Never say AMVs have no academic use

General discussion of Anime Music Videos
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Never say AMVs have no academic use

Post by BishounenStalker » Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:35 pm

This is the midterm paper I wrote for my class in pop culture theory earlier this semester. Just thought I'd share it with you all.

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Underground Art: The Evolution of the Anime Music Video

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In the realm of music television, like any realm of popular culture, there abounds a plethora of independent subultures broken off of the mainstream parent that flourish unchecked and happy in their own little world. One such subculture that has recently been gaining a lot of ground beneath the public eye is that of music videos based on anime (Japanese animation). Created by independent fans of a particular animated series, these videos are more of an artistic expression than anything else. The creators of anime music videos (AMVs for short) aren't paid to do what they do; they do it because they feel like it.

In a sense, they're a form of folk art, albeit a very hi-tech one. No one can say what the first AMV was, nor who made it, or even when it was made. What we know today is that with the advent of powerful computers, video capture equipment, video editing programs such as Adobe Premiere, and the internet, the sheer volume of AMVs has grown to staggering proportions. As of now, the official AMV directory, AnimeMusicVideos.org, boasts a collection of well over 11,000 videos, and growing at the rate of nearly thirty per day.

The great question such an underground culture raises is why do individuals spend the money on editing equipment and software to produce the art, if it will never be sold? What do they get out of it? Being part of the subculture myself, these are questions I fight to step back and answer objectively.

The answer to the first one is rather convoluted. For one thing, just because the videos aren't sold for fear of copyright lawsuits, that doesn't mean that indirect compensation isn't given for the effort. Many AMV artists enter their videos into contests, where prizes of either cash or anime-related merchandise is usually given. For another, it's the principle of any kind of free art. For AMV creators as a whole, the appreciation of their work by others is payment enough.

And yet another reason has to do with the process of creating the art itself. Ask any AMV creator you meet, and they will tell you that sitting in front of a computer and editing hundreds of clips is the closest any anime fan will get to sitting in the director's chair. All good AMVs require a talent for meshing the music and video. The best ones put just as much emphasis on the song as they do on the footage. For creators, they simply love the thrill of manipulation. It's almost a power trip. To a limited degree, they control their favorite anime series. Some creators have been known to take such control to insane extremes, manipulating footage at a frame-by-frame level.

Applying Frith's theory, I've come to the conclusion that the interpration of AMVs is nearly pure aesthetics versus value judgement. What is a good AMV as opposed to a bad one? The difference is, there is no group of ten people holed up at a university trying to come up with an answer. In the AMV subculture, value judgements are completely made for the individual by the individual. Even further than that, aesthetics vary from fan to creator alike. What may be beautiful editing to one person can just as easily be considered confused and boring to another.

Now some, including myself, have to ask how such a subculture can flourish so profusely without any visible hierarchy. In truth, there is a hierarchy, it's just not as pronounced as that in film or books or music. Established AMV "studios" --individuals who have actually made a name for themselves in the subculture-- such as OtakuVengeance, MoreThanToast, DokiDoki Productions, and Aokakesu Digital to name a few, hold a lot more sway than the single creator, and seem to set the bar for others to work up to.

As for why such a thin hierarchy has allowed the AMV community to grow exponentially, it's all about the freedom one is given in this particular medium. Since there isn't as much of an incentive to make money as there is to make art, expression runs as high as people want it to. In effect, the AMV underground has become a lot like the film industry, splitting off into many genres as more people join the mix. Only on a larger scale, since AMV is much easier to break into than Hollywood. All one needs is a computer with Adobe Premiere, and either video capture hardware or a DVD player (there are plenty of free programs that can gather DVD footage into a format Premiere can use).

Yet most forms of mass culture don't necessarily have to feed off one another. Movies don't have to be determined by popular literature, and television doesn't depend on film for ideas. In AMV, it's different. Anime music videos feed directly off popular music. When a new trend of sound hits the airwaves, it affects AMV creators whether they like it or not. You can't have an anime music video without the music.

But one thing about AMVs as opposed to the type of music video one would see on MTV or VH1 is that they are equally about the music and the anime. Mainstream videos are meant to sell the artist who made them. In essence, they're four-minute commercials. AMVs, on the other hand, are not meant to sell anything. They're meant to simply be viewed and enjoyed. And to be fully enjoyed, they employ the elements of the anime in accordance with the musical element.

In this day and age, though, no subculture can stay completely underground for long. This is true of AMVs as well. Slowly but surely, some AMV culture has crept into the mainstream, via the revolutionary music videos of an increasingly famous electronica group, Daft Punk. In essence, Daft Punk created the first truly professional AMVs. A series of four in fact, to their four biggest hits: "One More Time", "Aerodynamic", "Digital Love", and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." They actually enlisted the genius of legendary anime director/producer Reiji (Leiji) Matsumoto, creator of the smash hit anime/manga series Galaxy Express 999, to produce the videos for those four songs.

