The Pop Promo

Abstract

LOVE, MUSIC, COMPROMISE: THE POP PROMO Whether it is called innocence or ignorance, a certain unreconciled naivety is the basis for survival in this culture. A naivety which leads to repeated ingenuous expectations of reappraisal, innovation and renewal. What are the forces that can engender change, the possibility of play and freedom to experiment in the face of Power, in the grip of Industry? The machinery of pop video production exemplifies the strange dynamic of culture and commerce, an unsteady relation between compromise and artistic realisation generated when business encounters creative desire. A micro climate shifting between uneven and unpredictable weather patterns... Unfinished Business From the perspective of the rich, variegated histories of the many previous experiments with image and music in film one might have expected that the development of music video in the late Seventies would open a unique terrain for diverse visual exploration to reach...