Over the past decades POP promos have been getting better in many different ways, for example in the last quarter-century since the pop promos phenomenon exploded on to MTV, they have been changing the visual culture of music.
All pop promo videos have been a reoccurring cycle of original and artistic highs. Artist’s/Record Labels use the relationship of the music to video and song to their personal gain, this is shown when the artist(s) are shown playing their instruments, dancing or singing to their lyrics in visual form. This helps people get excited about a song and makes them feel like they want to buy the artists work.
Pop promos are a powerful form of advertising, that has been exploiting teenagers for many years now, making them buy albums or singles that they would not like if they hadn't of seen the video. E.g Lady GaGa’s – Just Dance Video (4:10) – aimed at younger teens (even if the company wouldn't admit to it) This is trying to show a younger generation what it’s like to throw your life away with drinking and partying. Although I cannot state that as factual quotation and that it is only an opinion, on the other hand it could show that you can do those things in life and still be successful (according to Lady Ga Ga and Record Label)
Altough all genres may be unrelated and have no corellation with each other with the next 3 examples I can link the re-occuring theme of drugs, alcohol or/and violence. Im going to look at Hip-Hop, Dance And Rock.
In Hip-hop there is a constant theme of “b*tches/hoe’s” (woman), “Fly/ Of The Hook Rides” (Cars), “Point n’ Click/Pieces” (Guns) and “Puff/Draw” (Weed). To summarize Hip-Hop artists are known to show off their belongings and what they've got. Their exploiting teenagers minds to make them believe that if they shoot people in a “fly” car that they will get the “b*tches” (Matter Of Opinion. Again, The Record Labels Refuse To Admit To This Exploitation ‘Article In The Times’) they like to show off Their “crib” (house), “Rides” (Cars), Pool Parties, “My Abe's” ($100 Bills) and “Blingage” (Gold/Silver Sparkly Jewelery)
In Rock the constant theme is girls, drugs, partying, violence and Dis-Obedience .(also in other sub-genres emotional Problems) Rock is one of the genres that is not opposed to ‘fighting the system’ with bands such as RATM (Rage Against The Machine) who use pop promo to their advantage to express their message about the government’s scandals, they also use techniques of subliminal messages in their lyrics such as. (Sleep now in the fire – 3:25) “I'm Deep inside Your Children Who Will Betray You In My Name” and more controversial “I Am the Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria, The noose and the rapist, and the fields overseer, the agents of orange, the preists of Hiroshima, The Cost Of My Desire, Sleep Now In The Fire“ this suggest about the government control over the Unites States of America (RATM admit to this along with their record label, ‘Link On RATM Website’) Although rage don’t feature any of the above examples many other ‘mainstream rock’ do. For example, Wolfmother – Dimension (4:25) Although this band doesn't explore violence, in fact its quite the opposite they spread the message of love, this band still promotes sex, drugs, women and partying. Although they don’t use much pop promo, if listened to the lyrics you can see the traits that they follow. (Wolfmother and the record label admit to this, strange how only the rock bands admit to it and their labels ‘Kerrang magazine’.)
Dance, another ‘controversial genre’ all be it most of the lyrics are about love and relationships. Other songs will follow the codes of Party's, Love and two hidden traits which are alcohol and drugs, which are harder to find in the common dance pop promo. I'm going to use the song Darren Styles Vs. Ultrabeat – Disco Lights (2:51). Within the video there are two main characters which are humans impersonating robots, one female and one male, In my personal opinion it seems as if in some scenes they are affected by either alcohol or drugs, but this a sub-conscience connotation that a non-media aware person would not realize. The song is about partying and the pop promo depicts drinking, women and having a good time. (unable to find a quotation on the topic.)
POP promo’s target people at a young age who’s minds are not fully developed (life experience wise) so therefore are easily manipulated. This has been a long debated scandal between people with paranoia around the world, it just goes to show how much control the media has over our future and the next generation. This scandal could go as deep as government media brainwashing to keep the civilization under control, but who's going to admit to that?
