THE ROCK VIDEO DEBATE: A SAVIOR OR A SCOURGE?

The video thrill is gone.

The record industry, which just a few short years ago had heralded MTV as a “savior” and “pop music’s most potent new marketing force,” is having second thoughts about the pivotal role of MTV (and other music video outlets). With MTV ratings down and with most video shows primarily playing Top 40 video hits, many industry execs are openly questioning video’s importance as a key cog in the starmaking machinery.

“Fundamentally, I believe that music is meant to be heard, not seen,” explained Al Teller, president of the CBS Records Division, and the first major executive to go public with a blunt assessment of the industry’s concerns with video. “I think we’re just making far too many videos. In fact, we’ve gotten to the point where the making of a video is almost a Siamese twin of making a record. It’s frightening in a way because it’s so far beyond the initial role anyone foresaw for video.”

Teller added that the “endless repetition” of clips on most video outlets may be “destroying” the mystique of many pop artists. “I think a lot of artists are doing their music and their careers a disservice by the endless makings of videos,” he said. “It tends to trivialize the magic of the music. The aural experience gives free rein to the imagination, but when you eliminate that fantasy element, you take away a very critical part of the pop music experience.

“I think most of the songs that have videos would’ve been better off being left alone. The basic problem is that you’re dealing with two different processes here--making a record and then making a video--and the odds of having a great song and coming up with an effective, worthy video translation every time are almost infinitesimal. So we end up with the occasional magical video, but the great middle body of videos tend to transform video into a very humdrum experience.”

Accordingly, Teller said that CBS will be cutting back on its video production. “It’s not as if we’re going to make a sweeping decision to stop producing a certain percentage of videos,” he said. “But we have decided to discuss, on an artist-by-artist basis, the need for new videos.”

Teller also acknowledged that CBS execs have recently held a series of meetings with MTV top brass in the hopes of encouraging the 24-hour video channel to air more videos by young, developing artists. (Apparently this is an area of industry-wide concern, since execs at several other major labels acknowledged having similar meetings with MTV in recent months.)

“If I have any quarrel with MTV, it’s over the question of exposure for new artists,” Teller said. “We’ve had a positive response in our meetings and I think that MTV realizes that we see video as a tool to break new artists and that they have to be responsive to the industry on that score.”