A few years back, it looked like the era of music videos was over. MTV hasn't played music videos for many years. Napster eroded the music industry's control over pricing. And music artists found new ways to gather a fan following via social networking and web-based grass-roots outreach. But music videos aren't gone. Bands like OK Go and MGMT have made it fun again by using unusual home-made approaches to their videos. Lady Gaga roped in her videos as part of her performance spectacle. And dancers with fanbases are popping up in videos again, generating buzz for the music artists in return. Case in point: Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston released their "Eeenie Meenie" video with dancers like Pandora, We Are Heroes, and numerous others.
You can check out the Justin Bieber "Eenie Meenie" video here:
The "Eenie Meenie" video may not be novel in its content or approach as compared to music videos we've seen in the past. But what's cool is that dancers and crews are using their media exposure to get these gigs. We Are Heroes have spun off their ABDC success into appearing in a few music videos. Music promotional execs and managers will look to these crews to bring some new faces to the scene. And since any buzz is good buzz, you can bet that fans are twittering about who's appearing in the next Justin Bieber or Snoop Dogg video.
Music videos usually don't have large budgets. So the financial benefits for these dancers won't be huge. But every gig is currency - it's one more step to the next gig. So we applaud these dancers for being proactive in furthering their careers. If they can bring their fanbase into watching these videos, perhaps more money will be pumped into videos as advertising pieces.
The question becomes then - will we see a revival of the music video? Today, there isn't one single way to advertise a music artist. A music video is just one prong in a multi-pronged marketing strategy. But we'd love to see music videos treated as art pieces, perhaps even platforms for dancers to really shine again.
One thing for sure is that high profile dancers are not only being seen as bringing their dance skills to a video project, but they're bringing potential new fans to a music artist. Today's generation of music fans are operating in different ways from ten to fifteen years ago. Connection, discussion, information sharing is so important. Music execs have to realize that dancers are bringing this network of communication, and it's worth investing in.
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