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Arts and Culture
Video

The Return of the Music Video

VIDEO: Are viral videos turning bland songs into hits, just like in the '80s?

Allison Martell 27 Jan 2009TheTyee.ca

Allison Martell regularly writes about online video for The Tyee.
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'Her Morning Elegance,' music vid.

If I hadn't been perusing the viral video charts this weekend, I might never have heard of Oren Lavie. A music video for the Israeli playwright/songwriter's new track, "Her Morning Elegance," has been getting some attention on the web this week, and for good reason. I love this video. A clever stop-motion film, it embodies just the sort of low-budget brilliance that is missing from modern blockbuster music videos.

For those of born without high-speed Internet, instant musical gratification still feels like a luxury. I spent months of my adolescence lying in bed, listening to DJs who stubbornly refused to play my favourite song of the moment. No longer -- now, when I have a hankering to hear that track from the bar last night, or a friend tells me about a great new band, I turn to Google.

When you search a song title, the first result is often from YouTube. You can hear, and watch, almost any popular song, thanks to concert bootlegs, pirated music videos and promotional content released by the music industry itself.

Much of this material violates YouTube's terms of service, but it is rarely removed, which means record labels must be turning a blind eye. That shouldn't be a surprise. It's counterintuitive, but the ubiquity of viral video may be doing as much for the music industry as for filmmakers.

It's likely no accident that "Her Morning Elegance" was released on iTunes the day after this video was posted on YouTube. Record execs must be savvy to the fact that just as a song can bring you to YouTube, YouTube can bring you to a song. Lavie's music is, if anything, a little bland. But after watching the video through a few times, I have to say -- it's growing on me anyway. Someone in marketing knows what they're doing.

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