Townsman cherguevvara twice posted this link in hopes of fostering discussion with no luck. That happens sometimes. Perhaps the fact that this 20/20 piece from 1980 on the bold, technological new age of rock videos went in so many directions that would become long-overgrown trails that it was difficult to break down the application of this clip to the futuristic guitar thread in which it first appeared. Watching it again, though, I think there’s a lot of meat to chew on, particularly around the question of What the hell happened to the Age of Rock Video?
Before getting to this theme, it must said that this clip contains scenes of Boss molestation and a primo Stevie Nicks, a laughable segment touting the high-tech promise of a fingerprint-laden Laserdisc, and a funny excerpt for a 1950s ad for a 45 player. The reporter also refers to Mike Nesmith‘s music as “fair to middlin’,” which is a criticism that’s not heard often enough for the one Monkee granted the Lennon Pass.
One of the well-known label execs—I think Clive Davis—doubts that this age of video rock will come to fruition because of issues of repeatability: “What would you want to watch repeatedly?” Davis, critic Dave Marsh, or the reporter eventually ask. Some survey conducted by Nesmith concluded that adults would watch music videos with porn and kids would watch them if they featured cartoons. My long-desired concept of PornMTV never took off, so clearly the actual answer would be “Not much.” Do even box sets of rare concert footage from legendary bands get played more than three times? I bought that Led Zeppelin box set of concert and rare tv performances from about 10 years ago, and although it’s a great collection, I don’t know that I’ve watched it more than three times.
The high-falutin’ video concept albums that the likes of Nesmith and Todd Rundgren had their eye on went nowhere. Not even CDs with bonus video content make much of a dent, do they? The video aspect often bogged down my computer, if I tried to watch it that way.
What happened to the age of rock video? Few cable television networks play videos. MTV abandoned them altogether, and VH1 only features the same two dozen “Best of the ’80s” clips. Videos, as easily accessed on YouTube and other websites, have become a worthwhile means for sampling new music, but the rock video as a distinct art form never approached its destiny as PornMTV. Or did it?
It seems to me that rock videos allowed artists to tap into our culture’s need for morality plays and appreciation of the cult of personality. Their use as artistic add-ons to musical expression have beeen close to nil.
Although the dream of a station dedicated to nothing but videos of the likes of Madonna freely expressing herself to the sound of her latest single never came to fruition, major artists increasingly followed her lead in using a new video to launch a publicity campaign. Janet Jackson wanted to let you know that she’d lost weight (again) and was ready to kick ass and find a new man after having been done wrong by her last one, so she releases a video showing off her temporarily buff body while surrounded by extremely buff male models paid to oogle over her. People and Rolling Stone magazine cover stories follow! The new love of her life is seen clutching her boobs! Her new album charts.
Courtney Love couldn’t get arrested for her music so she…gets herself arrested and booted from public places for a variety of nasty public displays, whines some more about her dead husband, and releases a new video in which the put-upon star is fed up with all the media attention over her difficult personal life. Next thing you know, as her musical career gets some attention, she’s appearing as tarted up as possible in whatever glossy will have her. Similarly, Amy Winehouse scores one hit song about her dedication to drugs and makes a media career out of being a trainwreck.
And I don’t mean to pick on the ladies for their reliance on videos to promote their latest PR angle in print media more than to promote their music, per se. Really, what has time proved more important to our culture: the music of Eminem or the intricate morality play of the hip-hop Mogli?
From his album titles through his videos Kanye West positions himself as a young, gifted, educated African American artist who still struggles with hip-hop’s deepest issues of street cred. As a result of this campaign, he’s ingratiated himself with a broad enough audience to forgive him for occasionally acting like a complete ass. That’s just him struggling to overcome his cultural upbringing, you know, he actually went to college. An eventual in-depth, thoughtful interview with Barbara Walters will reassure fans that he “means well.” Justin Timberlake has also structured his career, through the help of sexy, “race-bending” videos with the broader intent of arriving at his current status as a Multitalented Entertainer.
Surely I’m painting with broad strokes and likely overlooking some truly groundbreaking uses of rock videos. There’s nothing wrong with any of this, really, to extend one’s general celebrity. My point is that, among major music figures, rock videos have been more tied into building an artist’s cult of personality than music appreciation. Imagine how quickly The Beatles would have splintered if John Lennon could have used rock videos to play out his public therapy sessions and heal his childhood wounds through increased attention and adoration? Imagine the run of “done-wrong” videos that Aretha Franklin could have made, setting up crash diets, Life magazine cover shots, and chats with Johnny Carson—and sparing the world the need to actually listen to and feel the emotions expressed within her songs?
