Music Video: 2nd epoch?
Boring people have bemoaned the lack of videos on MTV for nigh on a decade. I am home visiting my parents, digital cable subscribers, and obsessed with the Tube network. The station shows nothing but music videos with only the sparse interruption of minimally designed advertisements for the Tube’s website. (There appears to have been a strange trend in the videos of white rock artists in the 80s depicting them playing to all black audiences; John Melloncamp being the worst offender. Awkward!)
In addition to the Tube, I stayed up all night watching VH1 Island Soul. Who knew than Ini Kamoze made a video for Here Comes The Hotstepper? It’s interesting to note which aspects of USA/BET videomaking are taken up by the JA artists. Assassin rocks chains, shades, and a fitted in Gully Sit’n but the images of people in shantytown situations is quite unlike what we typically see in stateside vids.
Showing off the dancing appears to be a shared value among dancehall directors (check Elephant Man - Pon de river.) I don’t see as many jump cuts or extreme close-ups as in hip-hop videos, excepting snap music. The kids concur. We want more dancing in our videos! Check these youtube searches: dutty wine, shoulder lean.
So it now seems less of a gamble to make a music video with the new delivery systems: youtube, myspace, extended cable networks, democracy player, street DVDs.* VJ Pixel rocks a party with all free software.
I always assumed that high production costs and minimal distribution options limited the possibility for music video. Perhaps we are finally seeing people hurdle these obstacles.
*(Mobile devices intentionally left absent. Music vids on phones is a novelty and the primary audience for iPod video is pocket lint. Real talk.)
November 25th, 2006 at 10:27:50 (PST -04:00)
Voicemail feat. Ding Dog
“Who let the dogs out?” quality.
November 28th, 2006 at 20:45:17 (PST -04:00)
thanks for the Ini Kamoze link. Guy looks so uncomfortable and nervous!
November 28th, 2006 at 20:46:06 (PST -04:00)
Forgot to add I think he’s riding the J train past my apartment in brooklyn..