Vh1
Vh1 is compulsively watchable these days. Usually in a “car accident” sort of way (Daniel Baldwin and Biz Markie on Celebrity Fit Club) or a “watch Rome burn” sort of way (money porn like The Fabulous Life). But tonight it was in a “whoa, they’re marketing to my demographic” sort of way: ego trip’s Race-O-Rama.
Edgy stuff, for Vh1. Trash Viacom-owned “mass media” all you want, but their model of creating dozens and dozens of sometimes one-off shows, in a constantly mutating and recombining schedule, seems sort of well-suited for a converged media future–I can imagine it being delivered in a feed, easily consumed in bite-size chunks, with no narrative thread to worry about picking up, and an ironic hipster narrator, like Boing Boing or Fleshbot. I think this is a pretty good thing, especially if folks like Jon Stewart or ego trip can slip in some more subversive material on the way.
(And is that really Brother J doing voiceovers?)
February 23rd, 2005 at 8:59 am
I think the reason VH1 is working is that they’ve got a genre thing going on. They’ve got a template for making TV programs and they’re sticking to it- regardless of topic. That’s why things can slip through. It’s a good exercise to imagine what it takes (time, people, content, tools) to put one of these shows together, and then flip the whole scenario on its head to imagine a system where one person could put together VH1 programs in a short period of time. What’s in the archive? How is it browsed? How is the story finalized? How is it mixed and edited? That’s when the boingboing/fleshbot narrative voice and flavor are going to shine and curatorial culture will take over. (And post a torrent to Race-o-Rama for Kenyatta and I!)