Why Music Needs Video

Today’s guest blog comes to us via Kevin Jacoby, mega-talented musician and co-founder of Sessionville, a site dedicated to helping musicians learn new skills, navigate the often-insane music business, and build a bigger fanbase. And as we’ll see, these days it’s easier than ever to grow your audience and connect with those fans via video.

It was August 1st, 1981, a warm, sunny afternoon outside of MTV headquarters. There was a countdown on the screen, and then the words, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll”

At that very moment the screen filled with not just the dulcet tone of The Buggles singing Video Killed The Radio Star, but the sight of them as well.

And it was from that moment on that video became one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of a modern musician.

Video for the masses

It might be more accurate to say that it was Ed Sullivan bringing The Beatles into the living rooms of America that proved how powerful the visual image of a traditionally aural art could be. But, for me, that misses the point of how powerful a revolution MTV started with their new format.

Ed Sullivan and The Beatles were an anomaly. MTV and The Buggles were the beginning of something that still hasn’t ended.

Today we are positively saturated with video. Over 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and they’re not just cat videos, they’re just as much visuals in support of music. Slideshows, old concert footage and indie bands with DV cams are absolutely everywhere, and rightly so.

The fact is, it’s incredibly easy for an indie artist or band to produce video. It may not be a Guy Ritchie-directed, academy award-deserving masterpiece, but it will sure as hell be something for fans to love and share. And that’s kinda the point. The new way of doing things.

Back 2001 I was in a band signed to Atlantic Records. The contract was worth about three million bucks, and they had specified half a million of it for the first video. Arguments were had about directors, locations and whether or not MTV was ever going to play music videos again anyway.

That was the old way of doing things—a giant waste of time and money that makes no sense in the modern world.

That memory occurred to me as I was gearing up to do a show at Rockwood in the East Village a few weeks ago. It was then that I remembered that, as an independent artist in NYC, I have access to a whole lot of talented people just around the corner. You can’t throw a baseball in this town without hitting an aspiring director, producer or actor. So I called in a favor and had an aspiring director/actor/producer come out with his camera and shoot some footage.

Is it academy award-worthy? No. It’s one camera, focused on the stage, documenting the event. But that’s all I really needed: cheap, easy and accessible. Because that’s what the situation called for. I needed to record the show, have something for non-New Yorker fans to see online, produce a great advertisement for the next show and have a way to objectively critique my own performance so I could learn and get better. And I did all that for fifty bucks and a couple of beers (for the aspiring actor/producer/director).

I also came out with original content like this video to post on places like Facebook, YouTube and Sessionville, and a great demo to send to other clubs so they can see what they’re getting before they book me.

Like I said, it’s pretty powerful stuff.

Why musicians need video

Human beings are visual creatures. We don’t rely on our sense of smell like dogs, nor do we navigate with sonar like a bat. We use sight, arguably the most powerful of our senses, to navigate the world, keep us from danger, assess situations and decide what we like.

Music is a hugely powerful thing. But it doesn’t always tell the complete story. If the volume is too low, it can be ignored. If the mix isn’t right, it may not be taken seriously. And if the listener isn’t in the mood for that particular style, format, instrumentation or tempo, really good music could be unfairly rejected out of hand, never to be heard from again. Let’s face it, today’s music industry has not been very good at introducing us to new and exciting things.

But add the element of video to the mix, and a whole new conversation happens. The power of moving pictures captivates us. We stop and stare at the lights and colors, regardless of if they seem like a JJ Abrams movie or reality TV. We make eye contact with the person on the screen, feel empathy for her, and perhaps imagine a relationship with her. We see the clothes, the setting, the facial expressions and intent.

And then a funny things happens. We start listening to the music more closely. One sense aids the other in a stereophonic symphony of multimedia input. We smile, we cry, we identify. And when it’s all over, we remember.

That’s what independent musicians need. We need people to experience our music quickly, and yet on multiple levels. We need to stick in the hearts and minds of a jaded audience. We need new fans to pass on our music to their friends. All these things can be done with music alone. But they can be done much more effectively with music and video.