Gabriel Mullarkey History of Avant Garde Film 29 April 2011 Contemporary MTV indicates that the pop promo

is alive and well discuss From early footage of live performance to abstract, postmodern pieces, the pop promo is a dynamic genre. Throughout its evolution it has undergone many changes in response to societal influences, or commercial pressures. Perhaps the most striking change the genre has faced is the transition between media from radio to broadcast TV and then from broadcast TV to online media. The interactive nature of digital media together with the various advancements in hardware and software in recent years has heralded a new creative horizon for the pop promo where a more personal connection between artist and fan is established and nurtured. The archetypal early MTV music video was a prominent postmodern milestone in broadcast performance. Where Hollywood musicals had to have a plot, convincing characters and a substantial running time, the music video could break free such constrictions, utilising: Fragmentation, Segmentation, Superficiality, stylistic jumbling, the blurring of mediation and reality, the collapse of past and future into the moment of the present, the elevation of hedonism, the dominance of the visual over the verbal (Goodwin 45). Feuer goes so far as to describe the music video as the ultimate postmodern musical where everything is subordinate to the song (132). In spite of the fact that music may have been paramount in the traditional pop promo, there are examples of how its role can be subservient in the context of the pop promo, existing only to link to other media. For example, music video accompaniments to major teen orientated films such the song Footloose from the film Flash Dance in the early years of MTV acted like an advertisement for the film. It consisted of a montage of scenes from the movie edited to the song from the movie soundtrack, much like a movie trailer. Apart from providing rhythm for editing purposes the song has no other purpose other than further promoting the movie. This may be seen as

diminishing the artistic credibility of the pop promo to that of a commercial advertisement for a major Hollywood studio. MTV was aware of the avant-garde aspect of the pop promo and created the category of Best Postmodern Video for the 1989 MTV awards. Alternative rock acts were increasingly turning to abstract visuals to accompany their musical output. R.E.M.s Orange Crush, with a video directed by Matt Mahurin, won the award with an abstract piece that was both subordinate to the songs message and evocative in its own abstract aesthetic. It depicts an anonymous young man serving in the army with nostalgic shots of rustic, childhood imagery in stark black and white. Despite the acknowledgement of the avant-garde (or postmodern, as MTV would questionably call it), the award only lasted two ceremonies, replaced in 1991 by the award for Best Alternative Video. This can be attributed to the increasing popularity of alternative rock in the early nineties which spawned pop promo directors with a similar leftfield aesthetic, notably Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze.

External forces have always affected its MTVs content, from fashion trends to socioeconomic influences, the MTV text has always been in a constant state of flux. However, it is the commercial drive of the corporation that is a key motivating factor for its adaptive nature. Among MTVs most notable innovations was the creation of regional variations of the station during the nineties. On the surface these localised versions adapted, in some way, the content for the population of the particular region. In reality, globalisation of the corporation has led to homogenisation and Westernisation of local culture by contextualising it with global popular culture for the sake of profits by advertising global brands (Jones 86). One former president asked the emotive question: how do you keep creativity going? (Goodwin 49). Yet it is clear that profit and not artistic integrity is the driving factor behind MTVs innovations. Another major trend is MTVs transition from the pop promo to reality TV as well as conventional programing in the last two decades. Titles such as The Real World and Jackass have proven to be major, long running success stories for MTV with the former celebrating its 25th

