Now our lives are changing fast: music videos, everyday curation & the digital deluge

This thesis traces how the form and reception of the music video have changed as the video has migrated from its original mainstream home (television, and specifically MTV) to the internet. It examines how the evolution of digital life of the U.S. over the last two decades (give or take) can be traced through these changes – how we have come to use chunks of media to communicate our own messages, beyond those contained in the media themselves, and how we are navigating a superfluity of media. Through interviews and scenes from different corners of the music video industry, as well as historical context, a bit more of the author’s personal experiences than was strictly necessary, and even a bit of new media theorizing, this thesis offers specialists and generalists alike a means to view their interactions with music videos as representative of our era’s distinctive techniques of aesthetic, cultural and technological communication.