Uberfluff

Way back when there was more to the Real World then watching dumb sluts get drunk and have hysterical screaming matches, you were either a Puck person or a Pedro person.  At least, I assume that there were Pedro people.  I didn't really know any of them, since most of the people I knew found MTV's obvious manipulations and Pedro's relentless sanctimony profoundly irritating.  The closest I could find was someone who would remark that it was probably a pain to share a house with Puck.  Still, Pedro Zamora (more easily identified as "the guy who had AIDS on the Real World: San Francisco") was main focus of that season and it was only Pucks' unwillingness to follow that script that made the show memorable (and ultimately ended with Puck's expulsion).

Well, in a move that would be completely surreal if we weren't talking about MTV (insert obligatory comment about MTV programming and lack of videos here), they've actually made a biopic about Pedro, which is airing on MTV tonight.  And here's the part that really gets me--they're using actors to play everyone that participated in the "reality" show.  I can only assume that this is going to include re-enactments of the stagey stuff that we watched on the show in the first place, which is a little further down the hall of mirrors than I ever care to go.  Then again, I was a Puck person, after all.

Although, just to set the record straight, everyone knows that the most profoundly annoying and dislikeable person that season--and perhaps in all of Real World history--was Judd.

I'm not sure what I think about distinguishing between favorite and great videos.  I'll agree that it's somewhat quixotic to look for a "best" video ever--especially when new ones are made all the time and it's hard to define a "best" anything.  But I do think that trying to pick between favorite and great videos is a false choice.  I don't think that a video that you really enjoy should necessarily take a second seat to one that you tolerate, but respect for historical/cultural reasons.  It seems to invalidate the enjoyment factor, as though that's a secondary goal rather than the whole damned point of the thing.  So, by my thinking, your #1 all-time-video should definitely be one of your favorites over something that you place up there because it was ground-breaking, even though you'd be fine with never seeing it again.  (For this reason, "Gin N Juice" will always beat out "Sledgehammer" for me, no matter how revolutionary the anima

I can't believe that I forgot the awesomeness that is Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf."  If you can't enjoy that one, then you're dead inside.

I feel a little bad that we don't have any country music suggestions yet.  To be honest, while I know some country songs, I'm not at all conversant with the videos--though I remember Garth Brooks having an unintentionally funny over-the-top one about spousal abuse. I seem to recall a bad moustache.

And speaking of over-the-top, I'd like to submit Guns N' Roses "November Rain."  I can't name many other videos that have sparked as much perplexed dorm room discussion.  (Why does he jump through the cake just because it starts to rain?  Why did Stepahnie Seymour die?)  Not to mention the fact that it spawned a million fruitless internet searches for "Without You" by Del James.

So are music videos a "dead art"?  I'm inclined to say no, since that would be equivalent to saying that short films are dead.  I won't argue, however, that they can be creatively dead at times, and that there are almost as video cliches as movie cliches.  (Sorry, can't figure out how to get the accent over the "e" in this form.)  Which leads me to a related question:

I am a huge sucker for countdown shows.  Even when I care nothing and know less about the subject, I always get sucked into them.  And, of course, I always have issues with the order of the list.  Notoriously, nearly every countdown of great videos always leaves "Thriller" in the number one spot, which has annoyed me for years.  Yes, it's a good video, but the greatest ever?  I'm willing to give it "Best Group Dance" video, but as a whole, I think it's overlong and occasionally dull--too much movie, not enough music.

So that raises the question: what is the greatest video of all time?  I'm looking for debate here, but I will add a few discussion points.  First, this is about music videos, so both the song and the video come into play.  It can't be a great without a very good song, but the song also can't carry it.  (Therefore, I don't think there are any concert videos that would win, no matter how good the song, because as a video, they tend to be dull and unambitious.)  Second, I won't totally rule out something indie, but that's sort of a "tree falls in the forest" situation.  If next to no one has seen or judged it, I'm not sure it can qualify for greatness--it may be deserving of it, but this isn't a search for most underrated obscure video.

So do I have any nominations?  Well, I'm probably going to post some more as they occur to me, but off the top of my head: A-ha's "Take on Me" (fun song, creative use of animation), Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" (fun, slightly satirical, hip, and helped resurrect story-based videos), REM's "Losing My Religion" (arty without being annoying).  And this isn't going to win me any obscurity points, but who didn't like Aerosmith's "Cryin'"?  It was the video equivalent of a Spielberg blockbuster.  Not particularly subtle or groundbreaking, but it was entertaining, well-produced, and had excellent casting (young Alicia Silverstone and an unknown Josh Holloway, doing his Brad-Pitt-in-Thelma-and-Louise role.)

So what are your nominations?  Feel free to link your favorites.  (Or embed, for our contributors.)

