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how do you get on MTV?

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"Bright Eyes' video for First Day of My Life is #1 on MTV.com's Hot 5 Videos. "


this comes directly from the saddle creek website (its a little old, march 31st i believe, but at the time i checked it out, its true).

now, to my knowledge, no Bright Eyes videos have been seen on anything other than MTV2's Subterranean, which was kinda cool a few years ago and now plays music from the bravery *sigh*

my question is this: is it impossible to get on MTV through demand alone? do you have to be on a major label? is there some sort of payola scam going on?

I know this is all going to sound hoplessly naive, im just looking for someone who might actually know how these things work now, and how they've worked in the past. And ignore the question that pertains to the validity or coolness of being on MTV, because thats not really what I'm asking.

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

MTV.com's Hot 5 Videos != MTV

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

and Bright Eyes has a publishing deal with Sony - their presence in the rock world isn't a bane to the majors' existence.

Don't forget the Offspring were on Epitaph.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

Ah, yes, but Epitaph spent oodles of $$$$ getting Smash (& Rancid, too, I think) out there.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)


yeah, i understand, but wouldn't it be in MTV's interest to put a video that obviously has a pre-existing base of consumers on its channel at, say, TRL time?

it seems counter-intuitive to me, but again, i dont really understand how these things work.

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

You get on MTV through quality, demand, and connections. The payola involved is just the fact that you've paid $30,000 to make a goddamn video that may or may not get shown. I work at an indie that's gotten videos placed, and it's mainly because of our good relations with MTV. Which, yes, is greased along with gifts etc., but nothing so crass as indie promo.

Oddly enough, it's easier for non-mainstream stuff to get on VH1 or VH1 Classic than MTV, mainly, although MTVU has been a good outlet of late.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

Alex in NYC has to approve you.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

how do you get on MTV?

Practice, Practice, Practice

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:01 (twenty years ago)

i fucked Kennedy


*SLUUURRP*

― le scourge, Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

MTVU would be so great if it wasn't for all the college stuff.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

for some reason I misread this as 'how do you get on with MTV?' I was all ready to type 'fine, she's a good friend, I don't see as much of her as I'd like though'.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

haha

― PB, Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

Testosterone; Tits/Ass; Nice Haircut; Bling

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

Carson Daly has none of those things?!?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

Well, he's got a pretty nice f**ng haircut!

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

Bright Eyes is not Top 40 material. I barely hear hooks when I listen to this guy's songs. TRL can air the video in their "Close calls" segment all they want - the viewers will not be buying it. Offspring and Rancid made sense to invest into, because their songs were actually catchy.

― billstevejim, Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)


i guess your right, i mean, how could anything compete with a massive, instantly catchy song like "hollaback girl" or "do somethin"?

i dunno, im definately not among the crowd who actually believes in the supposed "pop" sensibility of Bright Eyes, but does that really matter? both of the songs i mentioned above are god awful, but the person singing them is a brand, so it sells. is doe-eyed Mr. Oberst really that different?

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 7 April 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

I remember learning from a friend that worked at VH-1 that the "top ten" video countdown shows (not the call in stuff) were almost totally arbitrary. Because, if you think about it, how would their rank be tallyed, anyway?

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 7 April 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

There is a list in one of the Billboard mags that prints MTV and VH1's top spins. TRL is supposedly viewer requests. The "Top 10" or "Top 20" shows are supposed to be a combination of these 2 things and "album sales."

― billstevejim, Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

However the "viewer requests" are grossly skewed by street teams.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

That Bright Eyes tune is a smash... here in Mexico City is getting heavy rotation in the radio station where i work and the that's not weird since i'm partly in charge of the music, but the weird thing is that it's getting heavy rotation cause people is asking for it a lot, A LOT!

― elgolfo (elgolfo), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)


elgolfo, OTM

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

There are relatively few people actually picking what videos go in rotation and then the number of videos is very small. Those few people are influenced by certain things (like trying to give the major labels balance, favors and cool shit -- I work in a more trad business environment now and they do this here too) but for the most part the programming dept does what they think is right. Way more integrity and bigger balls than radio programming. So you have a certain number of videos by the Ludacris, and Britneys, the 50 Cents, and the Ushers and the Green Days, etc, that are no questions asked going to be played. After that there are only a few slots for "new" videos which could mean a lot of different things. A lot of times the programming dept will choose the remaining videos based on buzz, radio play, press, or the actual video itself (is it cool), playability (where/when on the channel can we play this -- this is prob why they won't play Bright Eyes, doesn't really fit with other stuff on the channel) or just personal preference. When it comes down to it, there are a bazillion different videos competing for relatively few spaces, and shrinking air time taken up by Road Rules and crap. With Bright Eyes, which I'm sure some folks at the station want played somewhere, the obvious answer is to put it on MTV2 or MTVU or whatever and be done with it. In this case, it's nice for the programmers that it's on MTV.com, therefore it's getting it's own special kinda love. I'm sure that "demand" is mostly a diligent Bright Eyes fan club anyhow, and this prob what the folks at MTV think. If BE sold more than 100,000 records, its MTV.com popularity would be more believable.

― mcd (mcd), Thursday, 7 April 2005 20:50 (twenty years ago)

Q: how do you get on MTV?
A: Practice, dude, practice!

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 7 April 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

I made that joke already.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 7 April 2005 20:56 (twenty years ago)

Hm, I'd say you riffed offa the basic riff, kinda.
I, sorta, banged off a verse-chorus cover.
Neither of us was original anyway. But then so's MTV.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 7 April 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

Q: how do you get on MTV?
A: you go to the Crossroads and wait for this shady guy with a contract to show up.

― @@r0n h. z@nd3r$ (AaronHz), Thursday, 7 April 2005 22:08 (twenty years ago)

(back before MTV the contract was for guitar skills, now all you get is the MTV airplay)

― @@r0n h. z@nd3r$ (AaronHz), Thursday, 7 April 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)


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