When a generation cried out “I want my MTV,” they got it.
Relying on videos from bands daring or desperate enough to try television, MTV delivered cutting-edge music – in that newfangled “stereo television” – with a story line to boot.
Video made the radio stars.
That was the 1980s. But MTV abandoned the music video, and radio doesn’t have any more stars. They’re all on the Internet.
Thank heavens for money, the mother of invention. A sniff of opportunity, and the old-guard TV networks are in, eager to lure high-value viewers ages 18 to 34, chase profits on the digital frontier and shuck costly record label deals.
The answer is indie, short for independent artists: hip bands hungry enough to do anything for a break, including selling the rights to future releases in DVD sets and digital downloads.
The upstart networks – WB and UPN, and before them, Fox – have been lining up the fresh talent for a few years, but CBS last month became the first of the old guard to test the new paradigm with a show aimed at grownups.
“Love Monkey,” a dramedy starring Tom Cavanagh (“Ed”) as a record executive in search of love, isn’t cutting-edge storytelling. But the intense allegiance to indie rock, the stuff you don’t hear on the radio or MTV, signified that mainstream TV is ready to test a partnership between creativity and profit.
It’s about the music, man. And the money, sir.
It didn’t quite work out for “Love Monkey”; the show went on “indefinite hiatus” last week after airing only three of the nine completed episodes. But the fact that CBS tried is enough to indicate this is a trend that makes sense and has staying power.
UPN’s “Veronica Mars” has a soundtrack available on CD, featuring new stuff like Tegan & Sara and Mike Doughty. The soundtrack from the WB’s “One Tree Hill” (actually the second soundtrack) spins Citizen Cope and growing force Shout Out Louds.
Often credited with reinventing the music video, Fox’s “The O.C.” has spawned five soundtrack CDs.
Commercials also have embraced indie music. Sure you can still hear the dinosaurs rockin’ out for Cadillac, but viewers have also heard upstarts the Mosquitos on a Bailey’s Irish Cream ad. And Toyota hired duo Fisher to write Beautiful World for an ad. The song later made it on to a Fisher CD, leading to more play on UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model.”
CBS brought hipster D.J. and “Love Monkey” consultant Nic Harcourt to the Television Critics Association meetings last month in California.
“There’s a lot of really good independent music out there, and that’s becoming a big part of the musical character of the show,” Harcourt said.
“Alternates,” such as Si Se and She Wants Revenge mean hip sound, low cost. Teen rocker Teddy Geiger not only sang in “Love Monkey,” he had a major acting role.
For bands, TV offers a national audience that translates to sales. Even if they were already on their way, a plug on a show or even a commercial seems to coincide with a rise in sales.
“It sort of speaks to the bigger role of what the music is in the show,” Harcourt said. “People listen to music so differently now than they did five, 10 years ago.”
