Last week, alt-rock icons Devo debuted a music video for their new track, “What We Do.” It’s catchy, fun, and very Devo-ish. If you’d like, you can check out the straight-up linear version of the video in various places you might expect, like this one.
Still here? Good, because you don’t want to click that first link anyway. You want to check out the much more interesting interactive version of the video, posted here on Mashable. Instead of a single instance of the video experience that is the same for each viewer, this version invites the audience to click/drag within the video to pan right or left at their discretion, focusing on whatever scene within the video they’d like. By going interactive, Devo has challenged the old-school norm of what a music video has always been, opting for a new way to engage the viewer, and a new definition of what a music video could be.
Devo may have been the latest, but they certainly weren’t the first. Over the last couple years, several interactive videos popped up around the Web with the most notable being Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown”, a Google Chrome experiment featuring the track “We Used To Wait.” A few months ago, the popular internet award program and inspirational portal, FWA, tabbed “The Wilderness Downtown” as its Site Of The Year. FWA has long been known for showcasing some of the most creative work out there, so Arcade Fire’s FWA SOTY score was noteworthy.
A quick scan of a few other semi-recent interactive music videos of note shows how varied and innovative these executions can be. Broken Bells take the user on a z-axis vector journey with “October” and Lissie’s “Cuckoo” reacts to faux global weather reports, while Radiohead’s “House of Cards” is generated purely by data. John Mayer uses augmented reality to deliver “Heartbreak Warfare,” and Robyn’s “Killing Me” lets the user participate with a simple hashtag. Arcade Fire was an early arrival to the party, launching “Neon Bible” well before they returned with “Wilderness.” There are some big names there and I think we can certainly expect more. We’re seeing a very strong caliber of artists, and a very diverse collection of the interaction models they’re using. Cool stuff.
As this nascent form of creative expression gains traction, I can’t help but wonder if MTV is watching. Even as the network has shifted its focus over the years from music videos to original series, MTV remains the name most people associate with music videos. With their young and digitally-fluent audience, they’re now in a position to build a similar association with interactive videos. There’s an opportunity to become the default directory (if not outright aggregator) for bands and labels that create this new content. And since it all exists in the digital world, viewers don’t have to travel very far to share the content – and MTV’s foothold – in the social space.
On August 28 of this year, somewhere in between episodes of 16 and Pregnant and Jersey Shore, MTV will host their 28th annual Video Music Awards. And there’s your chance, MTV, to position yourselves as the premiere curators of this new form of expression. Let’s see an acknowledgement of the art form with the first ever Best Interactive Video VMA.
MTV originally flourished back in the day because they embraced a brand-new type of media, becoming its de facto owner. Their position as the music video world leader was made possible by bands who pushed the medium forward by creating content for MTV to deliver to its audience.
Devo and the other bands mentioned above are doing it again. Here’s hoping MTV follows their lead.
San Luis Obispo is not a place you want to stay indoors for any length of time. The sunshine, fresh air and rolling hills are pretty much screaming “come enjoy us!”
