In the early 1980s, music was everywhere on TV, as MTV revolutionized both television and the recording industry. The music video created a programming sensation, and MTV's competitors raced to keep up, filling the TV airwaves with music. With MTV's shift away from music programming around the turn of the century, however, music on television was more often presented in forms other than the music video--but there's never been a time that music disappeared from TV altogether.
Variety shows and musical performance shows were popular on TV decades before MTV introduced the pre-recorded music video, and musical performance programs still pop up now and again on broadcast TV as special events. Music award shows, such as the Grammys, the MTV Music Awards and the American Music Awards, consistently draw big audiences by presenting a blend of celebrity appearances and musical performances.
The big music TV revolution in recent years, though, has been within the unscripted reality genre. Music competition series - both singing competitions like "American Idol" and "The Voice" and dance competitions like "Dancing with the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance" - have become so popular that they have virtually dominated the weekday nighttime schedules of the broadcast networks.
