The most interesting thing to me — we've been over the legality and ethical issues about stuff like this before — is this is a hint at how dominant Apple is worldwide. OK Go's video has 10 million views and tons of press and even an MTV VMA, but that must pale in comparison to the marketing reach Apple has via all its platforms and advertising budgets. If it didn't, then there's no way they'd risk being second to a great idea — although you could claim that Apple's genius is not being the first to do something, but to be the best at doing something.
PS: Why has no music video ripped off this great Honda Perspectives ad from last year?
I don't know how factual that "fact" is (ed: research is old media), but I do know the general math and, yes, $12 seems quite low for ad revenue for 100 million views.
Except, what if 99,999,999 of those views were Rick Roll memes that obnoxious users created via their own rogue uploads? Then it seems like a pretty good chunk of change. And the only ones to blame for Rick's lack of royalties are ones who ran up that view count all in the name of a bad joke.
Or maybe Rick Astley has a really crappy deal. Or learned the hard way that it's good to own your copyrights and write your own songs. Or maybe the math here is just totally wrong — there's a 2010 Register article that quotes the $12 performance royalty in regards to its then 39 million plays, which means updating is in order. Or, maybe the answer is really complex and murky and really, wouldn't you rather just dance to a sweet '80s jam?
What good is you virtual reality headset if you don't have something cool to explore? And shouldn't that something cool be music videos?
Wouldn't you love to wander, even virtually, through an amazing music video world — like maybe OK Go "The Writing's On The Wall", or maybe even Motley Crue "Girls Girls Girls" (same on you)?
That Pomeranian from the Katy Perry "Dark Horse" video just entered the Guinness Book Of World Records as the World's Fastest Dog On Two Legs. In fact, little Jiff actually broke TWO world records, in both the 5- and 10-meter races.
Jiff also has 1.5 million Twitter followers, which I only bring up to reinforce the point that this anklebiter is likely more accomplished than you.
“Blood on the Leaves” is one of my favorite songs. It’s great. He’s just ridin’ the wave and not takin’ no for an answer. We almost worked together, but I never got the ideas. I feel I let him down a little bit. I was going to do the music video for “Blood on the Leaves,” but it never happened. I didn’t come up with any ideas that I thought he would like. Kanye came up to the house one day. Kanye’s a good guy, and a great musician. I loved the song, and that’s what brought us together, but I couldn’t come up with ideas that thrilled either one of us."
Here's the problem with almost any "Most Expensive Music Videos Ever Made" list: It's all a guessing game unless you were the one signing or receiving the check.
The numbers, when adjusted for inflation in 2013 dollars, range from a paltry $6.9 million for Michael Jackson's "Black Or White" to $10.7 million for his "Scream" collaboration with Janet Jackson.
Are these numbers close? Who knows. Except maybe Mark Romanek, who directed two of these videos — including the apparently apocryphal #1 Most Expensive Video Ever Made:
@flytetymejam The info presented as fact in this article is way off -- by millions. "Scream" was never the most expensive video ever made.
Look, you know you care. You do. You’ll watch them. You’ll discuss them. You’ll post a witticism about Nicki Minaj and a snake. You’ll hope for the occasional disaster. Maybe you’ll even get it (see snake, bites). But, more likely you’ll get the 31st incarnation of the award show that basically defined the modern music award show — lots of performances, few awards — and that should dominate your conversations and your timeline.
Tune into MTV at 9/8c... And keep pegged to my @videostatic Twitter for updates from The Forum and more...
In the meantime, here's who I think should win... and who will win.
Miley Cyrus "Wrecking Ball" (Terry Richardson, dir.)
Should Win: I still say “Turn Down For What” is the best video of the year, but it can’t win, and not just because it’s not nominated. Awards at this level celebrate celebrity and/or create stars. Do you even know what DJ Snake looks like? He could be an actual snake for all you know. If anyone collected that Moonman, it would be co-director/star Daniel Kwan’s crotch. And as awesome as that would be, it would never happen.
Will Win: Iggy Azalea f/ Charli XCX “Fancy” represents the new generation of MTV stars and this could be their latest and biggest coronation. I wouldn't be surprised if Pharrell wins, because, well, he's Pharrell and all he do is win.
Should Win: Childish Gambino, even if for no other reason than that “3005” is his best video to date, whereas all the other nominees have had clearly better and/or more popular videos.
Will Win: Eminem.
BEST MALE:
Pharrell Williams "Happy" (We Are From L.A., dir.)
Should Win: The best video here is “Dark Horse” but running this data through the “hot right now matrix”™ says it will be Iggy Azalea f/ Charli XCX “Fancy”
Will Win: Ariana Grande f/ Iggy Azalea “Problem” (either way: it’s Iggy)
BEST POP:
Pharrell Williams "Happy" (We Are From L.A., dir.)
Should Win: Is Best Rock akin to the Grammy's Polka category at this point? Let's go with Arctic Monkeys “Do I Wanna Know” which is by far the best video here and the the breakthrough rock band of the year (and the most indie of the bunch too, which might explain things to some degree).
Will Win: Beyonce x Jay Z… I mean, how can you not want these two on-stage together in a potentially unguarded and unreleased moment. Or, maybe the gossip mill is hoping Beyonce will announced some other massive news on this stage.
If you're going to critique the new Taylor Swift music video, you shouldn't start off by saying "haven't watched the taylor swift video and I don't need to watch it"... especially if you're Earl Sweatshirt and the director is Mark Romanek.
The Odd Future rapper took offense to the "twerking" component as another sign of "white girls" hiding their prejudice by perpetuating black stereotypes — a provocative comment that of course went wild.