Below, AnneArchy makes the point that the Real World ushered in the era of reality television.  I know that some people will point to all sorts of other formats with reality aspects that existed prior to the Real World (game shows, documentaries, etc.), but I think that modern reality--especially the slutty girl + obnoxious guy + alcohol = drama and ratings formulation can be traced directly back to it.  Interstingly, I don't believe that the Real World has ever had the ratings comparable to its major network descendents, but its influence is pretty clear.

Of course, this leaves the question of whether this is a bad thing.  One is tempted to say, "yes," as one tends to think of alternatives like Arrested Development rather than According to Jim--in other words, reality tv isn't necessarily replacing something that's all that better.  I will posit that reality tv has been wonderful for trash television, as it's hard to replace the illicit pleasures of things like My Big Redneck Wedding and My Bare Lady with 3rd rate sitcoms and soap operas.

Snickers' rant on MTV below had me wondering . . . it's a common complaint that shallow, brainless programming has all but replaced playing videos on the erstwhile video network.  But, thinking back to the last time videos were dominant on MTV takes me back to . . . well the 80s or early 90s at best.  Is it that the video play just keeps declining or is the problem that shows like TRL make it obvious that even when they do play videos, the channel has more or less turned into a mainstream publicity arm rather than someplace to find exciting music?  (Bearing in mind that I recall the same complaints about their music choices going back solidly into the 80s.  I'm not sure that there was ever a time when you could argue that MTV was legitimately edgy and avant garde.)

I've been struggling with the music industry lately. As a young white boy growing up in the Midwest, the best way to discover new music was through the all powerful music channel, MTV. It was great, videos 24/7, or almost 24/7. Rap, rock, indie, new wave, didn't matter the genre, MTV played it at some point during the day or night. When I wanted to find a new edgy metal band to listen to, I could always rely on Headbangers Ball for a few gems, and the electronic acts I enjoyed did their thing after hours.

Then, in the early nineties, it all started to happen…Suddenly MTV began to enjoy the revenue they received during the advertising on shows such as The Real World, and from there it spread like wild fire. Every few months from about 1992 on, a new show, which most barely qualified as being 'music based' popped up on the channel to take away from the precious music video time, and this had a fairly significant cultural impact on many people during those years leading up to 2008. 

I did my first article recently for Uberfluff on Internet Piracy, and it directly ties into when the music truly died, along with MTV. When the internet started to become fairly mainstream, as in, a good portion of middle class and upper class America had access, I'd say sometime around 1996-97, things within the culture shifted even more dramatically than MTV shoving badly produced shows down our throats. Piracy, or those who were familiar with it, were now downloading free of charge all the bands they enjoyed, which, it just so happens, encompassed roughly every talented act and label that existed. What this left poor America with, or those without internet access, was a diluted stream of over-played pop-rock, pop-rap, pop-country and boy bands all across the TV and radio. The bands and songwriters with even a shred of talent were being downloaded constantly, so all of the bigger record sale statistics that began to flow into Billboard.com were all this un-talented pop crap. When TimeWarner, Interscope, and some of the other big labels looked at these numbers and seen how WELL these boy bands were selling, it sparked a revolution of commercialized garbage, from Total Request Live, all the way up to the current top ten selling albums this week on Billboard.com.  The industry, instead of getting with the picture and going back to promoting real talent, instead is trying its best to milk those people who are still willing to accept the costs of a physical CD, and those who are still afraid to download on their own by promoting this cost-efficient garbage.

Sure, the mainstream perhaps once a year craps out a decent album that just about anyone could get into, but its become common knowledge among those who enjoy a wide variety of sounds that the best place to find new music is through independent sources on the internet. Sites like www.pitchforkmedia.com, www.spin.com, www.undertheradarmag.com, offer complex, thoughtful reviews, and link you to plenty of places, like iTunes, where you can preview anything you want to buy. 

But, back to my gripes about the music video industry, and as surprising as this may come to many people, good bands still make videos! The problem has been that unless you order a particular bands DVD whenever it would get released, you couldn't get GREAT quality videos online, because most of the places that had these things, and still to some extent currently are, was on YouTube.  Well, I'm happy to report that there is a website out there which will let you watch high quality videos online, essentially replacing MTV for the future.  I have a hope that now, a new generation of kids will be able to experience good bands making great videos without watching them on pixilated YouTube. The website is www.pitchfork.tv , a site that I feel will soon replace MTV, and everything it once proudly stood for. In closing my ramble, I hope in ten years that when I enter a bar, I won't hear T-Pain, or Carrie Underwood on the jukebox, but Deerhunter or Air, or some other band that isn't being paid to promote something they didn't even write. I think Pitchfork.tv is a strong step towards bringing back the magic of seeing a great video for the first time, and I'll toast to anyone who tries to do that any day.