I saw the band OK GO perform “This Too Shall Pass” on The Colbert Report then saw their videos for the song and am overjoyed by their brilliance. They made two versions, one featuring a giant Rube Goldberg contraption and one performed live with a marching band and choir. Absolutely Amazing. And if you have never seen their first video, dancing on the 8 treadmills, then you should probably watch that as well.
Thank Good there are still great music videos despite the fact that MTV has turned into a wasteland of our culture’s worst. Interestingly, State Farm Insurance paid to make the first of their videos, which demonstrates how inverted the system has become: while record companies used to make videos as advertisements to sell the record and MTV would use videos to sell advertising, now the advertisers directly pay the self-distributing artists to make the video. That is cutting out a few middlemen! And because the band was allowed complete creative freedom (unlike under the old feudal system of labels), selling-out refers more to the advertiser than the band! This is the Internet induced transfer of power from corporation to creation and it is beautiful to watch!
Freedom is the most important concept for artistic creation and inspiration. I also believe that artists should be supported and compensated for their contributions, but we are still figuring out how to do that efficiently, as opposed to the master/slave relationship between labels and artists. Eric has been insisting that I join Rhapsody Music for months and I had been reluctant for a few reasons, but their recent price drop, to $10/month and their upgraded iphone app that allows downloading made it irresistible. It is pretty awesome. Instant access to an enormous catalog of music from around the world is an enormous increase in my freedom to listen to music; I no longer have to consider which albums or tracks I want to purchase with my limited budget and thus eliminate an unnecessarily competitive music market. In the past hour, I have discovered great music from Owl City, Talvin Singh, Segun Bucknor and Ke$ha. While it is not free, it is a step closer to freedom.