Impact.

The music video, in which short performances accompany and illustrate songs, appeared out of nowhere in the early 1980s to become the most influential — and the only new — art form of the decade. As advertisements for new recordings and as self-promotion for the artist, music videos captured the capitalist spirit of 1980s art. Artistically these videos were a mixed lot, ranging from electrifying to turgid. Most fell somewhere between these extremes — a typical video was a quirky, dreamlike montage of images (a "minimovie") designed to illustrate fantasies or approximate the live performances of the artist or band. In their cultural impact videos accomplished much more than advertising, making arguments about their overt commercialism of small consequence. The music video single-handedly revitalized the slumping recording industry, revolutionized television, expanded radio formatting, ignited the careers of dozens of unknown music performers, breathed...