Ugly Casanova, The Album Leaf, Iron & Wine, The Thermals, Fruit Bats, and The Shins have more in common than being some of the most talented musicians currently recording; they’re all on the Seattle-based independent label Sub Pop Records.
In May of this year, Sub Pop released its second DVD compilation of music videos, Acquired Taste. The title features videos by the aforementioned bands, with an additional 15 other bands, cataloging a total of 25 music videos.
Chris Jacobs, the Senior Director of Special Projects at Sub Pop explains, “We have a bunch of music videos, most of which have not been seen by fans of the artists we work with. We should put these all together on one DVD and sell it cheaply,” and it is, considering the $9.99 price tag. He continues, “Perhaps that is a means to getting people to see these videos, as the folks who program music video channels seem so profoundly uninterested in playing them!”
His statement rings true when you turn the television onto MTV, VH1, or even BET. The videos on these networks are, essentially, commercials with huge budgets that showcase the wealth or look of an artist or band. Lesser known artists, especially those on smaller, independent labels, get almost no airplay. It’s a lot like the radio.
Jacobs disagrees with the use of music videos only as another form of advertising, “While, there have been concessions made to avoid preventing videos from the possibility of being aired on TV, I don’t think that any of them are especially effective advertisements.”
When watching videos by Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Spike Jones, or anyone else in the myriad of talented directors, some may consider the music video another medium of art. Theoretically, a video is an artistic interpretation of a musician’s message or ideas. A director is trusted to create something new, with foundations supplied by the soundtrack of a song. Jacobs agrees that videos deserve a higher status than commercials, but says, “Whether any of them might be considered art is subjective, but in every case the idea was to make something interesting.”
And most of the videos on Acquired Taste are interesting. With the exception of Ugly Casanova’s graphic Things I Don’t Remember, the videos are mostly narrative and completely devoid of women taking their clothes off, gold teeth, and a performer repeating their name over and over.
When you consider what it means, Acquired Taste seems like a strange title, “We picked the name because we thought it was funny. Things that people describe as an acquired taste typically taste kind of shitty. In choosing that as the title, we are, effectively, letting the consumer know that they probably won’t like what we’re offering.” The irony, of course, is that the videos and music are almost always superior to the viewer’s expectations.
Aside from this collection, Sub Pop has tapped into the quickly expanding market of music DVDs that focus entirely on one band. Almost any video, music, or book store stocks a collection (although sometimes very small) of live concerts, tour diaries, video collections, or biographies of any particular band. When I spoke with Band of Horses lead Ben Bridwell in June of this year, he praised Sub Pop’s willingness to work with his group in making their album and its contents in both parties’ best interests.
Jacobs reflects the same ideology when deciding what video or DVD releases the label should pursue, “[It’s] the sort of decision (like much of what we do) that we’d make with the artist. If they were super into the idea, we’d try to find a way to make it work. If they have a bunch of video content, stuff that they want to get out, then we’d likely suggest trying to find a way to do that.”
It’s worth mentioning that Sub Pop doesn’t focus completely on musicians. Comedian David Cross, largely known for co-starring in Mr. Show and as the character Tobias in Arrested Development, has two full-length albums and a DVD tour diary- something that is uncommon for a comedian. Stand-up comics usually have DVD releases of recorded performances, whereas Cross’s video follows the comedian around the country with heavy focus on his interactions during the tour itself. Along with some standard performance footage, the disc also has about five hidden “easter eggs”- or hidden special content.
The use of DVD media to deliver music and interpretative videos is becoming a more widespread practice. It’s easy to measure this growth by simply walking into a store and noticing what bands or artists have a new DVD, or to look at the music magazines that are shrink-wrapped with a small compilation of exclusive footage or musician interviews. Just like in the music industry, Sub Pop, among other independent labels, holds ground for the lesser-known artist trying to get his voice heard, or seen.
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