4music

4music is a music and entertainment channel based in the United Kingdom as part of the Box Television group that are also in charge of Kerrang and other channels like E4, Channel 4, film 4 and magic etc. As well as playing a huge variety of music videos, 4music is also used in the same way as MTV to show scripted television programmes aimed at young adults and teens such as 'Balls of steel', 'keeping up with the Kardashians' and '8 out of 10 cats' etc. 4music mainly plays popular music genres like pop, dance, hip-hop and rnb but they mainly play the charts daily which consists of charts like 'your official top 20' and 'UK hot 40' along with many others. You would usually see artists such as Rihanna, Drake, Beyonce, Carly rae Jepsen, Ed sheeran and many other famous popular artists on 4music.

Kerrang!

Kerrang is a digital television show dedicated to music videos of the many different rock genres around but this was only since 2005 that the whole channel was used for this one purpose only. The channels playlist is mainly for the genre of nu metal and pop/ punk rock though as well as playing all types of rock daily too, although many of Eminem's videos are also usually played on Kerrang, maybe to show off some diversity from just one genre. The bands that are usually featured on Kerrang are Green day, Panic at the disco, you me at six and Blink 182.

VH1

VH1 is another music video channel, obviously dedicated to music videos much like MTV but they would be similar VH1 is a sister channel of MTV. VH1 stands for Video Hits 1, they started off playing the adult top 40s which included artists and bands like Ace of Base, Sheryl Crow, Seal and many more, but artists like Elton John, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston etc had a heavy playlist too.

But since 2004 VH1's playlist has become more diverse as they taken a turn to hip-hop and rock genres and they have released further channels to different genres too for example soul, classical and country etc.

MTV (Music Television)

MTV that stands for Music Television is the most famous and worldwide known music video channel and its based in New York since the 1980s, to be precise August 1st 1981. As well as playing music videos almost non-stop they do show scripted tv shows aimed at young adults and teens for example 'Geordie shore' and 'The valleys' etc.

The first actual images on MTV were a montage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, but aside from that most of MTV's music videos are based on a single genre that being popular music, but since its launch it has gained huge success all over the world they have dedicated more MTV channels to different types of genres such as bass, dance, rock, classics and the main channel is used for top 40 chart hits.

Music video channels

Music videos have been a huge part of music since the 1980s, although at the time they were used as an experiment for popular songs and since they caught on with the public audience on channels like MTV and VH1, they are now used in almost all songs in almost all genres of music nowadays.

Back in the 1980s, music videos were more or less all the same, they consisted of sparkly backgrounds, funky costumes, strange dancing and disgraceful lip syncing. There are main music video channels that started out back in 1980s like MTV and VH1 and later on came channels like Kerrang for many different rock genres and 4Music for mainly pop and dance genres.

Alternative music

Alternative music is actually a mixture of Britpop and Grunge and used to be a sub-genre of rock but now has become so big it is it's own genre. Some alternative music can be considered as partially electronic, although the vast majority of alternative music is considered as Indie. Most alternative music videos are based on live performances or showcasing of the bands or artists, but you do get some with narrative based themes ( which are usually random, only occasionally you get a narrative based Alternative music video that perfectly reflects the lyrics or has anything at all to do with the song itself). There are many famous indie bands and artists around at the moment including Owl City, Bloc Party, Interpol, Alt-j, Foster the people etc.

Rock music

Rock music is a type of music that originated from 'rock and roll' in the 1950s and is part of the 'popular music' genre. Rock is mainly based around instruments like the electric guitar, bass guitar and drums. Rock music over the years has divided itself into many different sub-genres with some sub-genres becoming extremely diverse and difficult, meaning musical characteristics in songs cannot be identified as easily as they used to be and also the structure of some songs are really very different now.

The main sub-genres of Rock music is Heavy metal, Pop rock, Punk rock and many more. Most rock music videos are live performance based showing the bands at their live concerts because the atmosphere at them are usually amazing and that is perfect for a video.
The main rock bands now and in the past are Coldplay, Foo fighters, Blink 182, Guns n roses, Radiohead, Kasabian and many more.

