Content area
Full text
MTV just turned twenty-five. Though we may not want to link music video's history to MTV's-depending on one's predilection, one might tie Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" or Scopitones to the genre's inception, and music videos have long since left MTV behind-nevertheless some reckoning seems due. Music video has so deeply permeated our culture it sometimes seems to be driving it: we see it in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 21 Grams ; movie trailers like Miami Vice and Summer of Sam ; iPod and Nike commercials; grunge and hip-hop fashion; and the "plunderphonics" of composer John Oswald and contemporary hip-hop production practices.
Nickelodeon's aim of "preserving our television heritage" aside, there are no archives for music video. The MTV organization is often not responsive to inquiries from scholars. Music video history remains uncharted, even though we may feel we know video styles and our access to videos have waxed and waned: the academic literature is thin, the medium seems untraceable. Things might be looking up, however. Music videos are making a strong showing again, as young people log Web time watching jittery RealPlayer clips while instant messaging or surreptitiously view them on PDAs in the classroom. On streaming video sites, access to videos is greater than ever, though many of the clips are ephemeral and not downloadable. If we seek more permanent objects, iTunes carries some music videos and there is always peer-to-peer file sharing, but image and audio quality rarely rises above that of MP3s.
A few megastars, including Michael Jackson and Madonna, have released music video compilation reels, but these have sold poorly and provide few aesthetic pleasures. Now Palm Pictures has assembled a "best of" series structured around the work of nine music video directors. Acknowledging the difficulty of selecting such a small set from MTV's twenty-five-year history, I quarrel with Palm's choices. The company packaged four white male directors in its first box set, a single DVD of an African American male director as a second release, and most recently another box set featuring four more white male directors. The collection, working primarily in white genres and motivated by high art and feature film aspirations, leaves out a vast array of talent, most glaringly women and members...