New Directions

As pop music diversified, different shows were invented (Granada's So It Goes 1976-77 and The Hit Man and Her 1988-92, C4's The Word 1990-95, etc) to cover the various individual styles of punk, new wave, power pop, disco reggae and rap. The growing importance of the pop video was also reflected in shows dealing exclusively with this new marketing tool, like C4's Max Headroom 1985-87 and The (ITV) Chart Show 1986-98. The most recent phenomenon has been the successful crossing of pop music with reality TV to create hybrids like Popstars (Granada from 2000), Fame Academy (BBC from 2002) and Pop Idol (19/Thames for ITV from 2001).