Music Lockdown:Good AMVs+Original music breeds unoriginality

Skylink · Post by **Skylink** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:25 pm

Well, I was going through youtube the other day, and I found some of the old favorites of many people.. AMVHell,Koop's Euphoria,Pwolf's Mitternacht
<Pwolf> O:
and the like... Then, I went to go watch some of the other videos made by the same song.. As I kinda expected, nothing really compares to the "original" AMV to that song. That's when I realized something.

Have you ever noticed that when a really good AMV is made to a normally not so popular song, that song is pretty much locked out from being used in other AMVs? Also in turn, the song gets increasingly popular to AMV fans, which means lots more AMVs to that song. None of which really hit the mark of the original video. Some of them can be good, but I tend to find myself comparing them to the video of the same song done the best. Which is almost unfair seeing how something gets lower scores because I base it off of something else.

I'm just throwing that out to you guys, wondering if anyone has been in anyway.. discriminant to videos that use music of other popular videos.

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:45 pm

I think it's the song that makes the amv so popular, and not the amv that makes the song popular. Editing and originality won't make a video popular to the general audience unless it's matched with a song they'll "catch on" and enjoy. You might compare it to the first amv that used Evanescence. The songs didn't become popular because an amv used them, the creator just happened to be the first to use that soon-to-be-popular song.

On the other hand, there are a few videos that use songs I normally wouldn't like, and because the videos are so enjoyable, I end up liking the song as long as it's matched to that footage. In that case, no other video using that song will be as good because it was that video that made me like the song. But these are songs I've heard before and disliked - until I saw the video and learned to look at the songs a different way.

When a good video uses a song I've never heard of, but one I like the second I hear it, then I consider it a good find on the creator's part. And I'll look forward to seeing that song used with some of my favorite anime. I don't see it as a "finder's keepers" sort of thing. It's more like - great song, thanks for making me aware of it, now I'm gonna go match it to footage I like better than the series you used. I guess I'd be one of the people you're complaining about - using a song you consider to be popular only because of the original video. I don't think there's only one "true" match for every song, no matter how good an editor the person who used it first is. I think it's a matter of luck. He got to it first? Good for him. But he shouldn't have shared it with the public if he wanted sole rights to it.

Whether there's one "best" video for every song is a different topic. It's a matter of opinion. Everyone will have a favorite vid for a certain song. It doesn't have to be the first to use it, or even the first to use it well. It just has to be a matchup the viewer likes better than the other matchups that viewer has seen. Once someone makes a matchup that viewer likes better, he'll have a new favorite vid for that song. It's only with cult classics where you have a "true" video that remains the best forever - where the fanbase won't allow competition and actively attacks any attempts to dethrone the classic.

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:52 pm

it seems cliche to use a song that is used in an already popular amv... O.o but to me i get all like this: DAMNIT! WHY DID THEY HAVE TO FIND THAT SONG BEFORE ME!!

though in the case of some vids like Subrunker's 1985, it had been used several times before, he just came along and did it better :/

Dookstar · Post by **Dookstar** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:55 pm

I find I dont like mainstream music in an amv anywho... So when someone uses a non mainstream song, then makers a good vid, which makes a catchy song.... which makes it mainstream. So in the end you take a crap song make it popular, and like in any organization... you hate whats good and popular till you, yourself are there

*well some people not all*

ex: Chop seuy... it was good the first few times, not the last 337 ish times and then some.

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:03 pm

Well, what's funny, is I bet Bowling For Soup has all sorts of entries now. When I used them, they were a local band that gave me their blessing (they had just gotten Girl All The Bad Guys Want on the air, and lived about 20 minutes east of me). Now that they're famous... *shrug*

Skylink · Post by **Skylink** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:04 pm

Let me start by saying that I used the wrong word, and there's no edit button to change it. I shouldn't really say that using a song someone else has used creates "unoriginality". It takes lots of videos to do something like that. Then again, I do lack a better word and don't really know what I'd change it to anyway. But it's true that when you take a pretty uncommonly known song and send it out "into the world" with a really 'kickass' video, more people do what you said, take it and form their own creation out of it. It then later becomes as common as all the other plain-as-day songs between the point of normal use, and strictly overdosed (although, I haven't found one that's been made so popular that it's been done to the point of death yet..)

I guess I'd be one of the people you're complaining about - using a song you consider to be popular only because of the original video. I don't think there's only one "true" match for every song, no matter how good an editor the person who used it first is. I think it's a matter of luck. He got to it first? Good for him. But he shouldn't have shared it with the public if he wanted sole rights to it.

I'm not really complaining about the people that do it. Ok, well maybe a little bit, it's more of a collaborative effort there, but it's more of the fact that the first really good video to it was so amazing to me that it practically belittles all other videos that use the same music. Then again, there are some off cases where the better video is made much after it's overuse.[/quote]

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:11 pm

JaddziaDax wrote:though in the case of some vids like Subrunker's 1985, it had been used several times before, he just came along and did it better :/

....Which is Bowling For Soup, and one of the 111 entries after I entered them in the catalogue.

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:58 pm

Kionon wrote:
JaddziaDax wrote:though in the case of some vids like Subrunker's 1985, it had been used several times before, he just came along and did it better :/
....Which is Bowling For Soup, and one of the 111 entries after I entered them in the catalogue.

see but i recieve comments saying my vid is unoriginal because i shadowed him.... which cant be possible cause he made his after mine... im sure my friend kitsunebeolnet also gets similar comments on his, and he made his before mine...

order:
kitsunebeolnet .... JaddziaDax .... Subrunker

(btw, im not saying he did anything "unoriginal" I love his vid

)

i was just trying to show that it can go the other way around, where a song can be used several times, then a good editor comes along and makes a good vid to it, THEN it becomes cliche to use the song.

though one of my harry potter vids was bitched about once... lol i used Frou Frou - Must Be Dreaming lmao....

Skylink · Post by **Skylink** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:27 pm

There are other videos to that accursed song? I don't habeeb it >_<

Mr. Grim · Post by **Mr. Grim** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 2:26 am

This is kinda what my "Can it be done?" thread is based off of.

An example is like if I was to use a song like "Euphoria", "Phenomenon", or "Whisper of the Beast", I oudl expect comments and ops along the lines of "zOMGzzzZZZ!!!11!!!one j00 coP!3d tH@t v!d n00bz0r!111elvendyone!"

It seems like you can't do anything orignal unless some band decides to come out with something new, or you want to make a crappy video unless you really try.

Just my opinion.