The video holds the Guinness world record for best-selling funk album in history. It won four out of ten of its nominations at the MTV music video awards ceremony. MTV’s focus on music videos and huge audience caused many songs to be appreciated not just for the song itself but for the music video behind it which was considered art, in the time were music TV networks were all the rage a good music video secured you a higher chance of your song doing well however due to the decline of these networks many popular songs nowadays become popular in a different way.

If Virtual Insanity was released now in the 21^st century although I don’t doubt it would do well the question is would it do as well with the way the music scene is now? It’s a much more saturated market now and as a result it is much harder to stand out as there are millions of songs people have to choose from. Also a lot of the respect the song has gained has been from the music video and the innovative allusion of the floor constantly moving throughout (even though it was actually the walls) this reflects the meaning of the song and begs the question if it was released now would people go and watch the video as due to social media people have shorter attention spans and therefore would people give a non-traditional popular song/genre a real chance and even more would they bother to go out of their way to watch the music video.

For Virtual Insanity you could say that ‘music videos place song and image in a relation of copresence’ and because of that I don’t think that a song with such a niche genre appeal such as acid jazz would be able to be as popular if it wasn’t for MTV showcasing the whole concept as the song and music video go hand in hand to complement each other.

Rose Dulson 3374800

bibilography

Carole Vernallis, ‘Music Video’s Second Aesthetic’, Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, 207-233