It wasn’t long ago that the music video was on life support.
MTV — which will hold its 27th annual Video Music Awards on Sunday — phased out videos in favor of reality programming and other shows that attracted better ratings. At the same time, the music industry was collapsing and slashed budgets no longer had room for elaborate clips.
But recently, the music video has had a revival. Watching music videos has become central aspect of Internet usage. Music blogs and social media have greased the channels, facilitating the quick, easy spreading of videos, especially those with arresting or controversial visuals. People even buy clips on iTunes.
Lady Gaga and Beyonce go on a scantily clad murderous rampage with the nearly 10-minute “Telephone”; MGMT wanders through the dessert with a digitally created creature in “Congratulations”; Erykah Badu strips while strolling the path of President John Kennedy assassination in “Window Seat”; MIA depicts a war on terror against redheads in “Born Free.”
All of these videos exploded on the Internet and became water-cooler moments. Cee-Lo’s recent and unprintable hit (titled “Forget Me” for radio) went viral with a video of only its lyrics. And Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” became so iconic is spawned countless imitators and even had then President-elect Barack Obama imitating the hand choreography.
“We’re entering another golden era for music videos,” says Saul Austerlitz, the author of “Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes. “They’ve become part of the cultural discourse again in a way that’s reminiscent of the heyday of the music video, from the early `80s to the mid `90s.”
Today’s audiences can be enormous. Shakira, who last year debuted a music video on Facebook, was “blown away” when her video for the official song of the World Cup, “Waka Waka (This One’s…