Internet killed the video star…

Recently, while watching an episode of Weeds on an online site called www.surfthechannel.com, I came across a song by Page France. The particular song, entitled “Jesus,” was positively mesmerizing and so I logged onto youtube to find a video of the song. While there wasn’t an official video, a young girl made her own music video for the song that was particularly sweet.

I could go a couple different directions from this point. I could talk about the show Weeds and how amazing it is and how the music they choose for the show is generally stellar and how I really envy the person that has that job. Or I could talk about Page France and the recent influx of Christian artists into the indie rock scene a la Sufjan Stevens. But I’m not. Instead I want to talk about the state of the music video and my first instinct to turn to youtube.

Whenever I want to watch a music video, I simply log on to youtube and find what I want. I believe that’s a pretty common instinct. Last night, after my internet roaming ceased, I turned on the TV. VH1’s show “Nocturnal State” (basically just music videos) was on. While falling asleep I lay there hoping to come across some Vampire Weekend or…I don’t even know what I was hoping for actually…of course, after a video by Usher, Duffy, and Gavin Rossdale, I clicked off the tube and went to sleep unfulfilled. Today I was thinking about the state of the music video. What place do cable stations like MTV, VH1, and CMT have in the world of youtube? Why would I watch “theirtube?” Perhaps this is why these television stations have turned to trashy reality and dating shows instead. If that’s the case why do they still cling to outdated programs such as TRL and Nocturnal State? Obviously television is no longer the appropriate medium for the music video.

Perhaps, I thought, MTV and VH1 have great resources for watching music videos online. However, upon further investigation I was once again disappointed. Their sites were poorly designed, extremely hard to navigate, and lacking in diversity of artists. Have they given up? Why can’t they come up with a youtube specifically for music videos? Perhaps a program that plays music videos based on other ones you like Pandora. Now that’d be cool.

The bigwigs over at MTV need to take notice of what is happening. Seriously. Music is moving online and they are doing nothing to keep up. As someone who grew up watching MTV in order to watch music videos, it saddens me that the station no longer fills the same niche.