Video killed the napster star
There was a moment in 2001 when Napster went from being vaguely interesting but kinda pathetic, to being something every music fan has always dreamed of - a near universal, free music library. You know the Velvet Underground was important but have never heard them? Download 'em. Wonder what a Tom Waits/Bruce Springstein duet would sound like? Download it. ("Jersey Girl". It's fantastic.) Kate Bush's version of "Sexual Healing"? They got it. (No, I'm not kidding. It was released on an album by Davey Spillane, her Uillean pipes player.)
That moment lasted about four months, until the RIAA and others started going after Napster in earnest for copyright violations. Sure, I tried Limewire and the dozens of Gnutellas - none ever recreated that sense that anything you want could be yours, instantly.
I think we've entered this moment in the world of music videos. Earlier today, I stumbled onto a page of links to 80's music videos hosted on YouTube. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that this odd collection was a tiny subset of the videos actually available there. And in a few minutes more, I was watching the first music video I can ever remember falling in love with: Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town".
My parents didn't get cable TV until after I was in college. Music TV growing up wasn't MTV - it was UHF channel 68, which broadcast from somewhere in Jersey and was something I got in by propping a black and white TV in the window of my bedroom and attaching it to a length of copper wire I'd spooled from my room down the side of the house. So some of the videos I've wasted the afternoon watching are clearer than I've ever seen them before - Sting's "Fortress Around Your Heart", for instance, or Big Country's "In a Big Country", which wins today's prize for best song with worst video.
And there are videos by bands that I never would have imagined made videos, like Hüsker Dü, or My Bloody Valentine, whose video for "Only Shallow" wins today's prize for best song with most appropriate video. (If only they'd done one for "Loomer"...)
There's no possible way this state of affairs will continue. I highly recommend you cancel whatever plans you have for tomorrow and spend the day violating the copyrights of your favorite artists and record labels.
That moment lasted about four months, until the RIAA and others started going after Napster in earnest for copyright violations. Sure, I tried Limewire and the dozens of Gnutellas - none ever recreated that sense that anything you want could be yours, instantly.
I think we've entered this moment in the world of music videos. Earlier today, I stumbled onto a page of links to 80's music videos hosted on YouTube. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that this odd collection was a tiny subset of the videos actually available there. And in a few minutes more, I was watching the first music video I can ever remember falling in love with: Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town".
My parents didn't get cable TV until after I was in college. Music TV growing up wasn't MTV - it was UHF channel 68, which broadcast from somewhere in Jersey and was something I got in by propping a black and white TV in the window of my bedroom and attaching it to a length of copper wire I'd spooled from my room down the side of the house. So some of the videos I've wasted the afternoon watching are clearer than I've ever seen them before - Sting's "Fortress Around Your Heart", for instance, or Big Country's "In a Big Country", which wins today's prize for best song with worst video.
And there are videos by bands that I never would have imagined made videos, like Hüsker Dü, or My Bloody Valentine, whose video for "Only Shallow" wins today's prize for best song with most appropriate video. (If only they'd done one for "Loomer"...)
There's no possible way this state of affairs will continue. I highly recommend you cancel whatever plans you have for tomorrow and spend the day violating the copyrights of your favorite artists and record labels.