MuchMusic
MuchMusic (often called
Much) is a 24-hour national
Canadian cable music and
variety television channel based in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada, which debuted on
August 31,
1984 as one of the first Canadian cable
specialty channels on the air. The channel was originally developed and programmed by
John Martin and
Moses Znaimer. Presently, the channel is controlled by
CHUM Limited, a major Canadian media conglomerate. Its sister music stations are
MuchMoreMusic,
MusiquePlus, and
MusiMax.
The first video played on MuchMusic was
Rush's "The Enemy Within".
 |
The CHUM-City Building, home of Much |
Making use of CHUM's facilities and production teams, the channel has produced many specialty musical and variety programs, including the long-running dance program
Electric Circus and the late-1980s game show
Test Pattern, and it adopted some programs originally created for CHUM such as
City Limits, which featured
alternative videos.
The network airs three weekly viewer voting programs,
MuchOnDemand,
MuchTakeOver and
Combat Zone.
MuchMusic is well-known for its annual music awards show every June. It is anticipated and promoted for weeks before the night of the
MMVAs.
It has been credited with helping to foster a vibrant Canadian music scene simply by following the
Canadian content broadcast rules which guaranteed native musical acts had a secure and prominent place on the channel's play schedule. It also produced the popular album series
Big Shiny Tunes and MuchDance.
Controversy
It ran afoul of Canadian broadcast regulators in the early 1990s when it aired the animated series
Ren and Stimpy; it was forced to take the program off the air on the basis that it was not a music-based program as per the network's licence.
The network also generated controversy by occasionally banning videos it deemed too racy or violent for broadcast (MTV also weathered similar controversy). Often, the network would broadcast banned videos as part of a
Too Much 4 Much special, followed by discussion with viewers and concerned groups about why the video should or shouldn't be aired (but rarely would videos be unbanned). On the flipside, the worst videos of the year would also be featured in annual New Year's specials entitled
Fromage (
French for "
cheese").
In recent years, particularly with the brief arrival of MTV on Canadian digital cable, the influence of MuchMusic has waned, and the channel has had to weather criticism that it focuses too much on "top 40" acts and imported MTV "reality shows" like
Newlyweds and
Pimp My Ride, thereby not giving enough time to smaller, independent, and Canadian performers. But 2005 saw the premiere of
Video on Trial, which quickly became the network's highest-rated show while featuring
Canadian comedians and personalities almost exclusively as music video "judges".
Much remains a popular station for young viewers, although older audiences have largely moved to
MuchMoreMusic.
Every year or so, when new
video jockeys are needed, Much will run a "
VJ Search" to pick one new VJ to join the team of VJs. They will usually visit cities across Canada and pick people who appear to show potential through their audition. In earlier years, the VJ Search was usually a two-part show, but in 2006 it evolved into its own reality series.
Despite the popularity of the VJ Search, most VJs are still hired by Much directly, without being Search contestants.
|
Logo used from 1992 to 1996 |
The first logo for MuchMusic when it first began was a big
M with
Muchmusic boxed in the centre of the M. In
1992, the logo was slightly redesigned as a big
M with a small
m inside the outline, with the word
Muchmusic below the logo. In
1996, the current logo was designed with a black-and-white Much superimposed on a planet with longitude/latitude lines on the surface. The logo change was to portray MuchMusic as more modern and youthful.
MuchMusic was launched in part to capitalize on the success of
MTV, the American cable music channel that had premiered a few years earlier. Although never an affiliate, Much would often broadcast MTV-produced programming such as awards shows and concerts. MTV itself was not permitted in Canada due to
CRTC restrictions on format protection. However, no such restrictions existed in the
United States, where CHUM attempted to compete with MTV through
MuchUSA (now the unaffiliated
Fuse).
Perhaps owing to this, MTV was unwilling to extend its relationship with MuchMusic longer than necessary, and was involved in not one but two attempts to launch a competing
MTV Canada channel. The first such channel was in fact bought by CHUM but was quickly stripped of its MTV programming by Viacom (it is now known as
Razer). The second version of the channel, owned by
CTV, launched in early 2006.
Within English Canada, MuchMusic's
spinoff channels include
MuchMoreMusic,
MuchVibe,
MuchLOUD,
MuchMoreRetro, and
PunchMuch.
The MuchMusic brand and format has been licensed to other channels in Canada and abroad, including:
*
French Canada —
MusiquePlus, based in
Montreal,
Quebec; debuted in
1986*
United States —
MuchUSA debuted in
1994 was literally all MuchMusic programming until 2001. It became
Fuse in May 2003.
*
Argentina —
MuchMusic Argentina; launched in
1992*
Colombia —
Citytv Bogota, which airs some MuchMusic programming; launched in
1999*
Finland —
Jyrki a based segment which airs on
Alma Media's
MTV3*
Malaysia —
MuchMusic Malaysia; launched in
2000 *
Mexico —
MuchMusic Mexico is a segment on
Once TV, started in 2002
* In
2002,
Singapore's
RTV Broadcast Services began broadcasting content from
Citytv and MuchMusic
MuchMusic is
not related to a similar-sounding Spanish language music video channel in the US,
Mas Musica.
Current
Past
Current
*
Ed the Sock*
Nardwuar the Human Serviette*
Chris Nelson*
Devon Soltendieck*
Hannah Sung *
Sarah Taylor*
Matt Wells*
Leah Miller*
Matte Babel*
Hannah Simone*
Tim DeeganPast
On July 12, 2006,
Bell Globemedia announced they were to make a friendly takeover bid to buy CHUM Limited, with plans to maintain the Citytv system separate from its own CTV.
*
Official Site*
CHUM Limited Official Site*
CHUM Limited International Some source notes
*
MuchMusic Message Board*
Annual MuchMusic Video Awards Coverage @ TheGATE.ca
