Net Neutrality:
Vital to this viral world
American History and society through music
AHI3115
Professor Koeppel
In today’s viral world net neutrality is essential for many bands to get their music heard. The Internet has become the marketplace for music consumers to not only purchase music, but to explore and research their next favorite band. Working in the music business I have experienced first hand how the Internet can take your band to greater heights. Where we used to use practices such as sniping (putting posters of your gig on any surface in town that will hold tape or a staple) or street teamers passing out stickers and fliers to promote your gig that night. Now we have social networking sites and video streaming sites like myspace and youtube that can do all these grassroots promotions from the comfort of your couch, van, or tour bus. At the present time there are not many obstacles that stand between you and your rock and roll dream. An unheard of singer songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska can build an indie rock empire using these viral tactics. Distribution is no longer a problem of the indie rocker. There is no need to sell out to the major labels just to get their hype machine behind your record. In fact it is usually the practice of the major labels to keep an ear to the ground, and try to catch up with the indies and their cutting edge promotional tactics.
In 2005 the indie rock band OK Go decided to go against the grain and record a choreographed dance routine to their new single “a million ways”. The art of the choreographed dance routine was nothing new to the band. They were known for closing their rock shows along the 2002 tour in support of their first major label release “OK GO” with a tongue in cheek dance routine to their infamous B-side “CCC-Cinnamon lips”. This practice became synonymous with the power pop quartets rock show experience. Meant to be a shot at the boy band pop music that dominated the late 90’s many rock critics were confused as to weather the band was serious about this dancing, and if they were serious about the dancing how were you supposed to take their music seriously? The band loved the ambiguity of this situation and played the card with their best poker face. True fans knew that the band should be taken seriously. The beautifully crafted power pop rock laden with intriguing metaphors was legitimate and hip enough for the Chicago indie rock scene, and the satire was enjoyable for those in the know. So the band decided to shoot a video of themselves rehearsing their new routine. This grainy one camera, one take video was originally meant for analysis and critique from within the band. This video was “accidentally” leaked to the Internet. The band posted the video under a phantom youtube account claiming that the video had been stolen and posted without their consent. The master plan of the bands lead singer Damian Kulash was coming to fruition. The video was viewed one million times with in a week of the posting. This was in a time where youtube was a new median, not the sensation that it is today. This video quickly became the most viewed video in the short history of youtube.
This brings us to the Capitol Records building, where the major label execs had no clue what they were dealing with. These dinosaurs had no clue that this video streaming website would eventually become the multi million dollar company that it is today. The label was afraid that this exposure would somehow hurt the bands image. And quite frankly had no clue what to make of it whatsoever. The label chose to ignore the situation claiming that it was just a flash in the pan, and that the hype would subside. So they continued to put forth their efforts and hype machine jargon towards their breadwinners Coldplay and Radiohead.
The label would wind up with egg on their face when the band decided to go one step further and record another one shot one take video of them performing a choreographed dance routine on 8 opposite facing treadmills. OK Go, still touring in their little van, the one that I drove over 100.000 miles in that year, were still being ignored by their label. The lack of radio promotion and tour support was keeping the band just below the radar. Preventing them from really breaking through. In august 2006 “OK Go dancing on treadmills” hit the Internet. This visually stunning piece was an even greater success than its preceding video. Setting new records as the most downloaded video ever, on youtube and the entire Internet! 2 million downloads in the first 2 days and 31 million downloads to date. (Taken from the transcript of Kulash on Capitol Hill p13) The band would finally get their proper respect that they had deserved the whole while. MTV came calling and wanted the band to perform their routine on their flagship awards show “The MTV Video Music Awards”. Over 30 million viewers in 6 continents watched this show. OK Go preformed this routine flawlessly. This would be the one and only time the band would perform this routine live. This is where the egg on the face of the label became apparent. The media was all over this trend setting video, and OK Go were now the poster boys of the youtube movement and generation. When asked about the video phenomenon Capitol records president Andy Slater began to make it as if this was a well-formulated plan carried out by the label. When in reality they had little interest in the bands actions.
