It's been gone long enough to seem fresh: a hit single (“Pow Pow”), a hot actress (Anna Kendrick), and a schmancy director (David Ayer). MTV is using its mountains of Jersey Shore cash to take a defibrillator to music videos. Will it work? Does it matter?
The Viacom behemoth is partnering with MEAN magazine to create a series of music videos called “Supervideo,” so named because it will utilize “buzzworthy music, filmmakers and talent” and give said talent the “artistic license to create a multitude of music video formats.”
It's no secret that MTV has all but abandoned promoting actual music, let alone music videos. It has also been hemorrhaging viewers in the post-TRL era. But given that half of America's children watch Nickelodeon, and that MTV's website gets 60 million unique visitors a month, it's clearly still in a position to determine what's “buzzworthy” or not for kids/teens/college students and the parents who buy them shit.
The Hype Williams monstrosities of yesteryear died with the CD. Supervideo will attempt to resurrect them, albeit in a more tasteful way. This video–with its eye candy and that evil dude from Training Day–ain't bad. But given the comments that it has garnered on MTV so far, the network may have trouble convincing the monster that it created…
