It would be a shame, as early MTV and the pop video market was and is a great show case for new movie makers, and also released money for them to push there experimentation.

This is a really interesting thread Landon, I'm glad somebody brought it up. In between bickering about supersuper I've been a bit tired of the forum recently.

Firstly have a look at http://videos.antville.org/

It's a great collection of promo's and Ad's, might make you feel a bit better about the state of it all. I started directing about a year ago, originally wanting to do so as an extention of my photography, and to be honest also because I wanted to do things that were so different from booty n bling videos.

The problem is it's so tricky these days. A low budget promo used to have about a £10,000 budget - which is absolutely fuck all - but because record companies make more money of bands like S club 7, all money is ploughed into those promo's and their promotion. A good example of that is the new massive attack video (girl drinking herself to death) directed by Jonathon Glazer, which was on a budget of £5000 (the sort of money you could hardly even do one of those moving fashion skits with).

Record companies aren't willing to spend money on promo's for edgier artists, whereas the directors who would like to work with these artists therefore can't because financially it can't be done. You always have to call in favours, for instance getting editors and post done for free - this only works if the director or band have a good notoriety, thought it's happenning less and less.

Young directors with original ideas are pretty stuck at the moment. Creative constraints always relate back to money, and I know from personal experience that the most creative idea can turn to shit because the people at the record companies won't invest any money into something thats exciting and 'risky'.

Promo's used to be a way of establishing the artists identity and style - especially for new bands. Now it's pretty much making 12 year old girls look like they have a good cleavage which is pretty sick.

Anyway, Chris Cunningham is still working, so there is still hope.

Boy do I love You Tube! :-) http://www.youtube.com/my_favorites

I agree Sebastion, it would be a shame as the format of music video has almost limitless potential.

But at the same time, I can kind of understand why record companies don't want to splash a bunch of money on a great video for a new band if MTV will never play it, what's the point? The record companies are probably more focussed on fighting tooth and nail to keep their now-redundant means of production and distribution going. They're just not needed anymore.

In Canada, Muchmusic has a government protected monopoly on broadcasting music videos (Canadian MTV's not allowed to play videos), but they're trying to convince the gov't to let them play EVEN LESS videos then they do now. They just don't think people want to watch them anymore.

Check out www.softcitizen.com and the work of Ante Kovac, Jonnie Ross, Jason Albertin and Monkmus.

It is a shame as MTV Made its first money and fame as a music pop culture channel, pushing the boundaries in visualy creative media.
Music and film is a very powerfull tool to sell by.
I was wondering if its still there but just moved to other channels, as Ben mentined there is a lot around with 24 hr pop videos., and if so will these channels take over eventualy from MTV which is begining to go in the direction of more conforming channels, by all accounts

music videos are entering a new phase in their timeline where it's more about owning them rather than watching them with video downloads to ipods/ psps etc..,
it is true that stylistically the mainstream is incredibly single minded r+b = ass, guitar band = performance video but pop music has been really boring of late, but evidently that is changing now downloads are included in the charts. MTV has always had a facist playlist...
There are a lot more music videos being made now with no budget but lots of ideas and potential and people are experimenting which is extremely exciting there's just no mega popstar mini movies anymore (aside from the very dubious 'Trapped in the Closet' from R kelly) but beautiful animation or short vignettes aplenty.
'You tube' will play a massive part in all this as it's free for the public to upload with seemingly no censorship.
Checkout http://www.theworldofadam.com from some antony and the johnsons animations i'm not sure if they where commissioned by the band but they are beautifully naive and incredibly touching.
Music and image are intrinsic to promotion, it's like every media/ creative form at the moment fashion, literature, music, art and thier practitioners, they're/ we're all working out how to use the internet to it's full potential but at the same time the goal posts are being pushed by technology itself, constantly creating new potentials to be explored.
Remember Dire Straits wanting thier MTV where the fuck are they? and who cares?

Creativity has never and will never have nothing to do with money. Period.
Where there is a will there is a way!

I appreciate what you are saying, but isn't that just a romantic vision of creativity?

Unfortunately in the real world money does relate to creativity as especially with directing promo's, you need the finance in order to not hit the walls creatively. Ask any producer that.

You think you don't need money to develop fim, to do a shoot, even to run a website like this? There's a difference between letting money ruin your creativity and using money to enhance it. Either way in the world of music videos it's pretty much a requirement on some level.

Admittedly it is a romantic vision of creativity, I know, as i sit here in my bubble, but everything else is down to skill, practicalities and function isn't it ? I come from the old school of all you need is a pen, paper and a good idea.

Constraints are always an exciting prospect especially in music videos as that's where the real creativity can start as people pay more attention to substance as well as considering style - Michel Gondry's work is a perfect example, his budgets are invisible but his ingenuity and creative skills are blatent.

Music video should be judged as a freeform medium the way music is rather than it being about whether it appears on MTV or not it's like saying Radio1 dictates the nations musical taste which is now an old world view.