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Posts Tagged “MUSIC VIDEOS”

57 channels (and no music videos on)

The Soundtrack Channel Brings John Williams, Johnny Lee, And That Smashmouth Guy Together

Those of you who still lament the lack of music-video-related programming on your cable system, and think that whoever you're paying for TV programming will listen to your complaints about this fact, might want to take a shot in the dark and ask the customer-service department to add The Soundtrack Channel to its ranks. As I discovered last night, it's a music-video channel that has but one requirement for a song to get airtime: Inclusion on a movie soundtrack. No, really. That's it. In the time I've spent watching it last night and this morning, I've seen videos by the likes of Gavin Rossdale (from XXX), Johnny Lee (from Urban Cowboy), John Williams (duh, of course!), and the very young MC Elijah. And perhaps predictably, I've also caught Smashmouth's "All Star"—the video is a tie-in with Mystery Men, although really, this channel could probably have an entire hour of scenes set to that song. (And after programming it, a videotape could be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay for "interrogation assistance" purposes.) More »

3:00 PM on Mon Oct 20 2008
By Maura Johnston
240 views, 6 comments

Latest by Kate Richardson: Oh my God, that's awesome. That Johnny Lee song is one of my faves. more »

everybody bloats... sometimes

Five Videos That Are More Bloated Than A Belly After A Beer-And-Fries Binge

Today's completely dubious claim about why an arm of the music industry might be hurting comes from Wired's Scott Thill, who wrote in response to R.E.M.'s new, ad-agency-created video for "Man-Sized Wreath": "Music videos aren't dead, they're just dying, and they're dying because of bloated videos like 'Everybody Hurts.' When fans can use their favorite songs to make their amateur films without fear of losing their comparatively miniscule cookie jars, then the new age of promotional video will be here at last." Say what? More »

11:00 AM on Thu Jun 26 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,196 views, 21 comments

Latest by TheMojoPin: @StuntKockSteeev: Wow, "Victory" is epic fail on a massive scale. These other videos might be "bloated," but they're at least remembered. People know what they are as soon you mention them...but "Victory?" I probably saw that a hundred times when it more »

big questions

What Purpose Do Music Videos Serve In 2008?


"Let's Get Really Meta About Everything Because It's Hot Out Week" continues on Idolator, with the attention paid to music in the present day and the willingness of people to experience concerts without obsessively documenting every second giving way to the meaning of music videos in 2008 via a thinky piece by James at Shots Ring Out. He points out that the medium has effectively been exiled from most programming hours, garnered the dubious currency of "Internet-attention money" for YouTube hits, and become a "loss leader for a loss leader" in the minds of record executives—in other words, their previous status as a promotional tool for albums is hurting them, since physical product once made money on its own but is now seen by many people (at least, the people who think about music instead of bilssfully ignoring it) as promotional material for touring, merchandise, and other unpirateable things. More »

5:30 PM on Mon Jun 9 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,696 views, 12 comments

Latest by the sieve: My enjoyment of music seems to have improved greatly since I've stopped watching music videos. (Who has time?) I find that when your perception isn't coloured by the aesthetic choices of the band/label/director, you enjoy the music more for what it more »

"The music video, is the loss leader for the record label - the thing that they pay for (and make zero money from) to promote the music, the other loss leader. You can see why music video budgets are shrinking - the money the labels have is shrinking AND the music video process is now even one more step removed from the profits. Music videos where never profitable for labels on their own, but at least they helped the core business - they helped sell records. Now?" [30frames]

4 comments

closings

Music-Video Network Goes Down The Tubes

The music-videos-and-nothing-else channel The Tube—which was carried on enough digital-television substations and digital-cable systems to garner it 95 MySpace pals—ceased operations last week, citing "financial limitations" that presumably resulted from the channel's refusal to show advertising catnip like "reality" shows and dating competitions. (Hey, even Fuse had to kowtow to the power of Pants Off Dance Off, although at least that's sorta music-related.) More »

10:40 AM on Thu Oct 11 2007
By mjohnston
534 views, 9 comments

"MTV was never great. It was flawed from inception and I'm glad it's gone. It didn't go away simply because MTV sold out: it went away because it sucked. Watching hours of videos to finally see the one you wanted is a patently ludicrous idea in this day and age. Labels paying money so a channel can tell us what we should be watching: who the hell decided this is some sort of ideal to champion? The internet has opened us up to control, and having control is much better than channel churning the same video cycle all week long. Nobody would like a television that didn't let you change the channel." [Shots Ring Out]

12 comments

music videos

Logo: An MTV Network That Still Plays Music Videos (Albeit Videos With More Drag Queens)


When a press release with a Hilary Duff mention in its headline crosses the Idolator tele-type machine, it's hard not to take notice. When the same press release mentions the "Next Generation of Dance Music," even better. When I have no idea who half the artists mentioned are, it seems worth investigating. While MTV, MTV2, and VH1 dedicate themselves to a race to the reality-show bottom, the digital cable channel Logo is playing quite a bit of music each day, although some of it might not be familiar to those who haven't made it to a gay dance club in awhile. More »

3:09 PM on Mon Jul 30 2007
By dangibs
994 views, 9 comments

Latest by the rich girls are weeping: @chrisb: Yeeeeah, The Big Gay Sketch Show is pretty terrible, but I thought it was because I loathe sketch comedy in most of its terrible forms. Also, I just noticed that Rufus Wainwright's on the playlist too -- including Mika and more »

music videos

A Desperate Music Industry Asks: Where Will We Find The Next Brett Ratner?

