That Eric Alper

Witnessing the rotting corpse of Taylor Swift climb her way out of a grave in the What You Made Me Do promo could lead one to believe that the music video has made little progress since the far more innovative Michael Jackson’s industry-transforming Thriller video in 1983.

The music world in which Swift’s zombies drag their way around, however, is light years away from the MTV-era dominated by Michael Jackson and his peers. MTV’s power has been on the decline for some time, as a result of social media and the internet at large. As opposed to falling by the wayside, however, the music video has grown and formed an inevitable partnership with the world wide web.

“Taylor Swift” (CC BY 2.0) by Dvincleo

The video for What You Made Me Do is indeed in many ways reminiscent of Thriller, but it has something else going for it: it betrays the degree of change that has occurred since legendary director John Landis turned the Jackson song into a 14-minute featurette.

Thriller won three awards at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. This year saw the VMAs (the common abbreviation of the awards show) continue the trend of declining viewing figures, with its lowest ever ratings.

How much longer MTV will commit to the VMAs is unclear. The channel itself, however, which began in 1981 as a vehicle for new music stars to promote their music, has already significantly cut down on its programming. Taking a different path, it has built on the success of early docu-soaps, such as The Osbournes and The Real World, and is now focusing its core programming on reality TV.

“MTV Video Music Awards sign” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by j1myi

As such, the natural destination for Look What You Made Me Do is on the web. Rather than being seen as a downgrade for MTV’s indifference, the power of such platforms as YouTube create more exposure than its cable TV playlisting ever could.

While MTV was responsible for introducing the early work of such auteurs as Jonathan Glazer, Chris Cunningham, Mark Romance, Anton Corbijn, Michael Gondry, Spike Jonze, and David Fincher, that responsibility now lies in the hands of YouTube, along with other such sites as Vimeo, to provide a space for new talent wishing to push the boundaries of the music video.

The internet has had a remarkable impact upon numerous industries and continues to change the shape of commerce and how consumers interact with their daily lives. While music fans used to have to stay home to watch music entertainment, they can now view their favorite music videos on-demand through their mobile device.

The same can be said for the television industry as a whole, with the likes of Netflix and Amazon now often favoured over live or scheduled viewing. Many of the broadcast shows are available to watch online and have created a culture of binge-watching, with audiences unable to get enough of their favorite shows.

Other forms of entertainment, such as gaming, have also found a home online. Now, iGamers can visit a site such as Bonus.ca and choose from a number of online casinos, featuring some of the best bonuses in Canada. Many of the offers are exclusive to that particular website and offer multiple means of payment, so bitcoin players and cash players alike can enjoy playing a whole host of casino games. Bitcoin, an increasingly popular currency, can also be used to make purchases in a number of music stores in Canada.

The shift from the MTV playlist means that producers are no longer obliged to create content simply to meet demand, but are now able to produce videos for their followers. This has resulted in some innovative work serving very specific markets, such as the recent Arca videos and their exploration of male vulnerabilit

Source: Pexels

In the early 2000s, or even further back – when accessing the internet required time, patience and perseverance – the world wide web was reserved for the wealthy families and businesses well off enough to afford it. Back then, just 361 million people around the globe had access to the internet. After all, while computers may have existed at companies for a while, home computers were still a relatively new phenomenon and were yet to become affordable. Plus, dial-up modems and other primitive internet equipment – that often made necessities of that time such as home phones useless –  were still expensive.

Over the next decade though, computers became far more affordable as they evolved while internet packages became as accessible as other home necessities like television cable and mobile phone contracts. By 2010, 1.7 billion people around the world had access to the internet, and by 2015 the number had passed over a billion. Now, 40% of the world’s population is able to access the internet with ease.

Needless to say, this change has affected almost every part of our everyday lives. For example, it has changed the way we spend our leisure time and have fun. Instead of watching the same five TV channels or reading the same books repeatedly, we have access to millions of TV shows, movies and novels using sites like Netflix and Amazon Kindle.

Arguably one the most successful online industries is gaming, with online casinos attracting millions of users looking for easy, attainable yet entertaining fun each and every day. In fact, online poker operator 888poker receives over 200,000 unique visitors looking to play table games and slots from North America, Europe and Brazil alone according to Alexa. Poker and its variants – which include Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo – is incredibly popular online, as online casino operators have adopted almost every part of the internet’s ever-evolving capabilites, including interactive play, live dealer poker games and even worldwide poker tournaments that people can get involved in from their very own homes.

Source: Pexels

Meanwhile, if we’re looking to buy something we no longer have to even leave the house as most shops offer online services and home delivery, while sites like Amazon and eBay have created huge empires based on e-commerce. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, individuals can now even take free or cheap courses to educate themselves in how this new, modern world functions at sites like Udacity and Team Treehouse, both of which offer courses in everything from web development to games design.

Of course, the fact that the internet is now a necessity available in 40% of the population’s homes has also changed the music industry. Like games, shopping and online education, music is more accessible and affordable than ever. Occasionally this is considered a bad thing depending on who you ask, as the music industry is simply unable to make money like it used to since the internet’s creation. However, for consumers, the internet has made music more interesting than ever, as sites like iTunes and Amazon allow you to purchase just one song you like instead of an entire album. Plus, sites like Pandora and Spotify are incredibly popular, allowing listeners to stream entire music catalogues and pay for ad-free experiences.

Right now, the internet is a part of many of our everyday lives, but where will it go from here? It appears that the days of desktops and even laptops are coming to an end as consumers look for cheaper, portable platforms. As the latter gain popularity, the internet will be even more accessible than ever, so we can expect the number of households with internet access to grow significantly. Really, it seems as though the days of the internet as a luxury are officially over, and it has now become a necessity in our day-to-day lives.