(spelled '''VH-1''' ''(Video Hits One)'' until
1994 ) is an
American Cable Television channel that was created in
January 1985 by
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (then a division of
Warner Communications and then-current owners of
MTV , which originally came up with the idea of the channel). It and sister channel MTV are currently part of the MTV Networks division of
Viacom .
With then four-year-old MTVs popularity rising drastically among
Teen s, VH1 began with the intention to capitalize off of the success of the
Music Video . However, VH1's aim was to focus on the lighter, softer side of
Popular Music , including such
Musicians as
Elton John ,
Sting ,
Diana Ross ,
Billy Joel ,
Kenny G , and
Anita Baker , in hopes of appealing to people between the ages of 18 and 35, and possibly older. It has also historically played more adult R&B than its sister channel.
While VH1 still occasionally plays videos, its more recent claim to fame has been in the area of music-related reality programming, such as the signature show ''
Behind The Music '' and ''The Flavor of Love,'' featuring Public Enemy member
Flavor Flav .
From the start, Video Hits One was branded as an urbane version of its sister/parent channel. It played more jazz and country artists than MTV and had a higher rotation of urban-contemporary performers. Its early on-camera personalities were New York radio veterans
Don Imus (of WNBC and now
WFAN );
Frankie Crocker , program director and DJ for
WBLS ; and Tim Byrd of WPIX-FM (now
WQCD ), a station whose eclectic ballad-and-R&B oriented format mirrored that of VH-1.
Rosie O'Donnell later joined the outlet's veejay lineup.
The format left room for occasional ad-libs by the VJ, a godsend for emcees such as Imus and O'Donnell. In true Imus style, he used a 1985 segment of his VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon
Sade a "grape" for her oval-shaped head.
VH1 caters to adult top 40, now including musicians such as
Ace Of Base ,
Melissa Etheridge ,
Sheryl Crow , and other slightly more
Rock -oriented, popular music than what it had originally played, though AC favorites such as
Des'ree ,
Elton John ,
Madonna ,
Céline Dion , and
Mariah Carey still received heavy video play in 1994, as well.
By
1996 , VH1 was heading down the same path as its sister station, MTV, choosing to focus more on music-related shows than on music videos. Old episodes of ''
American Bandstand '' could regularly be seen on the channel. By that time, the channel's
Ratings were beginning to fall. As a result, the channel began to lose money, verging on the brink of bankruptcy.
Things changed very drastically for VH1 in the fall of 1996, with the premiere of ''
Pop-Up Video '', a very successful and popular show which offered tidbits of information as music videos were being played. "Pop-Up" television has gone on to become something of a cultural phenomenon, appearing on episodes of ''
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch '', ''
The Drew Carey Show '', ''
Brady Bunch '' reruns on sister Viacom channel
Nick At Nite , and even a special episode of ''
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? ''.
In
August 1997 , VH1 again hit it big with the premiere of the first of the network's flagship shows, ''
Behind The Music ''. The show features interviews and biographies of some of popular music's biggest stars qualified to be profiled on the series. The premiere episode featured
Milli Vanilli . To date, there are episodes on everyone from
Queen Latifah to
MC Hammer to
Fleetwood Mac to
TLC to
"Weird Al" Yankovic to
Britney Spears , with more episodes being produced sporadically.
Shortly after, VH1 created a companion series, ''
Legends '' (originally sponsored by
AT&T ), profiling artists who have made a more significant contribution to music history to qualify as "Legends" (that is, those artists who do not fit in the category of ''Behind the Music'' biographies). The artists profiled so far have included
Marvin Gaye ,
Eric Clapton ,
Phil Krauth ,
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ,
The Doors ,
Neil Young ,
Johnny Cash ,
Jimi Hendrix ,
Queen ,
Pink Floyd ,
The Bee Gees , and
U2 .
