Music videos have always been fuelled by commercial interest. There is the possibility that a music video will be a potential customer's first exposure to such artists, so an explicit visual depiction of the band's [or record company's] ideology, however vulgar or profane, is incredibly valuable and more powerful than the music alone in selling the artist. In the case of most popular music, the image of an artist is of equal importance to the music itself. This is equal both to so-called 'indie' bands like the Arctic Monkeys, who play on an image of 'amateurity' (I believe I just invented a word) and 'undergroundness' (I'm on a roll...), bad haircuts and all, as it is to the latest flash-in-the-pan, chain-hang-low pop rap act. Everyone has an image to sell, be it of South-Central L.A. gangsta, hip 'bohemian' Andy Warhol wannabe, or mysterious teutonic Kraftwerk disciple in black turtleneck...
The days when record sleeves contained little more than text and frilly graphic details ended soon after Thomas Edison died. We now have a multiplicity of graphic and video forms representing contemporary music. Video clips are just one of them, but all have a commercial (and ideological) function.
I'm surprised this seems so new to some people.
1 comment:
I like that you snuck in a reference to yourself, the enlightened disciple that you are.
I really don't like this courier font.
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