The role video is playing in music is clearly changing. Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ has already topped the charts around the world. NOW she gives us a video. Same with several prominent videos in recent times. Eminem and Rihanna didn’t REALLY get together, for the video, until AFTER ‘Love The Way You Lie’ had become a runaway hit. So what’s the rationale here?
It used to be that music video clips were made to save artists from appearing on every television show going to promote their latest release – when there were still television shows to appear on. Video didn’t kill the radio star. It killed the music star. We saw them more often, mouthing their songs accompanied by eye candy often so memorable we talked about “seeing” someone’s new song. But we stopped seeing them in their raw state. Live performances on video and on television shows became boring.
But I digress.
Videos USED to promote songs. If you create a high profile big budget video for a song with already proven sales traction what’s the purpose? It HAS to be to promote the artist rather than the song, to make them more famous than they already are. For what purpose? Isn’t Lady Gaga’s video going deflect our attention AWAY from her song? We might look at the video again and again. Will we want to buy the song – if we haven’t already – to play the song again and again? Playing the audio has been made a partial experience.
In Lady Gaga’s case the strategy MIGHT be to raise our expectation for the album waiting for release. Maybe. Hasn’t the music industry destroyed the album’s pride of place as the artist’s ultimate gift to their fans – a body of work in a collectable package?
For some time we’ve been in an era of fame for fame’s sake. The music itself is a sideshow, the bait when there’s bigger fish to fry. Sponsorship. Merchandizing. Get a hit. Make a video to raise the artist’s profile even further, with product placement if possible. Create a platform from which to sell merchandise. How did someone who can hold a tune – not that all of them can – suddenly become a fashion designer or perfume mixer? More dollars in that than the pittance iTunes has forced the music industry down to.
And yet those top music artists are making much more money than music artists ever made. It ain’t just about music any more.
For artists who ARE about music the video still serves the traditional purpose. Go visit YouTube. But where do you start? And how long with that forum last before it goes the way of MySpace?
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
The Waifs (Temptation): There’s more to music than struttin’ and dancin’ and posin’. There’s self-expression, emotion, melody and performance. There’s the Waifs.
ED SAID 