We're far from the days of blockbuster music videos playing back-to-back on TV channels like MTV. Catchy hooks and sleek dance routines now dominate social media feeds, each hoping to stop people in their tracks long enough for them to give a new song a chance. The evolution of this landscape was cemented last year when MTV axed five music channels in the UK after almost 40 years of rolling footage.
But despite the broadcaster reacting to the changes in viewing habits, its Video Music Awards (VMAs) still appear to hold power over music A-listers. Pop music heavyweights, including Taylor Swift, Madonna and Charli XCX, were among those who turned up on Sunday to accept prizes and deliver dramatic performances. Cinematographer Melissa Cofie tells BBC Newsbeat that while these award shows "may seem very performative to others", they are "so important" to those in the music industry.
"The sleepless nights, the months, the weeks that it takes to put together a music video, it's almost as much work as you would put into a film itself," she says. But do music videos still hold the same importance for fans as they once did? Cofie, who has directed music videos, feels their purpose has evolved over the last couple of decades.
For her, they're more of a way to "connect with artists" and for them to express their vision, rather than a crucial part of their press run like they were in the 2000s. Pop stars like Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo are among those who still lean on videos heavily to build out the visual world for each of their albums' eras. Swift, who broke the record for most MTV VMA wins ever last weekend, is known for big budget productions which fans trawl through for Easter eggs - clues that could point to something else she has planned.
She also often enlists the help of her star-studded contact book, with her recent video for Opalite jam-packed with famous faces, including Graham Norton, Lewis Capaldi, Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson and Jodie Turner-Smith. However, the music video was released exclusively on Spotify and Apple Music in February, and did not appear on YouTube until 48 hours later. Industry analysts speculated at the time that the exclusivity period was due to a change in the US chart rules, where songs streamed on YouTube will no longer count towards the Top 100.
This change came into place in January, with YouTube saying it was ending its decade-long partnership with Billboard, external as it claimed the chart uses an "outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported". "This doesn't reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don't have a subscription," it added. And while most artists don't have Swift-level budgets to start with, this change may have further discouraged US artists' to throw a lot of money into creating elaborate music videos.
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