Contemporary Rnb music

Contemporary Rnb is short for 'Rhythm and blues' which still exists but it has developed further into contemporary Rnb which is now known worldwide in songs and artists. These songs tend to have drums in it as a huge part along with saxophone sometimes to create a jazzy/ blues effect which also in turn emphasizes the lush style of vocals, which usually has a lot of fast note changes and vibrato to create the scene of the song. Music videos associated with contemporary Rnb are narrative based, as the songs are mostly about subjects like love and sex, meaning that the images shown on the video can't really be showcased (in a way with dancers but the artists can be showcased just singing) or spectacle, so the images reflect the lyrics in a story.

There are many Rnb artists around at the moment but the most famous and most commercially successful in the Rnb genre are artists such as Usher, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Chris Brown, Ne-yo and Rihanna, who is also considered as a huge pop star too even though most modern Rnb music makes it into the 'popular' charts nowadays anyway.

Hip-hop music

Hip-hop is extremely famous all around the world in which its divided up into many similar but slightly different sub-genres like Grime, and many different types of Rap like Gangsta, Ghetto, Rap-rock etc.
Most hip-hop videos tend to showcase the artists with loads of attractive women standing around or dancing, although in some videos you get a storyline which reflects the lyrics or some show the rappers dancing or showing off the freestyle skills.

Famous hip-hop artists include Jay-Z, Dr dre, Eminem, Devlin, Skepta, Wretch 32, Tinchy Stryder, Drake, Kanye West, Chipmunk, 50 Cent and many more, the ones that i just mentioned are well known worldwide although there are many others that are very well known but in certain areas.

Dance Music

Dance music is very popular all around the world, especially the sub-genres like Dubstep and Drum n bass. Although not all countries know dubstep it is extremely popular in England especially London, the same applies to drum n bass, whereas other sub-genres like trance can be found in many clubs all around the world, in particular those in Amsterdam.
There are a number of famous Dubstep artists around like Gemini, Nero, Modestep, Doctor P, Skrillex, Flux Pavilion and many more, but the most mainstream Dubstep song at the moment is 'bangarang' by Skrillex. Dubstep is a form of experimental music although it has a strong beat to it and doesn't really change much apart from when the beat kicks in. There are however not a lot of Dubstep related music videos, but in the ones that do exist there's a narrative theme or just dancing shown, but strangely enough Dubstep artists don't really like to be shown in videos.

Again there's a vast range of famous Drum n bass artists too like Netsky, sub focus, Chase and status, Deadmau5 etc. Drum n bass is a song which has a fast drum beat and a heavy bassline, so more or less Dubstep without the drop and Dubstep sounds.

Pop music

Pop music is short for popular music of a specific time period, which originated in the 1950s from Rock and roll. The songs usually involved with this genre are very basic and consists of just verses and choruses with a standard bridge in the middle to liven things up. These songs are also usually put together by well known instruments like guitars, drums, keyboards etc unlike in other genres where artists like to experiment, Although most pop songs are starting to have more techno based sounds thereby using koass pads and synthesizers to create these specific sounds. Most pop music videos tend to have a bit of narrative but are mainly spectacles or showcases with a dancing element involved with many close ups and cuts.

At the moment there are a lot of famous pop artists around that are known worldwide like Rihanna, Justin bieber, Adele, Bruno Mars and many more, but the all time king of pop is the late Michael Jackson.

But at the time being, the most popular pop song is 'Gangnam style' by Psy which is number one in 14 countries and has reached over 340 million views on youtube which is absolutely incredible!

Genres of music

There's a massive range of main music genres and styles all over the world which then divide into hundreds of smaller divisions of sub-genres. The main and most popular genres of the modern day are:

• Pop (popular), 
• Dance,
• Hip-hop,
• Contemporary Rnb,
• Rock,
• Alternative and many more but less well known e.g Dubstep, Heavy Metal, Electronic etc

In the next couple of blogs I will be looking at the different genres in detail with examples of music videos and artists of the genre.