Record execs at Capitol began to take credit for the new ground breaking viral approach to new media, a plan that was conceived and carried out by the band and their management team, myself included. It was our idea to take the Internet by storm and disseminate these videos. It was our idea to start a video dance contest hosted by the youtube website with over 700 entries worldwide featuring fans of the band performing their own renditions of the dance routine. Capitol Records took the credit for this idea as well. Even though my team and I did all the leg work setting this contest up, as well as having to watch and judge over 700 entries. We had no choice at the time but to keep our mouth shut and let the label take the credit. Now the label would start treating the band with the respect they deserved. The kind of respect that international fame and a Grammy award will bring you.
With that said it is obvious that OK Go understand the importance of a free and open Internet. So much in fact that when congress decided to hold a hearing on net neutrality and free speech on the Internet, they called in Damian Kulash, OK Go’s lead singer, as a key speaker and witness for a testimonial. Kulash states that when his band was formed 10 years ago the traditional business model for the music industry was still in tact. The job of major labels was to connect the dots. To find out what people wanted to hear and make it possible for them to hear it. (Kulash, 10) OK Go were stuck in the “middle of the pack” in this traditional format. Selling about 250,000 records of their debut album, reaching the top 100 in the billboard charts, and the top 20 in the modern rock chart (kulash 10). The band was struggling to reach every fan they could find, as well as struggling to pay their bills. So when the second record was being released they decided to do things a little differently. The traditional format was not going to propel them to the heights that they had imagined as indie rockers in late 90’s Chicago. So they took things into their own hands, and started their viral attack as stated above. The fact that they were able to go from relatively obscure to being able to play to audiences of 50,000 fans in South Africa, where the album is not even commercially released, and 60,000 fans in Japan is owed manly to the use of a free and open Internet. Kulash states, “if people are wondering if the music industry will benefit from net neutrality, I don’t think they need to look further than us” (kulash, 14). The net allows innovations and creativity to be realized today that just wasn’t possible 5 or 10 years ago. Kulash goes on saying, “we are all businessmen, we all want to get paid. We all want to see our hard work be recognized. And what we really need is a legitimate digital marketplace for music. The only way that is going to happen is if we build a level playing field”(kulash, 14).
Another key aspect to this situation is the issue of censorship. Should we be worried that AT&T can choose to censor anti Bush remarks made by Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder during a live webcast of their concert? (Timothy Kerr, OK Go: the heat is on an open Internet, the Huffington Post April 5, 2008) Yes, but what is more frightening is that they plan on developing a system to filter and inspect ALL web traffic for perceived copyright infringement (Kerr, 1). Kerr states that if nothing is done to prevent it, the communication companies will be the gatekeepers of the Internet and all its content. Americans have no idea that communications policies are being made in their name, but without their consent. “ The telephone company does not get to decide what we discuss over our phone lines. It would be absurd to let a handful of companies determine what we can do on line. Congress needs to establish basic rules for an open Internet, just as common carriage laws did for the phone system” (Damian Kulash, Beware of the new new thing, The New York Times April 5 2008). Usually companies are met with outrage when pulling such stunts as the Pearl Jam censoring. But then they “dangle the keys” and offer us newer faster technology that we all love. This diverts the attention from the fact that they are building filtering devices into these newer faster technologies. As Kulash states, “they won’t be blocking anything per se, we just wont know what we’re not getting”(Kulash, 2). The problem with the system, according to corporate America, is that currently a $20 video shot in a rock singer’s back yard can gain more attention than a multimillion-dollar production. And that “good ideas will always win out over deep pockets. If net providers are able to build the next generation of the net as a pay to play system, we will all pay the price” (Kulash, 2).
Kulash could not have articulated this point more eloquently, if we stand pat and let the corporations do what they want we will have no choice but to “buy in”. We are so dependant on getting our information now, that we will gladly enter our debit card numbers for the access. Slowly watching our bank statements diminish while surfing for information that was previously approved for us by some censoring body. This is not the world I want to live in. A world where the little guy, the underdog, can not rise above the hype machines of big business. If that were how it was today I might not have the job I love so much, and the band that made against all adversity would still be stuck in Chicago, probably disbanded and working for the same companies that tried to keep them from cashing in on the American Dream.
Bibliography
1) The Official transcript of the hearing on net neutrality, The Committee on the Judiciary, The House of Representatives. March 21, 2008
2) The New York Times Op-Ed article, Damian Kulash April 5, 2008 Beware the New New Thing.
3) The Huffington Post, Timothy Karr, April 5, 2008 OK Go: The Heat is On an Open Internet
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