The thread of MTV has run through my life since my 90s childhood, and I often indulge in a nod in August to that day back in 1981 when ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’. This month I spotted what sounds like a fascinating exhibition at the MOMA in New York, tracing animation and doffing a hat to MTV. And I stumbled onto one of MTV’s earliest Creative Directors. Read on.
I also write about the grey area that is ‘digital ownership’- we don’t really own the movies we buy off online services- this was sparked by a Lord Of The Rings fan who one fine recent day found he didn’t have the movies he had once bought.
Plus, a visit to VHS store with a twist and the question- are comfortable jeans are sexy? Are sexy jeans comfortable?
As always, grateful to have The Colour Bar in your feed, or your inbox, or both. If you have not already, please subscribe for these weekly dispatches here , or get The Colour Bar in your inbox.
Cheers,
Shakey
Bought but not owned: A lease is not a sale.
Curated/Cuts: Blissclub Jeans + VHS-Tok.
MTV Roots: Glimpse the start of wild broadcast.
➕ · Korean content in India · ChatGPT for teens · Mega K-Pop festival ·
1. Bought but not owned
So you’re a movie buff. You bought the extended version of Lord Of The Rings a few years ago (the film, not the book). You wake one evening with a burning desire to revisit your favourite film. Lo! It’s not on that digital shelf anymore. Surely there’s been some error. Clear cache? Log out and log back in? Reboot?
Alas, it is gone for real. The service who sold it to you says they don’t have it anymore.
But I bought it. From you.
Yes but we dont have it anymore.
That’s fine, sorry for your loss- but I bought it, so I should have mine.
Not quite how it works, we’re afraid.
Not quite how what works- the idea of selling & buying?
If this sounds a bit absurd, that’s only because it is.
Absurd, but all too real. This happened with a user who had purchased the LOTR trilogy on Google and woke one day recently to find it gone- no way of getting it, no refund either.
At some level, I have a vague understanding how their ‘deal’ with the rights owners for certain films might expire. But that is trumped by my bafflement at how you can purport to sell something that you don’t actually own? And how can we be expected to buy something that will eventually not be available to us? That’s just a long term lease. If I buy access to a movie, I expect to own access to the movie, not have it conditional to the whims of license renewals or corporation rethinks.
Come on, surely, how is this acceptable?
It’s a great chance for the champions of physical media to jump out from behind their sagging IKEA shelves of DVDs, Blu Rays, Vinyls and books. And indeed they have. The physical media proponents have become more vocal in recent months & years, as the fickle nature of streaming services and the allure of real, tangible things becomes more of a thing. A topic for another day.
Reactions included hundreds of comments with many many versions of, “If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t theft.”
A few days later, amidst the backlash, Google apologised to the customer and lobbed him £20 in credits. They then said that it was a technical issue; though he couldn’t access the bundle, he still had the license to view the films. It’s still not quite sorted, as “the customer says all three YouTube links still tell him he needs to pay for the films”, but hey- something.
* This is of course not the first time such a thing has happened, and it happens all the time though it doesn’t make it less unpalatable. Remember when Amazon remotely deleted- of all books, 1984- from people’s Kindle because they’d not got the license after all? (I don’t remember either I was too young. Right.)
“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”
_a phrase published by the World Economic Forum, itself based on a 2016 essay by the Danish politician Ida Auken, describing a 2030 future where all of a person’s needs seem to be fulfilled by a sharing economy.
2. Curated/Cuts
· VHS-Tok ·
A 90s video shop. Browsing the shelves. The indecision.
Charmingly nostalgic?
Not quite.
This spot transmogrifies into a commentary on modern childhood, meant to “rally families and policymakers around children’s smartphone and social media use”/
Director: David Dearlove · Prod: Arts & Sciences · Client: Smartphone Free Childhood · Black Kite Studios
· Fun With Jeans ·
Do you find jeans uncomfortable? Have you ever? Or do you now?
Have a look at “The Fabulous Lives Of Hot Girls In Jeans” which hopes to remind us ‘comfort is sexy’.
CD Shikha Gupta · Footloose Films · Indrasish Mukerjee · Kedhhar ·
Blissclub: Viswanathan V · Arusha Mohan · Minu Margeret ·
3. MTV Roots
“Ladies and gentlemen, rock & roll.”
This month back in 1981 , the iconic MTV journey began. Iconic, and influential. Everyone (almost) will have their own MTV stories- some overlapping , others obscurely, quirkily , weirdly unique- much like MTV itself.
I watched it, my eyes were opened by it (and its honorable rival cousin Channel [v] in India/Asia), I worked for it, I worked at it… much can be said.
One of the MTV signatures that so many people I have met (and countless online) always recall? The MTV IDs or idents. I’ve heard this from creatives, suits, people older than me, younger than me, clients, partners, graduates…
Recently, MOMA in New York opened an exhibition entitled, It’s Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collection, “spanning more than 100 years of expression and aesthetics, shares the work of more than 35 artists and filmmakers who advanced the medium.” This includes work from many animators who were part of the MTV era.
Fred Seibert was an early MTV creative director, and felt those designers never got their due… but is decidedly not pissed anymore. Both his own story and his anecdotes are really interesting- we can glimpse his and others’ takes on MTV’s place in the medium in a People chat over here.
Here’s one- back then, when Siebert was asked to think of animation, something he knew nothing of, asked ‘What does that mean?” And his boss said,
‘Well, imagine a cow and the cow’s grazing, eating grass or whatever. And all of a sudden a giant ax comes and cuts off its head and it tumbles to the ground. And you see all these veins and the blood spurting out and the cow vomits. And in the vomit is our logo.’
And I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can do anything.’
And I happily walked out. That’s how I got started in animation.”
I can’t top that!
➕Quick Hits
Prime Video in India signed a deal for 100 titles from Korean giant CJ ENM. Hallyu FTW!
Fanomenon, a 11 day K-pop festival across two cities for 2027, was announced by the South Korean govt & the biggest labels.
OpenAI announced ChatGPT For Teens. Lets talk about this at some point.