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Friday, April 16, 2010
Opinion / Mike McCray / News The local video dilemma
Posted By Mike McCray on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 3:27 PM
I grew up on the tail end of the music videos generation. The flop on the couch and waste a day watching music video days have come and gone and, sure, sitting on YouTube to see what new videos are out is cool but it's not the same.
It does present a unique conundrum for the local artist though, especially those who have grown up in the "real" MTV era where the thing artists do when they have a new single is shoot the video.
I usually tell artists if you don't have the budget, or anything funny/cool/creative for a viral video, skip the video all together because there's nothing you can do to help yourself. It's my respect for local artists that won't allow me to use this blog to clown some of their frankly shit-tastic videos I've been tagged in or sent lately.
I'm talking '80s green screen in the mall bad without the irony and we're in on the joke part. These guys were completely serious and the problem lies in how they've been presented media in the past versus how the industry works now.
One of my favorite album skits ever is the Mad Rapper on Biggie's "Kick In The Door" from the Life After Death album. He's reluctant to give credit to Big & Puff for their $500,000 dollar videos, downplaying it "aight" before claiming his music was "more John Blaze than that."
Sure, it was satirical but the point made was an interesting one.
There are great artists with no budget or promotion to spread the word on just how good they are but when those artists feel forced to do what they see majors do the results are usually disastrous. That's when you get local artists using auto-tune, renaming themselves after the hot "buzz" words at the time or shooting a video that might get hundreds of thousands of views online for all the wrong reasons.
So what do they do?
I'd just rock with the live videos. That way people can see and hear what you band is all about without the potential embarrassment of bad effects, lighting and planning. We'll see how it goes but hey Charlotte-area acts, please plan that shit accordingly. I'll remember a bad video way longer than a bad song or terrible mixtape.
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