The clichés of early music video-- Simon leBon pushing over a table, Madonna in virginal white, Robert Palmer and the clone girls--still reverberate in my long-term memory. Yet, how many of my age-related peers remember the quirky videos of non-top 40 songs and artists?
- Split Enz in a leaky boat
- Todd Rundgren getting out of his Utopian "Crybaby" bubble
- Norman Bates as a "normal guy"
- The "Big Electric Cat" pursuing Adrian Belew
- David Johanson channeling Jim Morrison
- Grace Jones as a "Slave to the Rhythm"
That's just a short list of the sort of groundbreaking video artists who were delegated to obscurity once the really big names took over MTV playlists after it's inception. Groups such as Quiet Riot, Journey and Twisted Sister pretty much convinced me to turn off the TV and stick with the audio recordings of my favorite artists.
Don't get me wrong, though. There are some video music stars thaI I more than appreciate. Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey" was a pivotal moment in helping me appreciate difficult art. Compared to most of the Phil Collins' output through both the 80's Genesis and his solo work, I can barely remember the images from most of the latter's music video work. Yet every single one of Gabriel's music videos are stuck in my long-term memory. I remember where I was the first time I saw every one of his inventive videos. Sadly, most of Gabriel's early fans felt that he sold out to mammon.
While most of the 80's music videography is unremakable, there are some standouts...but it depends a lot on personal taste. Bananarama was a fun girl group, but did not touch my imagination as much as Laurie Anderson did with her video of "O, Superman." Her musical and visual minimalism also stood out in her mostly famous video for "Sharkey's Day." I qualify the word "famous" because while it had a little more rotation than her earlier work, it wasn't Top 40 fare.
I consider progressive art to be a pinnacle of creativity. Music video artists who have pushed the borders of MTV cliché may not have had a large following, but I have to admire their chutzpah for not caring if they get platinum status in the music biz. While the big time draws a crowd, the crowd tends to be fickle if the artists challenge their preconceived notions that most of us hold onto like a holy creed. Even Madonna hasn't been big enough to force MTV to run her most controversial videos.
Think of your favorite 80's music video artists. Then see if they were among the most or least popular. See how long the popular artists' careers lasted. Vanilla Ice fans know what I'm talking about. The last time I saw that artist, he was a joke in the first Austin Powers movie.
Even so, musical taste can evolve over time. As an example, during the 70's I was a fan of the Bay City Rollers. (Embarrasing but true.) However, the boys I hung around with during and after high school listened to avant garde, progressive albums. I remember the first time I heard the King Crimson album, Discipline and played around with an early electronic drum kit. Of course, being exposed to something other than Men at Work inspired my journey into the obscure world of Giorno Poetry Systems recordings. A childhood of listening to only top 40 hits melted right before me. It is an evolutionary step I will never regret.
While pushing ourselves beyond our cultural comfort zones, we discover the difference between commerce and art. From time to time, they combine and spawn movements. But that is few and far between. After all, video not only killed the radio star, but it also signed the death certificate.
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Comments: 9
I was mostly focusing on the 80's--a time when MTV was just getting co-opted by major recording corporations. Those of us who witnessed the growth of corporate hegemony taking over this revolutionary medium understand all too well the risks that artists take by choosing a director. I even remember the one time I visited Atlanta, GA during the early 80's and saw an "independent" music video channel where visionary and fledgling music video artists alike had access to viewers. Those were the days when we were naive about what the future held for music.
Over the decades, music video became less a means of artistic expression than they are a means of cheap PR for record companies. During the 90's, I was taking a class in radio production and saw a video where the marketing of Jesus Jones was laid out in frightening detail. Disposable art will not go away any time soon.
Have you seen the Frontline show on MTV and manufactured youth culture? Part three, "the MTV machine," is enlightening at best, frightening at worst. The youth of America are more than "mooks" and "midrifts." Culture is not a "feedback loop." Yet, that's apparently where the money is.
Your discussion reminds me of this Cake song. It starts out talking about some stupid rich kids, but then sneaks in statements about capitalism selling rebellion to the youth.
Excess ain't rebellion.
You're drinking what they're selling.
Your self-destruction doesn't hurt them.
Your chaos won't convert them.
They're so happy to rebuild it.
You'll never really kill it.
The man is right. Excess is excess, it's not rebellion. And even rebellion isn't rebellion when it's manufactured and sold by the establishment.
How much did you pay for the chunk of his guitar,
The one he ruthlessly smashed at the end of the show?
And how much will he pay for a brand new guitar,
One which he'll ruthlessly smash at the end of another show?
And how long will the workers keep building him new ones?
As long as their soda cans are red, white, and blue ones.
And how long will the workers keep building him new ones?
As long as their soda cans are red, white, and blue ones.
How long will the workers keep manufacturing new guitars when he's only going to break the next one too? As long as they can buy their Pepsi after work.
And, yes. I had to look these up.
I love the Hiatt song! I used to hear it on KFOG-FM when I lived in San Francisco and it resonated with me (guitar pun, I know).