Music: New Rock on a Red-Hot Roll

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Jackson's tape almost did not make the air, providing New Music with its first real controversy. Top black stars like Soul Singer Marvin Gaye and Funk Punk Rick James do not appear on MTV. The network claims that music, not skin tone, dictates air play: rock 'n' roll, not soul. Nonetheless, CBS/Records Group President Walter Yetnikoff reportedly threatened to pull his company's videos (including platinum groups Men at Work and Toto) off the channel unless MTV played Jackson. Still, Clive Davis says, "the current concession is tokenism."

The question of who gets on playlist matters, because videos have become all but compulsory for rock groups hoping to go gold. Robbie Grey of Modern English thinks MTV has exposed exotic groups to nationwide audiences. Says he: "There was a rea big buzz about us in places like Baton Rouge, La., and Lincoln, Neb. The band Journey sold a whopping 6 million copies of its last album Escape, without any clips, but it has made three for its current Frontiers anyway. Says Drummer Steve Smith: "We feel it's necessary just to be part of what's going on." The form also attracts talented directors who like to experiment with it. TV Commercial Specialist Bob Giraldi (Miller Lite, McDonald's) masterminded Beat It. Director Jay Dubin (Sony, Care-Free gum) is filming Billy Joel in a high-budget series of clips, including a variety-show spoof co-starring Model Christie Brinkley. Dubin wants to keep his micromovies lighthearted. Says he: "A lot of the clips are too heavy and self-indulgent." Performance Artist Laurie Anderson thinks that rock video is potentially exciting, but notes, "Much of it is just boys playing the guitar on the roof, boys playing the guitar in the shower. It's redundant."

Even though MTV may end this year several million dollars in the red, the experiment should eventually pay off. The channel now boasts four times as many commercials as it had last year. And there is already a growing flock of imitators. NBC will air Friday Night Videos, a 90-minute rock-tape fest starting later this month, and HBO now has Video Jukebox "LP." The Nashville Network is offering its 7 million subscribers videos of Conway Twitty, Barbara Mandrell and other country-and-western stars. Black Entertainment Television will program six weekly hours of soul and reggae clips. The Playboy Channel has a predictably unzipped approach to rock 'n' roll. Plans now include Banned in Britain (tapes the BBC would not air) and mildly steamy footage of a From Here to Eternity-style beach scene in Bowie's China Girl, expurgated for MTV censors.

Radio, in the form of the 300 album-oriented rock FM stations (AORS) across the country, is still more important to the industry than all of the cable companies combined. Record executives consider it by far the most powerful selling medium. In the late '70s, AOR stations had developed bland, unimaginative formats, courting affluent older listeners with golden oldies like Jethro Tull and the Doors. The play-it-safe programming stifled new sounds and new sales. Says Songwriter-Bassist John Crawford of the pop group Berlin: "Radio kept playing Stairway to Heaven [the decade-old Led Zeppelin tune]. Everybody already had that album. They weren't going to buy it again."