Internet Made the Video Star
Monday night, I hosted the 14th Annual Webby Awards red carpet, where the digerati gathered to celebrate the best and brightest of the Internet. OK Go walked away with the Webby for Video Artist of the Year and delivered their five word Webby speech -- "fight for net neutrality now" -- highlighting the importance of the Internet in their careers.
The Internet, particularly YouTube, has been the breeding ground for a generation of new talent developed outside of the label system. Household names from Justin Bieber to Charice and newcomer Grayson Michael Wilson have become overnight successes from complete obscurity. These stars of tomorrow don't need The Mickey Mouse Club, MTV or a reality show to prove their skills and cultural relevance.
At a recent conference in New York called TechCrunch Disrupt, Lady Gaga's manager Troy Carter mentioned how they now "create music videos for YouTube." This statement very much represents the state of the industry, where some of today's biggest artists are gaining traction online, not just from their music but from the uniqueness of their music videos. The music video as a tool isn't something new but, given the difficulty to stand out in the crowded media universe and the lack of dedicated music video channels, has taken on new importance.
Back in the day, fans would wait anxiously by their TV sets for MTV to premiere the latest music videos. Those moments were cultural events in many ways. Well, we know where that's evolved. (Two words: Jersey Shore.) Now artists are moving major releases toward their sites and YouTube to distribute videos to the masses. When Gaga released "Bad Romance" on Nov. 29, 2009, she made the video launch an entire online experience. The video has since gotten more than 228 million views and is one of the most viewed ever on the site.
Ok Go is one of these phenoms as well.I blogged about them when they released "This Too Shall Pass" back in March. The one-take video featuring a Rube Goldberg machine constructed to operate with the song quickly went viral and got 900,000 views in its first day. To date, it now has more than 14 million views.
In the video above, I caught up with the band again at the Webby's to chat about their win and their thoughts on the future of music. Bassist Tim Norwind shared that "The Internet has become a really exciting space for people to create. It's funny because we don't think of it as its own separate thing anymore. It's like an art gallery, a theater or a concert venue. It's another place where you can make things and share things. It's been incredibly important. We've been able to reach a lot more people around the world because of it."
This week they continued to impress fans with yet another music video for their song "End Love:"
So what if video killed the radio star? The Internet is resurrecting them both back to life.