Can you keep a secret?
Flipping through channels tonight, I stumble across the new All American Rejects video for the song Dirty Little Secret. Not that I knew the song at the time or that a group of rejects recorded it but something in it caught my attention and forced me to sit through the whole thing waiting for the band and song info that shows up at the end.
I discovered an interesting blog called PostSecret when a friend posted something about it. Neither of these things are of much note...until the video I spied on MTV2. At first I just thought the videomakers stole the idea from PostSecret for the video (which consists of the obligatory shots of the band pretending to perform the song intercut with shots of people holding up handmade post cards with secrets written on them). The interesting part is that they actually used real cards from the PostSecret site. I recognized at least five of them.
Like this one...
And this one.
And this one.
And this one.
And this one.
Okay, so I think we all get the point. And they weren't just copies or the wording. They were using that actually cards as submitted by users. I don't know how to feel about this. I know that part of the deal when you send these out is that they have the rights to them and it supposed to be liberating, but when the guy then turns and sells them for a cheesy music video. I guess, the idealist in me feels like he kinda cheapened these people's feelings and made what was a really interesting art project into another dumbass MTV product.
posted by Jeremy @ 10:36 PM
5 Comments:
5 years ago I would've taken offense to that last sentence. Now?
*throws pick axe up into air, waits for it to land and licks the tip*
nothin'.
...I thought of you the second I typed it. And to be fair, I don't think MTV had anything to do with this particular dumbass product.
I liked Napoleon Dynomite more before Mtv started hyping the crap out of it during their awards. I know that it's an Mtv movie, and that the popularity of something shouldn't affect my enjoyment of it, but I can't help it.
I know what you mean. I don't necessarily think it's exploitative, but it doesn't leave me feeling good about it either. These are things that people knew they were submitting to this website and the website provides context for people, and it is among many that are shown, whereas the video doesn't necessarily provide context. Regardless of the finances of it, I feel like it steals a little from the intentions of the people.
At the same time, people who respond to the website say that it is cathartic when they see something they can related to, knowing that someone else has the same secret. And maybe showing it to a wider audience can reach more people.
But the financial aspect of things leaves me feeling icky.
And now for my kerowack impression if this were a Slashdot post:
"I used to work at MTV, you insensitive clod!"
Thank you and goodnight.
- Mike
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