Medium Cool: Music Videos from Soundies to Cell Phones
Roger Beebe and Jason Middleton, eds.
Duke University Press, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8223-4162-8
Music videos are available on more channels, in more formats, and in more countries than ever before. While MTV – the network that introduced music video to most viewers – is moving away from music video programming, other media developments signal the longevity and dynamism of the form. Among these are the proliferation of niche-based cable and satellite channels, the globalization of music video production and programming, and the availability of videos not just on television but also via cell phones, DVDs, enhanced CDs, PDAs, and the Internet. In the context of this transformed media landsacpe, Medium Cool showcases a new generation of scholarship on music video. Scholars of film, media, and music revisit and revise existing research as they provide historically and theoretically expansive new perspectives on music video as a cultural form. Their essays take on a range of topics, including questions of authenticity, the tension between high-art influences and mass-cultural appeal, the prehistory of music video, and the production and dissemination of music videos outside of the United States.