In
1998 , VH1 debuted the first annual ''
VH1 Divas '' concert and featured the "divas"
Céline Dion ,
Aretha Franklin ,
Shania Twain ,
Mariah Carey , and
Gloria Estefan , and the "special guest"
Carole King . This show is notable in that VH1 stated sometime afterwards that singer Mariah Carey demanded to be filmed from only one side of her face at all times. As the show was being shot, they purposely filmed her from all sides and then made light of her demand on an episode of it's popular program "Pop Up Video". The caption jokingly stated that Carey needs to be filmed from the right side only, whereas the beautiful Twain can be filmed from any side. The show was a success and other hugely successful shows were produced in the following years featuring "
Diva s"
Whitney Houston ,
Cher ,
Donna Summer ,
LeAnn Rimes ,
Mary J. Blige ,
Diana Ross , and
Faith Hill .
Elton John was also featured as a "divo" in one concert.
In the late 1990s, VH1 continued to get more diverse and teen-based with its music selection, and with that, the network updated its
1994 "Big 1" logo. Various late-night rock shows have been shown on VH1, featuring
Alternative Rock and
Metal videos from the 1980s and 1990s. VH1 eventually warmed up to harder rock acts such as the
Red Hot Chili Peppers , the
Foo Fighters , and
Metallica , and their new videos are generally added into VH1's playlist right away.
By the early 2000s, VH1 even began to play mainstream
Rap musicians. The latest videos by
Eminem ,
Jay-Z ,
Snoop Dogg , and
Missy Elliott began to be shown in VH1's rotation and even started to crop up on VH1's top 20 countdown, as of early
2003 .
During its "Music First" days, VH1 was involved in a foundation that served to preserve and enhance music education programs in local schools. The foundation was established in
1997 and purchased new musical instruments to restore music education programs that have been cut due to budget reductions in the past or to save programs at risk of elimination due to lack of instruments. The Foundation also conducted awareness campaigns, musical instrument drives and fundraising events. It still exists as of
2005 , but with a much lower profile.
VH1 endured criticism for having a show that focuses on musicians who are in jail. Critics thought that prisoners, mainly those convicted of murder, should not be entitled to any exposure.
{Link without Title}
In 1999, VH1 aired its first original movie, a bio-pic on
Sweetwater . Over the next three years, they made over a dozen movies, including bio-pics on
Ricky Nelson ,
M.C. Hammer ,
The Monkees ,
Meat Loaf and
Def Leppard .
In
2003 , the network changed its focus again, dropping "Music First" from its name, and introducing their new and current box logo, which can be viewed at the top. Having saturated its ''Behind The Music'' series (and spinoff ''BTM2'', a 30-minute version that told the stories of current chart-toppers) and gotten past the point of showing music videos on a regular basis, the network began to target the pop culture nostalgia market just like its sister MTV. The network started increasing the number of reality shows. Today, they include shows like Flavor Flav, the Surreal Life and Hogans Knows Best. VH1, once the serious face of music, has joined other networks in what is believed to be successful reality show programs that features beautiful women and, naturally, attract more viewers.
The shift began in late ''. Recently, VH1 premiered ''
I Love The 80s 3-D '', the third edition of ''I Love the 80s'', which profiles more happenings from the 1980s, and ''
I Love The Holidays '', a 90 minute special which focuses on holidays, such as
Halloween ,
Thanksgiving ,
Hanukkah ,
Christmas , and
New Year's Day . The format (various entertainers giving their takes or opinions on popular culture) has been repeated for the weekly program ''
Best Week Ever ''. VH1 has just introduced a new show to the line-up, called ''
I Love Toys '', which counts down the 100 best toys ever created.
VH1 also produces its "The Greatest" series, in which a similar format is used to count down lists like "The 50 Sexiest Video Moments", "100 Greatest Songs of Rock 'N' Roll", "100 Greatest Songs from the Past 25 Years", and "100 Greatest Kid Stars". In 2001,
Mark McGrath hosted VH1's miniseries "100 Most Shocking Moments of Rock and Roll History", which compiled a list of the moments in music history that changed its course and shook its foundations.