Thing is, Romanek is an Earl Sweatshirt fan, and saw the comment. And, addressed the "controversy" in an interview with Vulture:
"I'm a fan of his and I think he's a really interesting artist. (I posted a Vine to one of his tracks once.) But he stated clearly that he hadn't seen the video and didn't even intend to watch it. So, respectfully, that sort of invalidates his observations from the get-go. And it's this one uninformed tweet that got reported on and rehashed, which started this whole "controversy." We simply choose styles of dance that we thought would be popular and amusing and cast the best dancers that were presented to us without much regard to race or ethnicity. If you look at it carefully, it's a massively inclusive piece. It's very, very innocently and positively intentioned. And — let's remember — it's a satirical piece. It's playing with a whole range of music-video tropes and clichés and stereotypes."
Not as much drama as most Twitter wars, but maybe that's because he had more than 140 characters to respond.
PS: if you want a good music video directing philosophy, the one Romanek presents in the interview is one I'd recommend:
I kind of pride myself on being able to tailor a bespoke style for just about any artist or genre — whatever's called for, really. In this case, the assignment was to create a purely fun, upbeat pop video. I'd never really done that, so it was a new challenge.
Alex Topaller of video directing/creative team Aggressive answers a lot music video questions you may have been afraid to ask... and has answers that you may not want to hear (or agree with)... PS: the views expressed here are are solely those of his own bad self.
So you want to be a music video director? That’s a terrible idea. No, really. Don’t do it.
Stop right now and choose something else while you can, before we find ourselves discussing this very moment in two years when I can pompously say, “See! I was right! Now you understand that it’s more of a complicated love affair than a career!”
Are you still here, dear reader?
You are? Huge mistake, but oh well. Since I can’t change your mind, I can at least fulfill my civic duty by arming you with a few pointers before sending you into the reverberating tunnels of the music video world in search of non-existent treasure.
KEVIN ABSTRACT, LAUNCHES CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN FOR HIS NEWEST MUSIC VIDEO 'HELL / HEROINA' ON KICKSTARTER.COM
The 17 year old Corpus Christi, TX born rapper Kevin Abstract has garnered the written attention of Billboard, Complex, 2DopeBoyz and more and now is teaming up with film director Tyler Mitchell to shoot the project in New York City.
The two have taken to crowdfunding website Kickstarter.com to raise the funding for the project.
Is it ok for a grown man to admit that he misses MTV's TRL? Of course it is, especially if that man is a professional director who closely studied each music video on that countdown, picking up all sorts of cinema and style tricks along the way.
The man in question is Isaac Rentz, who has a new tumblr with the self-explanatory title, This Day In TRL. And a quick read of blog may make you wish for a return of the show so you can sit on a couch with him and listen to him point out details like:
on Avril Lavigne "Complicated" - "If you want to know what real editing looks like, witness the moment at 00:03 where Avril skates up to her friends, stops on a dime, falls into a squatting position- presumably on her board- and gracefully manages to deliver her line. The editor deserves a Nobel Prize for bending the laws of physics to make it look like Avril knows how to skate."
or
on Hanson "If Only" - "[Director Dave] Meyers immediately confirms he’s behind the camera at :9 with his signature zoom-out transition that appeared in every video he ever directed. It looks like low-rent Matrix bullet time FX and I’m sure in 2000 it screamed “expensive.” It became a staple of early-00’s TRL videos, even ones Meyers didn’t direct"
So, while I don't think TRL is coming back — except when co-opted by Ariana Grande — maybe there's room for a sort of Beavis and Butthead, but with Isaac pointing out all that is genius and often overlooked in music videos. And, hey, I wouldn't mind playing Beavis in that duo.
What if the government made a channel play music videos? And prevented any other music video channels from being on the dial, so long as that channel played 12 hours a day of music videos. And, backed it up with a funding program to provide budget assistance to foster artists and creatives?
Sounds like a dream, right? That's the situation in Canada actually, where multimedia company Bell Media's reigning video channel Much — formerly MuchMusic — is suddently regretting that exact situation. The channel has a near monopoly on the dial, but with a license agreement that required it to have at least 50% of its programming be music videos. And a large block of those had to be by Canadian recording artists and/or produced or directed by Canadian talent. And to make sure there was always content, there was a funding program that paid up to $30k per video.
But, even that's not enough if Bell Media president Kevin Crull's assessment last month is correct: "Kids do not watch music videos on television. You're not going to wait for somebody to program a music video when you have a million available on Vevo. And so that has hurt the channel." And per The Globe and The Mail, MuchMusic reportedly lost just-under $1.5 million last year as ad revenue fell by nearly 30%.
Much has been unsuccessfully trying to officially prune back their music video content for years — a 2010 petition to reduce it to 25% was rejected by the the CRTC (essentially the Canadian equivalent of the FCC) — perhaps with an eye on how South of The Border channels like MTV and Vh1 have been able to constantly reinvent themselves, even while keeping music integrated with their other programming..
For now, Bell Media is stuck with a channel that made perfect sense when founded in 1984, but is now itching to evolve. Last week Bell Media announced the layoffs of 91 staffers at Much and sister channel M3, with the cancellation of most of their music shows.
Remember these guys we first showed you a year ago? Unlocking The Truth aka Malcolm Brickhouse & Jarad Dawkins — two (then) sixth graders from Flatbush, Brooklyn whose metal prowess was showcased in The Avant Garde Diaries, a Mercedes Benz initiative that spotlights the next generation of innovators (metal and otherwise).
Well, the boys signed a big record deal that if all goes to plan, which always happens in the music business, will net them close to two million dollars.