I so want a reel-to-reel player for my office (the ipad playing my Cheap Trick channel on Pandora.com is just not the same)
Just try to find a music video on TV. MTV? nope VH1? nope VH1 classic? They show some of the obvious 80’s kitch videos sometimes….this week they have been showing Rocky III, which unless it’s in tribute to the band Survivor, makes no sense at all.
Music videos on the computer? lame (same for “smart phone”) BUY them on itunes for $2.99??? nope
The bands (mostly) hate them, they fence the song into an era (80’s hair, Hammer Pants, a Fiero, full length leather coat, Charvel guitar). Do you know of any band that has anything but distain for thier video career?
John Melencamp recently directed a video for Bob Dylan and Bob said “don’t make me look like an idot”. John said that videos make EVERYONE look like an idot… in his case an idoit with that mullet / pompadour haircut and white socks with loafers…stuck in 1985.
The video was the only way to get into the elite “MTV club” and get your song on the elite “MTV playist”. There was not really anywhere else to go if you were trying to be a big band. So you were stuck making a super-lame 4 minute video commerical to sell your 4 minute single (which was a commerical for your new LP…which was mostly selling on a lame cassette)
OK, so we’re supposed to watch fios, cable or satellite tv for hours waiting for a good video to come on, when we can just go online?
Internet Killed the Video Star.
That should have been the title of this piece!
Maybe the mating of music and visuals has to lead back to the difficult, for me, genre of the musical. Tonight I finally watched Dancer in the Dark, and although I wish Gus Van Sandt could have taken over the “real-time” parts of the film, the musical segments were really cool. The film’s role as a commentary on musicals was effective as well.
Bjork was perfect for this unreal role; her “Human Behavior” video has always been one of my favorites in that stunted genre. So much of the movie is preposterous, but isn’t that usually the case in musicals? I couldn’t have handled most of that music on its own terms, but coupled with the visuals it was effective. The way songs emerged from the “natural” sounds of the story was a good move.
What’s that Australian film with Nicole Kidman and Ewen (sp?) McWhatever? That movie was surprisingly amazing. It took what was promising about rock videos and brought it back into the film world.
I was curious to see Dancer in the Dark for a few reasons, including the promise of it being “good-bad” and featuring one of my favorite good-bad movie devices: blind acting. The movie was too unusual to be good-bad, and Bjork resisted overdoing the bad blind acting that I was expecting, but there was one awesome surprise: DAVID MORSE aka Hack, Hollywood’s greatest sad-sack actor and a relative giant among the tiny acting community. He always looks like he’s 6′ 4″ in films, but one day I got on an elevator with him and he was like 5′ 11″. Morse played his typical sad-sack man-in-uniform part to a T. The Swedish (?) actor from Fargo was also in the movie, to my surprise. He’s another great sad-sack character actor.
I believe you are referring to Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge.”
Remember in school when the teacher would show a movie or a film strip (!!!!)? It was exciting, it was visual. I think a lot of people are easily seduced by the lure of the visual. But for the visual to have longer lasting effects, there needs to be substance, whether by relaying a story, having a point, being conceptual in some way. So music videos, although interesting and often fun to watch, often ended up being just further examples of eye candy. Maybe they got you to admire the looks of the artist, or the conceptual style of the director. I don’t think music videos were meant to last – they were meant as promotional materials, either for the artist or the director. How often did they get you to focus on the music making itself????
You could say that Disney’s 1940 “Fantasia” is an example of early music video. I love that film, even if so much of it is dated in style. The segment that depicts Bach’s “Tocatta and Fugue” really does highlight the music, both form and sound, but as a kid, it was the segment I enjoyed the least.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9qsC2kEtGE
Yes, and his earlier movie, Ballroom Dancing (?) was also surprisingly good.
By the way, the parenthetical segment of jungleland2’s comments here:
Still have me laughing.
Funny, David Morse’s bio lists his height as 6’4″. Maybe he was rehearsing for the role of a shorter guy when you saw him.
This was during the peak weeks of Hack, which shot plenty of scenes in Philly. If it was him – and I’m a big fan of his mediocre, sad-sack work – he was the exact size as chickenfrank. chick’s no sad-sack, so I couldn’t have confused Morse with him.
Strictly Ballroom!
Yes, that’s the name. As that movie started I wanted to kill myself, but then it actually became good!
It’s still one of my favorites. Tina Sparkle is a household name here.
For better or worse I lived this era as a high school student / would-be rock star. I had a Firebird not a Fiero (at 6’4 with big hair the Fiero was out) sub ibanez bass for Charvel guitar and I basically described myself
By the way, that 20/20 segment is hilarious. I mean, you’d think they were explaining nuclear science at moments. “Hmm…music + visuals….let’s try that out and see what happens…”
If we can’t laugh at ourselves, jungleland2, we’ve got no business in the Halls of Rock! Thanks.