TORONTO - Music fans and celebs including Rihanna and New Kids on the Block are getting ready to party at the MuchMusic Video Awards this weekend, but in the age of YouTube and MySpace some observers can't help but ask: Has the Internet killed the video star?
Belt-tightening across the music business has slashed video budgets drastically, while TV's youngest viewers are migrating to the Internet to find new music through MySpace and YouTube, note many in the business.
"It's just sad," says Montreal-based video director Dave Pawsey, who helmed Sam Roberts' "Them Kids" and "Bridge To Nowhere."
"You see budgets shrinking because people aren't selling as much music or it's all based on licensing songs. There's this whole angst in the industry as a whole, I think. ... Even if you do a music video it's not going to be shown on TV. It might get rotations for two weeks and then it finds its way onto YouTube and you get a compressed crappy version of it."
Even acts with the clout to get airplay are eschewing the traditional format altogether, favouring online experiments such as the interactive, game-like videos Arcade Fire put together for "Neon Bible" or asking fans to create digital videos for their music and submit them online, like R.E.M. and Nine Inch Nails.
Arcade Fire's label, Merge Records, actually counsels its bands against making videos, with co-founder Mac McCaughan noting that limited funds are better spent elsewhere.
"We never recommend that people make videos," McCaughan told "Wired" magazine in December.
"I like videos, actually, and I think that it's a cool art form, but it's not something that's going to sell a lot of records for you.... Really, the most old-fashioned way of doing things is still the best, which is touring."
It's a marketing strategy that's worked for a band like Montreal's Arcade Fire, underground heroes who fostered a loyal fanbase through word-of-mouth, theatrical live shows and music clips that went viral online.
But such tactics don't apply to everyone, says Nettwerk exec Pierre Tremblay, who manages acts including Billy Talent and Martha Wainwright.
TV exposure is still where it's at for the musicians he steers through the Vancouver-based label and management company, although online exposure is considered just as valuable, he says.
Rather than leading to the demise of videos, he says the Internet has offered up more opportunities than ever for the medium.
"If you look at a Billy Talent video on YouTube, the top videos got over six million plays," Tremblay says by phone from his office, where Nettwerk handles acts including Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan and Barenaked Ladies.
"That's a pretty good promotional tool."
But for many bands, conventional videos simply aren't worth the cost if there's a sizable audience to be found online.
Vancouver pop band The New Odds enjoyed heavy video rotation in the '90s when they were known as The Odds, but ruled out making more videos when they launched a comeback bid this year.
"We had a great concept but it seemed to be too far-reaching for the budget, so we decided to do a few promo ones (instead)," singer/songwriter Craig Northey says of their aborted video plans.
"We did five shorts, interviews and clips and things that we put on our website for now."
Leading the nominees for this year's MuchMusic Video Awards are rapper Belly, ska band IllScarlett and rock pranksters Hedley, whose "Never Too Late" video pays homage to Duran Duran's 1984 hit, "Rio," with a shot-by-shot recreation.
"Rio" dates back to a time when artists spent money on videos - loads of money - for epic productions that soared into the multimillion-dollar range. Today, budgets hover in the low six-figures, say Pawsey and Tremblay, and often dip below that.
Pawsey gives credit to MuchMusic's VideoFACT fund for helping to keep the medium alive through grants for Canadian artists.
MuchMusic's David Kines says videos are still very much a key component of pop music, offering a powerful tool that sells tours, DVDs, merchandise or an artist's pet social cause, if not CDs.
Despite that, he acknowledged that videos don't hold audience attentions the way they used to, and that Much has dropped much of its videoflow and replaced it with talk shows, reality programming and movies.
"The notion of people actually just sitting there and consuming in a linear fashion 30 minutes of music videos is long gone," says Kines, senior vice-president of music and youth services.
"They consume them on our website, they consume them on our shows ... only when they've got some additional storyline - whether it's a countdown or a commentary, (such as) 'Video on Trial.' "
This Sunday, MuchMusic celebrates its favourite music television with the celeb-packed MuchMusic Video Awards. The bash is set to feature performances by New Kids on the Block, Rihanna, and Kardinal Offishall with Akon.
Other guests include Mel C of the Spice Girls, Rainn Wilson of "The Office," "Gossip Girl"'s Chace Crawford and girl band, Girlicious.
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On the Net:
www.muchmusic.com
www.beonlineb.com/click-around.html
www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff-byrne?currentPag e1
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
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