Other mainstream musical artists have entered in this wave of professional music vdeos that employ animation as the visual medium rather than trying to recreate the concert experience or showcase the artist's sexuality. The Gorillaz followed in Daft Punk's footsteps with fully animated music videos, their most elaborate being the famed "Clint Eastwood Mix." Using a combination of traditional cel and Flash animation, they created a sensation among fans.

While it may not be an AMV, one can certainly see the influence of the AMV community on these videos, especially the Daft Punk ones. And yet, true AMV can still remain mostly underground, unlike most other forms of mass culture, for one bottom-line reason.

It doesn't need to make money in order to survive.

The problem with underground musical artists and the eventual sellout is that these groups are in the game to make a profit. And to make a profit, one needs to get popular and actually sell albums. It's the fate of such no-longer-underground artists as Insane Clown Posse. They sold out to the machine for the promise of quick cash.

AMV creators don't have such a drive. They can't, because neither the footage nor the music has their name on it, and thus making money on an AMV is bold-faced copyright violation. They don't face the problem of sacrificing the art for the almighty dollar. Instead, they face a different kind of sellout; that of popularity for popularity's sake.

Very rarely does an AMV creator spend the time, effort, and cash to create an anime music video solely for themselves. They create it to be viewed and praised by others, and hopefully to win at contests. And thus, it follows the same principle as the money market. One must make what people want to see if they expect any praise or recognition. But it's a different kind of sellout. Instead of a sellout to mainstream mass culture, it's a sellout within the subculture itself, something not many other forms of pop culture face. It's one that has spawned an enormous rash of dime-a-dozen AMVs, just like Hollywood churns out dime-a-dozen films.

In essence, the community of anime music videos is a complex underground network of the same principles that drive any artistic group: fame, praise, and the thrill of creating. The only difference is that there isnt a necessary dollar system involved. Instead, popularity in its own right has replaced money as the driving force behind production of the culture. But it still functions on this principle as many other forms of mass culture do on money, with aesthetic questions, value judgements, and the coming and going of trends and fashions. And it can be analyzed in much the same way.

With current copyright laws in place, the AMV subculture must continue to flourish and grow underground, beneath the public eye, save for the few Daft Punks in the world. But if you ask any AMV creator, they don't mind this stipulation. On the contrary, they enjoy pursung their artstc visions in secret. Safe from the almighty corruptor, The Machine.

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Re: Never say AMVs have no academic use

Post by Castor Troy » Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:37 pm

BishounenStalker wrote:Safe from the almighty corruptor, The Machine.
HE HAS THE POWER TO CORRUPT THE BUTTERFLIES!
"You're ignoring everything, except what you want to hear.." - jbone

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Re: Never say AMVs have no academic use

Post by mexicanjunior » Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:39 pm

Castor Troy wrote:
BishounenStalker wrote:Safe from the almighty corruptor, The Machine.
HE HAS THE POWER TO CORRUPT THE BUTTERFLIES!
And punish others with his everlasting strobes of death. :shock:



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Re: Never say AMVs have no academic use

Post by jbone » Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:22 pm

Castor Troy wrote:
BishounenStalker wrote:Safe from the almighty corruptor, The Machine.
HE HAS THE POWER TO CORRUPT THE BUTTERFLIES!
I don't get it, what's Carlos got to do with any of this?
"If someone feels the need to 'express' himself or herself with a huge graphical 'singature' that has nothing to do with anything, that person should reevaluate his or her reasons for needing said form of expression, possibly with the help of a licensed mental health practitioner."

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Re: Never say AMVs have no academic use

Post by trythil » Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:24 pm

BishounenStalker wrote:All one needs is a computer with Adobe Premiere, and either video capture hardware or a DVD player (there are plenty of free programs that can gather DVD footage into a format Premiere can use).
GAH! You don't need Adobe Premiere to do AMVs!

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Post by Koopiskeva » Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:25 pm

indeed

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What he doesn't know....

Post by BishounenStalker » Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:28 pm

Technically you don't NEED Premiere, but it IS one of the best editors out there.

And like my Prof really knows the difference >.>

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Yeah.

Post by Gottaname » Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:29 pm

Before I was using Adobe premeir I was using the old cut and paste method using VirtualDUB, Tempgenc and a Pocket Calculator! You can built AMVs even without the most high-tech software just like a child with a revolver can kill you just as easily as a Marine with a M60...

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Post by danielwang » Fri Dec 06, 2002 10:14 pm

WHAT GRADE DID YOU GET FOR THIS PAPER?

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Post by Ashton » Fri Dec 06, 2002 10:47 pm

I could be wrong, but I think we actually DO know who made the first AMV. He was invited to one of the big conventions recently, wasn't he?
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