Do Music Videos Serve a Purpose?

A long while back I had a post titled If Video Killed the Radio Star than What Killed the Video Star? Well today I was thinking about music videos once again. Some videos are classic, meshing with the music so well. Then there are others which have you shaking your head saying, "What the does this have to do with the music?" Better yet, does video have any place in music?

Growing up I remember some of my favorite music videos, The Smashing Pumpkins "Tonight, Tonight", Weezer’s "Buddy Holly" and Korn’s "Freak on a Leash" to name a few. They all had their little quirks which made them special, but they weren’t necessarily my favorite because they accented the music well. They grabbed my attention because they were well done visually. I also recall each year around September, getting psyched for the MTV Video Music Awards where the best music videos of the year would be rewarded. I even appreciated the early days of TRL with that chump Carson Daily. Boy, those were the days.

Now, with Music Television dead, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a music video in its entirety for quite some time, and damn, I love music a lot more now than I did in the 90s. There is just no need to watch them anymore. Music doesn’t need visuals to correspond with it. It’s lackluster bands like Kiss for example who need to stimulate the eyes because of their inability to stimulate the ears. Thinking back on it, there were actually bands who sold records because of their fancy videos. It’s almost funny to think that a person would buy audio to be reminded of a video.

Music videos were great when I was younger, when visuals took precedence over audio, but it’s just not what music is about. I’m not going to argue against their presence, because they certainly aren’t hurting anyone, but the world is just as well off without videos than with them. Maybe there was a reason Music Television died. Music videos were tapping in to the most dominant medium (television), and television is being taken over by a medium which has become practically just as dominant and certainly more efficient, the internet. Through the Internet we have flushed out the unimportant elements relating to music and honed in on what is important, the music itself. We once again are listening, not watching.