VH1 also touts its "CelebReality" programming block of reality shows featuring B- and C-list celebrities, anchored by ''
The Surreal Life '', which mimics
MTV 's ''
The Real World '', instead placing minor celebrities from the past into a living environment. The CelebReality block has also aired such shows like
Hogan Knows Best (
Hulk Hogan 's reality show)
Celebrity Fit Club (A show where celebrity B listers get in shape),
Flavor Of Love (A show where
Rapper Flavor Flav picks a lover out of multiple women) and
Strange Love (a program following the past relationship between
Brigitte Nielsen and
Flavor Flav ). The network also has a list of the "Awesomely Bad Songs" that made the artists' singles the worst. Different themes in this format include "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad No. 1 Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Dirty Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Metal Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Love Songs", "40 Most Awesomely Bad Breakup Songs" and "20 Most Awesomely Bad Songs of 2004".
It should be noted that the network does play music videos -- just like its sister network, MTV -- in the overnight hours. The overnight block was called ''Insomniac Music Theater'' until
August 2005 , when it was renamed ''Nocturnal State''.
Like MTV and Nickelodeon before them, VH1 also launched spinoff digital networks as part of '''The Suite From MTV''. Initially, four VH1 spinoff networks were formed, which were:
- music videos, movies, and concert footage.
- video outlet and sibling network to CMT , which became less dependent on music videos starting in the 2000s.
- videos from throughout VH1's history, from the 80's to the 00's.
- music videos from yesterday and today.
- VH1 Uno : A mix of Latin pop, rock, and traditional ballads, Tropical, Salsa and Merengue music.
On June 30, 2005, VH1 Mega Hits was replaced by
LOGO , Viacom's channel targeted toward the
Gay and
Lesbian community, because of low viewership and the guaranteed channel spectrum to launch LOGO in as many households as possible without having to negotiate channel carriage.
Since March (April for Optus customers) 2004, VH1 has been available in
Australia on
Foxtel ,
Optus Television and
Austar .
The
Portuguese-language version of the channel was launched in
Brazil on November 21st 2005. However, VH1 Soul is available to
Digital Cable subscribers since 2004.
VH1
Europe broadcasts from London to
Continental Europe . The line-up mainly consists of documentaries, including series like '
The Fabulous Life Of ...' and 'The Rise and Rise Of...'. Most strands of programming identical to VH-1 UK, but with different schedules and advertisements.
VH-1 Classic Europe is also available to many viewers and is, at present, entirely devoid of advertisements, with round-the-clock music videos.
During the mid-1990s, a
German-language version of VH-1 was broadcast, featuring more adult music than MTV, and using the original 1985 US logo. It proved unsuccessful and eventually had to make way for a mobile-content teen channel called
MTV2 Pop .
Launched on December 1, 2005. The channel is aimed at people in
Poland over 25.
In December 2004, MTV
India and
Zee-Turner teamed up to bring VH1 to India. In India, VH1 will be a 24-hour pay channel that will cater to the 16–44 age group. General Manager Keertan Adyanthaya said it would be India's very own window to international music and lifestyle.
On
April 1 ,
2004 , VH1
Latin America joined
MTV and
Nickelodeon Latin America targeting audiences 25–49 years old. The
Spanish-language channel is tailored for the market and feature a mix of music and entertainment with local and international-recording artists, as well as original programming.
VH1
Latin America was launched in the second quarter of 2004 with its initial distribution in
Mexico via pay TV. The network is also to be made available throughout
Latin America with additional distribution to be announced.
See Also: VH1 UK
VH1 UK targets 25–44 years old, and has much of the same content as the main US channel. There are also two sister stations in the UK:
VH2 and
VH1 Classic .
VH1 Export is a version of VH1 UK available in the
Middle East ,
Africa (on
DStv and
Thailand , on UBC 33. In
Indonesia , VH1 programming also airs on MTV Indonesia at 5 and 7 pm, and on local terrestrial channels such as Jak-TV,
Jakarta , TV Borobudur,
Semarang , and Makassar TV,
Makassar (UHF21).