The last few years have not been good ones for music-video directors: Budgets and screen sizes have shrunk, and most high-profile gigs seem to be going to already established feature-film directors (even bad ones). And the filmmakers who do get recognized have to deal with some dickard rushing the stage and trying to hog all the glory. More »

3:50 PM on Mon Apr 23 2007
By Brian Raftery
685 views, 3 comments

the idolawyer

The IdoLawyer: Will Justin Timberlake Get What's Coming To Him?

Editor's note: Aside from a few Clash lyrics, your Idolators know nothing about the law. Which is why we're proud to introduce the IdoLawyer, an anonymous California attorney who will be weighing in on various music-related matters. While her column isn't intended as legal advice, it is sage advice nontheless, and we've asked her to take on a dilemma that's been bugging us for weeks: Is Justin Timberlake above the law? More »

2:47 PM on Mon Mar 5 2007
By Brian Raftery
2,229 views, 3 comments

music videos

James Cameron Adds An Extra Dimension Of Incomprehensibility To "Wind It Up" Video

An article from today's New York Times looks at music videos' experimentation with 3-D: More »
music videos

A Clipped Future: Will YouTube Kill The Music Video Star?

Sure, YouTube's stuttery bandwidth issues may cause the above clip, by ex-Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson, to look a bit lo-fi, but it was in fact shot entirely with a cell phone. Shots Ring Out's James November uses the clip as a springboard into the current state of the music-video industry, and
his conclusions aren't pretty: More »

3:31 PM on Wed Nov 15 2006
By mjohnston
40 views, 3 comments

paris hilton

Paris' DUI Arrest: Blame It On, Like, Working

The post-Paris period for Paris Hilton keeps getting rougher. After suffering the indignities of having 500 copies of her album doctored and being turned into a zoological specimen by a record reviewer, she was arrested for drunk driving early this morning in Los Angeles. According to her PR representative, the true culprit behind Paris' .08 blood alcohol level was the work behind flogging the second single from her album; she'd spent the whole day deprived of sleep and food, in the heat, shooting a music video. Thankfully, TMZ captured some of this exploitation on tape — honestly, after saying "Nice dog" ten times in a row, who wouldn't want a cocktail or four? More »

10:18 AM on Thu Sep 7 2006
By mjohnston
89 views, Comment

videodrone

Videodrone: Ludacris, "Money Maker"


Complain all you want about the state of hip-hop, but it's the only Top-40 music genre that opens its doors to the homely. Granted, T.I. and Pharrell are pretty boys, but none of the successful male rappers of the past year (Dem Franchise Boyz, Three 6 Mafia, Lil Jon) are going to be confused for male models anytime soon. In fact, looking like a wet rat is probably Kevin Federline's only shred of hip-hop credibility. More »

6:04 PM on Thu Aug 17 2006
By Brian Raftery
97 views, Comment

videodrone

Videodrone: Under the Influence of Giants, "Mama's Room"


Granted, they're from LA, so you have to expect some level of art-direction inspidness, but honestly—where to begin? With the awkwardly inserted back-up dancers? The bearded, headband-sporting bassist? The gaudy-and-not-in-a-good-way neon lighting? It's a decent enough song (a little Scissor Sisters, sure, but we like the Scissor Sisters), so why make a video that looks like a soft-porn Garnier ad? More »

4:55 PM on Tue Aug 15 2006
By Brian Raftery
20 views, Comment

neil young

Neil Young and Al Gore Get Into The Fake-News Game

Neil Young has an odd track record with music videos: He won a 1989 VMA for "This Note's For You," a pop-culture satire that, in retrospect, was only mildly funnier than "Eat It." Now his website is now streaming seven new clips for his Living With War album, including the coma-inducing "After The Garden," which combines a faux-CNN set-up ("The LWW Network"—get it?) and footage from An Inconvenient Truth. Meaning that, in twenty-five years of MTV, we've gone from Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk to Al Gore filling out EPA reports (not that this would get any play on MTV, but still). We're all for anything that's going to give Michelle Malkin a major cow, but come on: If you want to make a video that will teach the kids about the terrors of global warming, you're going to need Justin Timberlake, Spike Jonze, and a bunch of sad-looking penguins.

4:50 PM on Mon Aug 14 2006
By Brian Raftery
15 views, Comment

muppets

YOUTUBE-TIED: THE MUPPETS MEET OZZY

Forget what we said earlier about John Peel: When it comes to hanging out with debauched rock stars, no one can touch the Muppets. In the thirty years since their TV debut, they've shared the stage with the likes of Alice Cooper, Elton John, Rivers Cuomo and, of course, Jim Nabors. But nothing can prepare you for this 1994 YouTube oddity, in which Kermit and the gang inexplicably cover the Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy"—a full six years after the song came out. Joining them in this ill-advised attempt at a young, "hip" audience are Ozzy Osbourne, Harry Connick Jr., Little Richard, David Hasselhoff, and some woman who looks a hell of a lot like Camille Paglia. Look for the awkward Demi Moore-Bruce Willis moment, in which they don sailors' caps and sing in what looks like an RV kitchen. So painful. More »

11:43 AM on Fri Jun 23 2006
By Brian Raftery
371 views, Comment