season and the later now a popular movie franchise. The genre of reality TV is undeniably a postmodern creation but it is the commercial aspect of the thirty minute show that has seen the decline of the pop promo on MTV. Jones defines MTVs raison d'etre for this format transition; MTV was designed in the rst instance to deliver an audience to advertisers (87). Keeping a viewers attention for half an hour is clearly of benefit to advertisers compared to a series of three minute audio visual pieces with no interconnectivity and therefore no staying power. Reality TV is completely distinct from the pop promo, however there are crossover examples that elevate it to the realm of post-postmodernism. The Osbournes was a reality TV series that followed the everyday life of a musician, Ozzy Osbourne, and his family. There are some superficial similarities with the pop promo, namely that it serves as a platform for an artist to promote themselves. Ozzys music is used non-diegetically throughout and the show launched his daughter Kellys music career. The similarities end there. The shows mix of real footage edited in a sitcom manner indicates the rise of the genre mash-up that epitomises modern MTV (Morreale 3). Furthermore it reflects the fascination with celebrity that proliferates modern media. Further mash-ups occur where the pop promo and the TV advertisement converge. Firstly, the pop promo represents an opportunity for product placement, particularly in urban music scenes. Product placement in the pop promo is not exclusively a visual element with the use of high-end branded products in the videos. It has also infiltrated lyrically through the songs. A prominent advertising publication stated that an arrangement was reached that would reward rap artists if they integrated the words Big Mac into their songs. McDonalds would pay rap artists between $1 and $5 every time the song was played (Williams). A similar product placement/pop promo mash-up occurs when advertisements use pop artists music and presence diegetically to promote a product. An example of this is Duffy singing during a Coca Cola TV advertisement where her voice, 60s style and independent image are the selling points for the product (Youngs). The act of allowing an artists image to be used to sell products or services is so endemic that even prominent record producers are urging unsigned acts to approach advertising agencies over record companies (Youngs). The obscene levels of

commercialisation in conventional MTV pop promos and associated mash-ups forced many artists online for audio/visual creative expression.

Technological advances have always underpinned the development of the pop promo. Throughout the 20th century, each new media platform added another level of rich media interaction with early derivations from the previous platform. The classic MTV pop promo owes a lot to radio

broadcasting techniques. Identifying the song name and artist at the beginning and end of the piece was adopted from radio as failure to do so impacted on record sales (Straw 10). The rich audio/visual experience of TV clearly represented the next level of interaction absent from traditional radio. However it is the simultaneous reach of MTV to an entire nation through a network of cables that made it an important consumer socializing agent (Englis, Solomon and Ashmore 55) In terms of reach and prospective audiences, the cable TV network dwindles into insignificance compared with the Internet, and in particular high-speed broadband. Never before has there been a medium that can transfer so much information so efficiently. It has given rise to a media-savvy generation who consume ever-increasing amounts of media online. The digital native, as this generation has been termed, is accustomed to processing random, media rich information and interacting in meaningful ways with online media (Bennett, Maton and Kervin 776). The pop promo, due to it short playing time and dynamic audio/visual experience, fits perfectly into the modern media environment and has thrived on this new media platform. The vibrant social facet of the internet today has added a collaborative aspect to the pop promo. People collaborate, exhibit and converse increasingly through social networks and this savvy of the masses or crowdsourcing, is being harnessed by industry and, increasingly, the creators of the pop promo (De Wolfe). A notable example is The Johnny Cash Project. It asks the user to recreate individual frames of Johnny Cashs last recorded song using an online painting application (Milk). The user can playback the video with customised settings, altering the content, and even playback the construction of each individual frame. The rich interactivity gives the viewer

a deeper connection with the artist as they become part of the piece themselves. Another example of the collaborative pop promo is One Frame Of Fame by the band C-Mon & Kypsky. Here the band asks people to record simple gestures which are then combined into an ever changing video piece to accompany their song (C-Mon & Kypski). The piece updates every hour adding new contributors each time. Currently over thirty two thousand people have added content to this single pop promo. The unfinished nature of many online collaborative efforts is described by Lunefeld as: unintended consequences: the box that came to be seen as the conclusive media machine has made conclusions themselves more difcult to reach(3). This new level on rich ,if inconclusive, media text is made possible due to emerging web standards. The new HTML5 web standard is expanding the possibilities of the pop promo. HTML5 can be used to create immersive, personalised experiences. An example of a personalised pop promo is Arcade Fires The Wilderness Downtown. It consists of a webpage that asks for the address of the users hometown. It then creates a montage of images of the area creatively mixed with footage of a boy running through a suburban street over the bands song We Used to Wait (Milk). The result is an extremely personalised video piece where the viewers own hometown becomes part of the piece itself and adheres to the nostalgic tone of the song. The pop promo has entered a new level of immersive personalisation with the increasing popularity of portable devices. Devices that support downloadable applications are increasingly targeted by music artists channelling the latest information to hard-core fans. The band, Black Eyed Peas, created an application to promote their latest single. The video for The Time(Dirty Bit) was shot using a 360 degree camera device granting the viewer a first-person perspective view of any aspect of the scene (International Business Times). Furthermore, it uses augmented reality technology, common in most mobile devices, to control the movement of the camera in the virtual scene by physically moving the mobile device. The resulting piece absorbs the viewer into the pop promo to such a point that they direct the piece in real-time. Such interactive experience engrosses the viewer but, importantly for the artist, increases the lifespan of the piece due to the possibility of

