities and internal hires who helped to define the channel’s initial unscripted style. Where MTV heavily relied on scripts and teleprompters the VJs would read off of, MuchMusic’s approach was to simply have the camera operator and the VJ speak directly to its viewers.
As the years progressed, the process for hiring VJs became a reality show contest known then as MuchTemp -- later renamed the MuchMusic VJ Search -- where the premise of the VJ was to act as the conduit between the musician and the viewer. And similar to a radio DJ, the VJs were also music lovers themselves. But what separated the MuchMusic VJs from radio DJs was that they looked like the viewer, which further bridged the gap between the musician and the viewer and served to further distinguish themselves from MTV. “At Much, you got a glimpse of what was going on inside, or you could be part of the environment as an audience. We weren’t really speaking to young Canadians; we were speaking with young Canadians,” recalls Campanelli, the most notable VJs hired from MuchTemp.
Millennial Culture –
As MuchMusic gained traction and credibility over the proceeding years, the relationship between its two founders deteriorated over their opposing creative approaches. This opposition resulted in Martin’s departure from MuchMusic in late 1992, which ushered in a new Director of Music Programming, Denise Donlon. Under her direction, she would take MuchMusic into, as she referred to it as, its “Drive for Relevancy Era”. And Donlon was no stranger to MuchMusic, having been part of it since its inception and predating that by working on City Limits. Remember that show from the pre-MuchMusic days? This new era with Donlon at the helm spoke directly to the Millennials who were now becoming teenagers themselves at this point.
By this point, pop culture had shaped every aspect of modern life and was reflected in the growing budgets for music video production. Big name directors could easily command seven figure budgets for their videos, which is an astronomical amount by today’s standards let alone back then. As more videos hit the airwaves, there was more competition for the spotlight with the commercial success of a song now hinged on the strength of its music video. Donlon began to notice the origins of community and connection MuchMusic had cultivated was now getting lost in the glamour and hype of pop culture and the programming. She pushed to unpack videos more in depth and assembled VJs with distinct styles and opinions to match this new approach. VJs such as Sook-Yin Lee, George Stroumboulopoulos, Ed the Sock, and Rick “The Temp” Campanelli, each represented different demographics, styles, and genres of music -- all aimed at attracting and representing the diverse nature of their Canadian audience.
Donlon also leaned on her activism background by prioritizing media literacy into MuchMusic’s programming with shows like the Too Much 4 Much segment, where a panel of VJs, special guests, and artists analyzed controversial videos banned from the airwaves. Between 1992 and 2000, Donlon challenged and analyzed the dominate pop culture themes rather than continued to glamourize them, all while seeking to deconstruct the persona behind the celebrity. And if you’re thinking there’s pressure for this idealistic approach to media literacy and programming, then you’re correct. But despite the increased pressure from sales and marketing to please advertisers and shareholders, Donlon was successful at maintaining the quality of program messaging instead of purely pandering to ad revenue --- which, back in the golden era of television, was the mainstay for revenue. Donlon’s dedication to media literacy and to the preservation of MuchMusic’s origins would remain a prominent fixture until her departure in late 2000.
The Technology Era –
As the new millennium took off, so did MuchMusic’s viewership, with more and more Millennials tuning into to MuchMusic on a daily basis. At the height of the music industry in 1999, it was worth $22.7 billion US in revenue from music recordings alone. And MuchMusic was leading the pack with its market share of music videos in Canada, which was largely attributed to the CRTC’s -- Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for those unacquainted with it -- licensing regulations that had already been established at MuchMusic’s inception.
But all this idealistic media-literacy-and-entertainment popularity ride MuchMusic was riding high on throughout the ‘90s all came to a screeching halt at the turn of the century. While adapting to Donlon’s departure in 2000, a new Vice President and General Manager of MuchMusic was named. David Kines, who came from humble beginnings as an editor in the early days of MuchMusic, would emerge as the new VP and GM. And along with this management change also came a technological change. The explosion of Napster onto the pop culture and music scene that not only initiated the shift in relationship between listeners and music - it revolutionized the way they consumed music.
Napster
By hooking Millennials en masse -- the same demographic by the way MuchMusic was set on hooking for themselves -- Napster users not only had access to a massive catalogue of music that was not only free, but that catalogue filled a void MuchMusic couldn’t: on demand music. This meant Napster users no longer had to pay for an album in stores or wait to hear to their favourite song to play on radio or TV – they could simply download a song or an entire album and listen to it as many times as times as they wanted. And in some cases, they could download an album even before it officially hit store shelves. As the Napster drama played out in the courts – hello, Metallica, who famously sued Napster-- and in the public sphere, it was only a matter of time before others, like KaZaA, KaZaA lite, BearShare, and LimeWire would get in the game.
But another technological change that added more fuel to the on-demand music fire was the release of Apple’s iPod and iTunes in 2001. By allowing its consumers to import their music -- legally or illegally acquired -- into iTunes, they could sync them to their iPod and take their music anywhere. Without a doubt, this delivered a significant blow to MuchMusic’s viewership as more Millennials migrated to these new technologies as their main sources for music consumption. And of course, during this time, the iPod evolved to include video plays. However, just like a new kid in school, a new technology was about to arrive on the scene that took the attention off of iTunes and delivered a harder blow to MuchMusic. Enter YouTube into the chat.
YouTube
By the mid-2000s, both Napster and Apple not only dominated but transformed the music scene with on-demand music consumption. And by that point, -- 2005, to be exact -- the internet had really taken off with the likes of MSN Messenger and MySpace, all allowing their mostly young consumer base to connect with each other directly. Seemingly overnight, Millennials became the on-demand music generation with their immediate gratification altering how music was valued and consumed, and shifted the listener demand away from full albums and onto singles.
All this despite MuchMusic already had been releasing yearly compilation CDs as early as the mid-’90s — by the likes of the Much Dance series which featured the top pop songs of that year, and Big Shiny Tunes which featured the top rock and alt songs. We’ll get into the evolution from singles to streaming a little bit later, but this new shift in music consumption gave the once-unknown website YouTube the platform to rapidly grow into the go-to place to watch music videos. And this leverage only added more fuel to an already burning inferno. And this inferno was quickly coming for MuchMusic.
With on-demand music already on the scene and now music videos on-demand, viewers no longer had to wait for scheduled shows to see their favourite music video. And YouTube provided a place where music videos could be easily watched at any time. Suffice it to say, MuchMusic brought a knife to the on-demand gun fight. But technology wasn’t the only existential threat to MuchMusic at this time.
** follow for part two.
Sources –
4. Recording Industry Association of America
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