This morning I heard an interesting feature by Neda Ulaby on NPR about how music video directors have changed their styles and methods to adapt to the fact that few people watch videos on TV anymore, instead checking them out on much smaller computer monitor, Blackberries and even cell phones.
It made me realize I don't watch videos. Sure, during the ‘80s I was happy to see videos by my favorite bands, but not because it meant anything to the music, but it was a way to see the bands on something other than a still photo on a record jacket. Even then I rarely sought them out actively.
Nowadays, I go to You Tube, but only to hear the music. I use it more as an audio jukebox than to see the images. In fact, I can't tell you what happens in the videos of the songs I click most on You Tube. I'm not looking, just listening.
Does a good video make a song better? Does a bad video ruin a good song? For me, the answers to both questions are "no."
I don't need an interpretive dance to enhance a Morandi still life and I don't think a melodramic, oversimplification of lyrics makes a song better. In fact, music - like literature - is especially good at fueling the imagination and letting listeners - like readers - form their own mental images of the subject matter and emotions based on the aural or verbal hues.
Forcing images onto the music demands that we all interpret the art in the same way. It's why few people ever love the movie after adoring the novel. The film tells us that the way we had imagined the characters, the settings, the scenes was wrong. The director's vision overlays and often obscures the vision of the songwriter or novelist.
It's not their fault, of course, they're doing exactly what is expected of them. And, they will tell you the movie is not the novel and the two shouldn't be confused.
On this we would agree. And, I would add, the video is not the song and the two shouldn't be confused.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
