Watching music videos muted

Watching music videos muted is a phenomenon that exists only in the United States and other countries with television programming containing music videos: Instead of watching the video for the music, (the basis for the artform), the videos are appreciated for their visual qualities alone; while viewers remain uninterested in the audio portion of the performance. Often the viewers are males who are attracted to the display of attractive female performers, and due to a perception of a lack of quality, perhaps, of the music, mute the sound.

This is a normal sociological reaction, some say, to the increasing trend in the music business to focus on visual appeal of artists, rather than the quality of the music. Critics say that the corporate music managers, over the course of logical and calculated business decisions, have sought to capitalize on the sex appeal of females in music videos rather than in choosing less profitable musicianship-based music.