Music Video Showcase 7 - Meet Stephen Pitalo
It’s music video season at Live From Memphis.
The 7th Annual Music Video Showcase will be held March 1st through the 4th at The Warehouse and other great downtown venues.
So who will be judging your wildly original and awesome music videos and be a guest panelist at MVS 7? Let’s meet one of them, music video historian and author, Stephen Pitalo (pictured above on the right with filmmaker John Landis).
Orignally from Biloxi, Mississippi and currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, Stephen is working on a book that includes interviews with more than fifty music video directors from music videos’ “Golden Age”, a time Stephen defines as 1976-1993.
I asked Stephen a few questions.
ME: So what's the life of a music video historian like? I kinda imagine a professor with a tweed blazer, lighting a pipe, and regaling kids about the time when MTV played music videos.
STEPHEN: As in, "Students, please take out your textbooks to Chapter 7, 'Existential Motifs In The Videos of ZZ Top'?" Believe me, if I could do that, I would. Mostly I call myself a music video historian because of the volume of research I've done. I've interviewed over 60 music video directors whose work spans from the Beatles "Paperback Writer" to Pearl Jam's "Jeremy", focusing mostly on the Golden Age of Music Video, 1976 to 1993. I've been able to connect the dots and study the evolution of the genre within that era, and only because I went looking for that information and was unable to really find it already researched and compiled. I took it upon myself to uncover the truth of the music video's growth, and consequently, I became the go-to person for insight about the history of music video. So if you need someone to dissect Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" from a cinematic as well as a psychological perspective, give me a call! (The voice of "Waldo" in that video, by the way, was the late Phil Hartman.)
ME: How do you see music video's cultural impact compared to other things like films, books, art, etc?
STEPHEN: Well, many talented musicians who couldn't translate to the television screen were often sidelined in favor of visually beautiful (or at least arresting) artists.The skyrocket success of music video in the 1980s also caused Madison Avenue to try co-opting the format to sell other things besides music. Every product from shoes to television shows took its cues from what it perceived as the "MTV look". The quick editing style that pervaded much of the 1980s and continues today can be attributed to music videos, I suppose, but we can also trace certain filmmakers like David Fincher and Michael Bay back to the music videos that began their careers. Mostly, the cultural impact of the Golden Age of Music Video is the fusing of visual and sound in how we perceived pop music.
ME: Perhaps a hard question: What's your favorite music video of all time?
STEPHEN: I don't really have a favorite (although I have a top ten favorites section at GoldenAgeofMusicVideo.com that changes frequently). I've always had a soft spot for Blind Melon's "No Rain", however.
To read more about Stephen and to see his great blog visit http://goldenageofmusicvideo.com