endless versions. With the increasingly successful presence of the pop promo online, large corporations are trying to cash in. Vevo, a partnership between Universal Music and Sony Music, hosts online music videos. The service attracts big names in terms of musical acts, record companies and advertisers with one CEO describing it an integrated MTV (Sweney). Through Vevo, the music industry is trying to re-establish the traditional media status quo on an online platform in reaction to the success of the pop promo on the internet. The Vevo game-plan contrasts strikingly with the user-generated content on You Tube. You Tube is a prime example of the democratisation of media on the web. Anyone with a camera and access to the internet can upload content that is searchable and sharable online. Importantly, it is a training ground for burgeoning Creatives whose work is often expressed through that postmodern stalwart; the mash-up. The You Tube music mash-up is typical of user-generated content. It consists of music videos, that are mixed together to produce an original piece that is cohesive both audibly and visually. The content and editing tools are freely available to the public which democratises the online creative landscape and ultimately boosts innovation (Manovitz 330). An example of a typical mash-up is Uptight Religion which is a mix between Stevie Wonders Uptight from 1965 and R.E.Ms Losing My Religion from 1991 (Motownboy). The author uses a pre-MTV pop promo and classic 90s MTV pop promo to create a new composition for the post-MTV era. Mash-ups are not exclusively made up of existing pop promos. For example the author of the mash-up ThroughYou 01-The Mother of All Funk Chords uses found footage from You Tube and layers the sounds and images to create a wholly original piece (Kutiman). Almost all of the footage in the piece was uploaded onto You Tube by amateur musicians playing various musical styles with varying degrees of musicianship using amateur recording equipment. Yet, the author skilfully weaves the various tracks into an original piece of music Just as sample-based hip-hop by innovators like De La Soul, The Bomb Squad and DJ Shadow changed the sound and style of pop culture back in the 80s and 90s (Scott). An extra interactive element is added when the original

video pieces are presented in their unedited form on the You Tube interface beside the mash-up piece. Mash-ups and other user-generated digital media can only gain popularity by being distributed by the users through other social media channels. This method of creation, exhibition and distribution blurs the line between creator and consumer as well as traditional monetary reward systems. With the connectivity offered by social media comes an intimacy that was inconceivable through traditional media streams. Music artists can now interact with their fans instantaneously and give glimpses of their life when not performing through social media platforms like Twitter. Such intimacy has even seeped into pop promo composition. The promo for the song Show Stopper, by the Canadian artist Peaches, shows candid documentary-style footage before and during a performance (Peaches) Only two minutes and seventeen seconds of the eight minute promo feature the song, with the rest consisting of a dialogue between the brash artist and a hapless masseuse. Intimate details such as vaginal impressions through skin-tight clothing are discussed to the bemusement and disgust of the masseuse. In such a genre-mashing pop promo the song is subservient to the overall piece which ultimately shows a more human side to the artist increasing the emotive connection with the viewer.

The pop promo is still a legitimate, creative medium. However it is the emerging web media, the social sharing and user input that is changing the face of the pop promo not conventional MTV. Following the shortest distance to the quickest dollar has seen abandonment of the pop promo by music television broadcasters in favour of derivative reality TV shows. Yet creativity has thrived online despite such neglect. New web media offers abundant interconnectivity and therefore opportunity for the pop promo to have a relevant cultural impact once more. With such an abundance of user-generated content and collaborative efforts the pop promo is no longer a stagnant media but a liquid one. The monolithic institutions that used to fund and distribute them through traditional media channels need to engage in the interactions that are now ubiquitous in digital media and understand that the power balance has shifted.

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