Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on the potential pitfalls of fan-made videos, those D.I.Y. clips that turn music fans into auteurs, and that, for the most part, drive us crazy. Because the contests are imagined as a way for the artists to connect with their fans, the inevitable grumbling arises when professionals try to horn in on the action:
Take Ramon Boutviseth, who was one of two winners in a recent contest from the alternative rock back Incubus. The band asked fans to make a video for its new single “Dig,” about a couple’s stormy relationship. “I’d heard of them. I mean, I heard a few songs, but I don’t think I was as hardcore of a fan as the other guys” who entered the contest, said Mr. Boutviseth, a 24-year-old video producer in Huntersville, N.C. His video, which starred two of his friends as the protagonists and wove in performance footage Incubus provided to contestants, has been viewed more than 100,000 times on YouTube. Mr. Boutviseth has produced music videos before for independent artists, and has since entered another video contest for the band Papa Roach…
It seems like it’s been ages since the last chapter of R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet saga–and that wait’s probably been exacerbated by the end of chapter 12, where one friend confessed to another, “That ho was me!” More »
