Monday, September 30, 2013
Music Videos
Music videos. An incredibly popular form of entertainment, and yet one that I have had almost no desire to consume either growing up or to this day. This may come as a bit odd to others as well as myself knowing that I am part of the cultural stigma known as the "MTV Generation".
Generation "C" ?
The MTV Generation is widely regarded as people born or growing up in the 80s and 90s because such youth were known to be heavily influenced by music videos, which were typically mass-consumed on the Music Television network (MTV). The viewership by teenagers was excessive, and thus our entire generation has received the aforementioned moniker.
Today MTV remains popular for it's music videos, but with the advent of web 2.0, higher bandwidth speeds, and YouTube, the music video scene continues to grow worldwide by way of the internet. The largest distributor of music videos on the web is Vevo, whose videos are primarily consumed on YouTube.
Now, YouTube is arguably the most popular vendor for entertainment in the world. According to Google (who acquired YouTube in 2006):
- More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
- Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that's almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than last year
- 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
- 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
- YouTube is localized in 56 countries and across 61 languages
- According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network
- Millions of subscriptions happen each day, and the number of people subscribing has more than doubled since last year
And so, what happens to people--perhaps a specific demographic--who are responsible for such wild viewership stats? That's right, we get another nickname. The "YouTube Generation".
However, this "new" generation can't be confined to a specific age group like the MTV Generation was. In fact, Google themselves made a research study earlier this year that created a title for the YouTube Generation. "Generation C", they call it. While the MTV Generation is widely regarded to be synonymous with "Generation X" (people born from the early 1960s - early 1980s) and even more so with "Generation Y" (aka Millennials--people born from the early 1980s - early 2000s--my generation), Google associates Generation C with no particular age demographic, but notes that 80% of the audience that makes up Gen. C are "millennials".
Unfortunately, the age-related generational labeling doesn't stop with Google's own label. The succeeding generation to Gen. X is apparently "Generation Z"--those born from the mid-2000s to present day. As much as I'd like to write more about these stigmas (perhaps in a future post)--particularly the bad wrap attached to my generation--we should get back on topic, so I digress.
Why do Music Videos Exist?
What makes music videos so prevalent as modern entertainment? Well, let me break it down as best I understand it.
For several millennia we enjoyed the rhythmic, audible art form of music, but then we blended it with visual art. First, dancing became an element accompanying music that wasn't just for self-enjoyment--but to entertain others while music is being played. This branched out into plays, theater, opera, etc. But then came motion pictures. Video. Of course, what this meant early on was that we could watch various performances without actually being there. From concerts, to ballets, to the Ed Sullivan Show, and so on. So finally, the idea comes about to tell a visual story based on a [popular] song. Thus began music videos, MTV and Vevo/YouTube.
Although often treated as such, this medium is no joke. In 2009, the United States National Film Preservation Board added Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video to the National Film Registry--forever preserving it hence forward in the Library of Congress as an important piece of American history.
Additionally, the current most-viewed YouTube video of all time is a music video. At the time of my writing this, South Korean singer Park Jae-sang's (aka Psy) "Gangnam Style" music video has 1,780,296,404 views. Nearly 2 billion. It probably changed immediately after I copy & pasted those numbers...
Not my usual Cup 'o Tea
Going back to my intro for this post, I am personally not a real big fan of music videos. Why is that, you might ask? Well, let me begin by saying that music is by far the number-one source of what inspires me as a visual artist. When I listen to music, music that moves me, it creates a seed of visual imagery in my head. It might be based on the content (lyrics), the tune, the overall composition, or other intangibles. Sometimes I just don't know. But then, usually not by choice, I see the music video for a particular song that inspired me. Nine times out of ten, what I see in the video destroys the imagery that I had when listening to the song beforehand. On top of that, sometimes when I hear the song after seeing the music video--the imagery that I had is gone, and replaced with what I saw in the video. A terrible effect under most circumstances. Having experienced this multiple times, I pro-actively avoid music videos for that reason alone.
Now, I'm certain that many people don't experience this at all. It may just be the curse of a visual artist who draws creative energy heavily from listening to music. On that note, awhile back art community website deviantART created a poll asking its members "What, if anything, do you consistently draw inspiration from?". As of now (the poll is technically still going), 28,474 out of 125,675 members have voted music as that which they consistently draw inspiration from, making it the top rated in the poll.
Occasionally, something very specific draws me to watch a music video. I remember back in early 2012 I was perusing YouTube, and I came across a rather intriguing title whilst scrolling: "Dubstep Violin". I had recently become a huge fan of the electronic music genre, specifically the dubstep/drum & bass sub-genres. But a violin in dubstep? That sounded crazy, and I had to see what that was all about.
After watching the video, I was simply awestruck. The presence of dubstep in the video wasn't very prominent, but it was interesting because of how creative the whole thing was. The artist, Lindsey Stirling, played the violin and danced while backed with dubstep. I couldn't imagine the coordination and practice that would take, so I looked to see if she had any videos of her performing that same way live. I was not disappointed. She really could dance and play violin well at the same time. Amazing. Lindsey went on to produce many other videos, release a debut album (which I promptly purchased), and went on world tour. A YouTube phenom. Incredible.
The most recent example of a specific something that drew my attention to a music video was a digital painting that I saw on deviantART. It was a stunning portrait by artist Corbin Hunter (deviantART ID: Elucidator) of singer Hayley Williams from a music video for a song that I had only recently discovered: "Stay The Night ft. Hayley Williams" by Zedd. The song had a catchy tune (albeit overly-repetitive lyrics), and I hadn't formed a creative attachment to it, so I decided to check out the music video.
Rather than being detrimental to my creativity, this music video actually enhanced it. The cinematography, editing, lighting, and more all came together in an extremely cohesive manner with the song that it inspired me. It was this video that made me choose this week's blog topic. Very well done. Very creative.
Conclusion
Music videos can entertain or aggravate, tell a story or ruin one, culturize or stigmatize, inspire or offend, and the list goes on. They are not on the top of my list when it comes to media consumption, but with shrewd care, they still have an inspirational role to play. Inspiration is as important to an artist as a car is to a taxi driver. And we need to keep the meter running.
Feel free to post a comment below, or even a link to a music video that you think I should see--I'd love to hear from you!
Cordially,
- Luke
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment