Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Sunday 28 November 2010

Kanye West: 35min vid

The idea of an extended music vid, effectively as a short film isn't new - John Landis' work for Michael Jackson's Thriller itself built on The Beatles' films, which could be viewed as a series of sketched built around multiple prototype music vids. Kanye West's effort, the 35min Runaway, has split web opinion, currently accruing 29,055 likes/5,101 dislikes after 5,389,189 views at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7W0DMAx8FY and another 28,165 likes/2,890 dislikes from 6,331,377 viewings at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg5wkZ-dJXA&feature=channel (just some of the uploads on YouTube alone; its also on his official site and many more).
The bottom line - its working wonders as a promotional tool. KanyeWest.com even includes a live twitter feed on what people are saying about it, stark evidence of its impact.

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