Do you remember when a pop video was big cheese? The days of MTV, when it still played music, and we were treated to “Money for Nothing” with the funny handle on the record player pulled back ( or so it seemed ), yes they did have more than one video. “take on me” Ah Ah. “Thriller”< Michael Jackson, “Sledgehammer”, Peter Gabriel, you can make your own list as well as I can. My favorite still has to be “Weapon of Choice”, Christopher Walken, who despite his name turns out was a great dancer
Those were the days when a good video could sell a mediocre record, not to say that any of the about records were mediocre.
Pop videos have been around for a long time, but were frequently seen as a disappointment. “Top of the Pops” ruled with semi live performances from rising artists of the day. We had the Top of the Pops Orchestra ( great version of a “Whole lot of love” ), the studio audience and the DJ made this a memorable piece of TV history. A band who failed to appear, often because they were on tour, or some such would result in being played a promo movie or video. If the song was no 1 to had to be played, if not it would defeat the title of the show. In addition if it was 10 weeks at number one the band would often refuse to some back every week.
But anyway, it was MTV what done it. I don’t remember much recycling of old promos, that would have to wait for VH1.
Technology is a fickle mistress, and now with the rise of the internet pretty much every video is available on YouTube.
No! Wait! Holy Lazarus! I’ve noticed now that when I put YouTube on autopilot and start to steam songs there a new phenomenon.
The classical YouTube video would be one of the following.
1. The original released video.
2. A picture of the album cover or similar and the sound track.
3. A rather shaky smartphone video from 300 paces with poor quality sound and vision. ( I don’t like )
4. A better quality live video, pro made for release.
5. A cover ( I like these ).
6. Some old tv footage ( Top or the Pops ) ( Beat Club ( I like these ))
7. An old video with poor sound resynched to the released sound track.
8. The new kid on the block. These are released soundtracks mated to AI generated content, and I find these quite enjoyable. I assume they are minimal effort (maybe ), but I find some of them very beautiful, and or interesting.
Now I’ve written all this I’m sort of thinking that maybe the Pop Video is alive and well, living on YouTube with AI. There are worse ways to retire.
I’d like to look a little further into this phenomenon some day soon, but I don’t have access to the required software as yet, due to living in the third world.
