Online Video Killed the TV Star by Amy Ott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYiebIl-naM

The Beatles will forever be a world icon. It does not matter where in the world you are people know “The Beatles” and a least one of their songs. Even after The Beatles split up, many of them have continued to produce music. Paul McCartney is one of them. Paul McCartney continues to produce music, have concerts, and is constantly in media headlines. The video that I chose for this assignment is Paul McCartney’s video for his new single “Nod Your Head” from his new album Memory Almost Full. I had heard about this new video on the news a few days ago and could not help but wonder why Paul McCartney felt the need to advertise it on YouTube.com. I know he does not need the money. He makes millions everyday by just being Paul McCartney. Then it occurred to me that he is probably trying to attract a new and younger audience. By sending his video straight to YouTube.com, he has that new audience and fan base in his hands. He already has the rest of the world in his hands why not put a new generation into them.

I think that the cultural significance of this particular video is the fact that it is being advertised online. Paul McCartney has been around since before most of our parents were born. Paul McCartney could release a new single, not even advertise it, and he could still sell millions. It used to be musicians would release a single, make a video for it, and then try to get MTV or VH1 to air it on the television just to get people to buy their music. Now, online is the best place to get the attention of music lovers. Jefferson Graham states in his article, “Videos used to be given to networks such as MTV to sell CDs. Now, labels charge for video usage. ‘It was clear that all of our content needed to be paid for,’ says Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s global digital business unit (Graham 2B).” In all actuality, MTV rarely plays music videos anymore, so obviously these music lovers are going to go online to watch them. When MTV does play music videos, they never play the whole video and it is usually edited. The next best thing to do is go online to watch the video. It is obvious that Paul McCartney is a good business man so of course he knew what he was doing by putting his new video on YouTube.com. Millions and millions of people visit YouTube.com everyday to watch different videos.

This video was produced because Paul McCartney had a new single coming out and the best way to get people to hear and see it is to make a music video for it. When the video starts off it reminds me of a 80s rock video with a “rock video vixen” lying in a bed nodding her head. It goes through different scenes of women, men, children, and even dogs nodding their heads to the beat of the music. Throughout the video there are clips of real life, everyday people nodding their head with Paul McCartney. In Convergences, Sara Tucker discusses the “liveness” of videos and she states, “…this investigation has focused on “liveness” – a term that originated in broadcasting and has grown to be synonymous with authenticity and a trusted reality (Convergences 160).” Although the “Nod your head” video is far from live, the clips with these everyday people add that bit of live reality to the video. These clips make the real music video look almost homemade and not professionally done even though it was.

The audience for this video is just about anyone. There is the online audience which includes anyone and everyone that is connected to the internet. There are also the diehard Beatles’ fans. Paul McCartney is just trying to keep up with the changing times that our society today is constantly going through. By putting this video up on the internet, especially on YouTube.com he is attracting a new and younger generation of fans. I think that the message of this video is simply Paul McCartney saying, “I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere!” He still knows how to be cool with the changing times and how to attract a new audience.

Bibliography:

Atwan, Robert. ­Convergences: Second Edition. Bedford/ St. Martin’s: 2005.

Graham, Jefferson. "Consumers Bop to Rhythym of Online Music Videos; Sites Providing Instant Access Grow in Popularity." Money 3 Oct. 2007: 2b. LexisNexis. Louisiana State University. 5 Oct. 2007.