The Future is Right in Front of You

In the 1990’s Pearl Jam actively shunned the super-saturating spotlight of music videos. They feared overexposure and for 15 years or so opted to abstain from making videos. My how things have changed, in last month they’ve released two videos from their recent album Backspacer. First up was the beautifully shot Amongst The Waves interspersing sparkling HD footage of the band playing live with beautiful ocean imagery and finally the sobering images of the oil spill in the Gulf. From an artistic standpoint, their latest video for Unthought Known is far more groundbreaking – not in how it looks, but for how it was shot.

The world of the music video has changed into something almost unrecognisable from where it was a few decades ago. In the past record companies would spend millions on videos in hopes that the exposure and popularity would buoy album sales. Then the internet turned up and two things happened – people stopped buying albums and YouTube became the defacto music channel. All of a sudden the old equation of spending heaps on a video to prop up album sales didn’t fit this modern world. The world of videos was changed forever and the old rules were thrown onto the fire. What emerged is much like the initial advent of videos all those years ago – creative freedom. Take one look at the videos of Ok Go and you’ll know what I mean. Artists are taking ownership of their videos and using them as a creative outlet, not as a sales tool.

Perhaps that’s why Pearl Jam has returned to videos – the fact that they don’t have to fits with the culture of the band. What makes Unthought Known interesting is how it was shot. HD cameras are getting cheaper by the moment and most modern DSLR’s will shoot in this uber-high-res format. Its easy to shoot in the panicle of modern technology with off the shelf gear purchased at Best Buy. You’d think that if PJ was going to shoot a video off the cuff they’d use one of these high end cameras. In fact they already shoot all of their gigs in HD – so why not just release a live video with some of that footage?

Unthought Known was shot with a laptop webcam. Check out this fan shot video where you can clearly see how the clip was filmed.

To the band there is meaning to this – there must be. You could say it was a spur of the moment idea to shoot the song and they grabbed what was at hand, but would hazard a guess that this is more of a statement to the accessibility we all have to technology, communication and ultimately creativity. It’s an exciting time in the world of the arts – with the advent of the internet the opportunities for creative people to share their work with the world are greater then ever. It feels like we are on the brink of a golden age of modern arts – the question is – what’s next?