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

Thursday 9 June 2011

Pro-Palestinian vid controversy

The BBC's response to this actually links to a media regulation story - the GUMG's report that highlighted systematic pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian bias in the BBC's reportage of the Middle East conflict (Guardian report on this; Amazon)

Music vids are primarily an entertainment medium, and ads for music products. The success of many viral vids showcases the greater opportunities low-budget producers have, even if the actual music retail market sufferd from even greater monopoly than the film biz.

Here's an example, though, of the vid as agit-prop; PR for a generally negatively-portrayed people and place, which has swiftly received extensive 'flak' and faces further censorship. As this article says, it will be interesting to see how the BBC handles this in the highly unlikely event it becomes a hit...


Palestine campaign song generates controversy ahead of release

Coldplay removes link to video after 7,000 comments as Glenn Beck describes 'Freedom For Palestine' as evil propaganda
A campaign song, to be released early next month, called Freedom For Palestine, is already kicking up a row.
It's a compilation number, along the lines of Feed The World or Free Nelson Mandela, and its artists include Dave Randall of Faithless, Maxi Jazz and the Durban Gospel Choir. Images from the West Bank and Gaza, along with the separation barrier, are featured in the video.
Its lyrics refer to catastrophes, refugees, crimes against humanity, prison camps, occupation, human rights and justice. "We are the people and this is our time, stand up, sing out for Palestine," goes the refrain.

Coldplay initially linked to the video from the band's Facebook page, prompting around 7,000 responses, both for and against. Earlier this week, the band removed the link (see update below).
The US media host Glenn Beck drew attention to the song on his Fox show, describing it as "evil" and "pure propaganda". Referring to the song's lyrics, he said: "Before you know it, 'Israeli occupation' will be standard fare. Everyone will just see it as they're just occupying that land. That is a lie."

If the song makes it into the UK charts, it is likely to cause a dilemma for the BBC. The corporation ran into controversy last month for masking out the words "free Palestine" from a number recorded by Mic Righteous. It did it in order "to ensure impartiality was maintained", it said. On another recent occasion, the word "Palestine" was excised from a BBC script.
I have no idea whether this campaign song will sink or soar. But the controversy building around it even before release is an indication of what could be yet to come.
1.42pm update: I've just had an email from Frank Barat at OneWorld who tells me:
"Coldplay did not remove link from its Facebook page. Facebook removed the link because thousands of people (and computer generated posts) reported it as abusive."
My apologies to Coldplay for misrepresenting them.

No comments: