A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR, ITUNES KILLED THE VIDEO STAR? The announcement of this year's MTV Video Music awards nominees (led by Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" and Lady Gaga's "Poker Face") leads to an interesting question--is the music video dead? As recently as 10 years ago, videos could drive someone to radio and multimedia superstardom--does anyone think Britney would have the career she's had without the "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video? Sometimes, now, things will go viral--sometimes mainstream ("Single Ladies" and its parodies and homages) and sometimes less so ("Here It Goes Again")--but it's hard to think of a bunch of recent artists who are defined and "broken out" by their videos the way Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna, and even some early 90s rockers like Green Day were. The last one I can think of where the music video was a big factor in breaking the artist was Pussycat Dolls taking "Don't Cha" up the charts. Given that YouTube has turned into a massive repository of music videos, it seems safe to say that the format isn't dead, but why does it seem to be? What's taking its place? Music video games? Use of music in TV shows? Something else entirely? I'm not sure, but I'm guessing you'll have some thoughts.