The Future of Music Videos

It’s common knowledge that music videos are a dying breed. They make no money, they’re shot on barely nothing, and unfortunately, they don’t really advertise new talent unless their video is stellar. Even then, we barely see them. 

These past two years have shown us some radical changes for what may just be the future of our beloved shorts, namely, the commercialization of bands and the products they place on screen. While music videos may be an ad for the artist, advertisers have realized that they can be ads for other products, too. Products that will pay for the cost of the video and promote the band at the same time, of course.

The first major fusion of the two; singing and advertising, is, I felt, with the Three Doors Down “Citizen Soldier” videos. Sure, tons of bands have their songs IN commercials, but rarely do bands make their entire music video a commercial for an organization. Yes, we’ve seen videos that include the movies they belong to the soundtrack of, but that’s different. Turning their entire music video into an ad not just for a product but for an entire organization marked the first transgression of music video purity. See the filth here. 

In 2007 we saw the appearance of the the “Where U At?” Boost Mobile campaign, featuring Jermaine Dupri, Young Jeezy, and the seriously flamboyant Mickey Avalon: