The 90's and 70's Music Video vs. Pure Imagination
This article appeared on Musiko.com, March 2001.

By Jim Paredes

Maybe it's my age but I have a feeling it's something more. I've caught myself many times telling young people (around 30 years old and below) how different their generation is from the 70's crowd I belong to. Our generation went through Martial Law, the First Quarter Storm, Woodstock, the anti-Vietnam movement, LSD, Peter Max and just about every event or social thing that contributed to its almost total divorce from the 50s and 60s establishment. The 90's crowd is a strange one. Sure they have their shabu and rave parties but where we were rebels they are conformists. Where we wanted to be unique and anarchic, they all want to be ÒcorrectÓ and to Ò belongÓ. I see them in the malls---with their fashion house- approved clothes and their common scents. It's almost as if they all strive to not stand out. And there lies the reason why MTV exists.

During my time (I must sound old), music was heard and not seen. We went to the record shops to buy our favorite songs on vinyl or cassettes or listened to them on the radio. No CDs yet. Sometimes, we would hear them performed by the famous bands of the day. It was, in the absence of video support from television like MTV, an age of dreaming and imagination. And talent too. Without the sophisticated tools of recording today, artists then REALLY had to know how to sing or play music. As listeners, we enjoyed the songs for what they were---small musical expressions that evoked emotional responses and wild imaginings. (Try listening to Sgt. Peppers of the Beatles without going on a fantasy trip!). Those were our golden days----till MTV came along.

Don't get me wrong. There are some videos I enjoy. I even made one myself. The whole idea behind having to create music videos to get anyone interested in a song is what bothers me. As a musician, I am thrilled when a listener gives an interpretation or spin on a song I made especially if it's a totally new point of view that I had not even considered. It makes me feel the listener got into my work, processed it and made it her/his own. But with music videos, the whole mystery is revealed and manipulated with fancy editing of pictures, characters, emotion, drama, sex, everything. It's as if the artists and producers wanna make sure you only have a limited interpretation or response to their work. It's practically force- fed on us. Shoved on our faces. Don't need to imagine anything folks! Everything's been imagined for you! And what drives me up the wall is that often flashy videos with all the trimmings can make the most awful songs look good and cool. And by the same token, a good song with a bad video can kiss itself goodbye as far as the market is concerned. The whole scene is just too hard sell.

I often watch TV with my daughters when they want to share videos they like with me. First thing I notice is that so many videos look too slick as if some advertising and video geniuses had a hand in them. They look too ÒcommercialÓ . It's as if anytime in the video, the artists should drink Pepsi or Coke or show their Guess jeans, or...you know what I mean? Is it primarily a video or a piece of music? It's as if the video experts had preyed on the music artists. Or in a more sinister light, the hungry exploiters feasting on the innocent. Or worst, the artist has coopted with the establishment. It seems to go against the 70's archetypal hero who being young and inexperienced but armed with artistry breaks all the rules--- and succeeds.

Sometimes I ask myself if music has to be sold this way. I guess the whole scene belies the presence of forces more powerful than the artist/creators.. More than at anytime, artists are being pressured to consider sales reports when they make songs. That's because you gotta make products that feed the big music machine. In the name of big bucks, records MUST respond to the dictates of marketing devices like American Top 40, the Billboard Charts and the like which means fast turnover of play lists. And to maximize any songs' exposure, MTVs were devised to leave an imprint on a young and impressionable audience.

Thus, in my 49 year old mindset, mediocrity pervades the music scene. That's why I find myself walking past the shelves of Òheavily promotedÓ artists and straight to the world music section. Ever wonder why the 90's keep on going back to the 70's for material? I have found myself in a state of warped deja vu many times when my daughters let me listen to a new cool song they like. They always react incredulously when I tell them that the song is a 70's remake. Is it because the 90's people can't write their own songs anymore? Or is it because they want to be safe and just exploit the tried and the tested? With the setup the way it is, it's hard to find new artists who truly break new ground. Sometimes, I wish more of them would tune in to the MTV President's mantra when he comments that Òit is better to be sorry than safeÓ about how he runs things.