When it came time for Boston-based indie rockers Tipling Rock to film a new video for their runaway single "Low Tide Love," which has garnered nearly 700,000 plays on Spotify, each of the members — all students at local Boston colleges — knew they had to approach the form strategically.
"People don't sit down and watch music videos anymore in the traditional sense," says bass player Dillon Salkovitz. "So we were thinking, we want to get our personality across and round out our image as a band rather than a promotional tool for the music itself."
It's a struggle that both upcoming music video directors, bands and established masters of the art feel.
Michael Abbott, a USC alumni whose work includes producing and writing videos for Lil' Wayne, Zara Larsson and One Direction, says he rarely commits to a music video project nowadays in part because, as he puts it, "people don't really watch them." In a recent phone interview he emphasized that, "You really have to do something different, and stand out."
Of course this is where both seasoned professionals and newcomers have a level playing field, and Abbott and Tipling Rock have the same strategy: music videos as documentary.
"There's a certain way to do music content now that doesn't have to be a straight video," says Abbott. "It doesn't have to be a video that people are lip synching to."
He thinks back to his favorite video before he switched gears in his career, he now creates branded and documentary content for the likes of Coachella and Land Rover. But it's the last video he did during his tenure as a music video producer that sticks with him.
It was for a band called The Drips, and it was a shoot he'll never forget.
"We had this idea of taking the band and doing a punk rock road trip," says Abbott. "They always liked those old punk rock Ramones documentaries— where the band takes a road trip."
He put the band on the road from Los Angeles to Tijuana and documented the whole thing. "We had tacos, we went to a bullfighting ring, we went to a beach. It was raining at some point! I remember crossing the border, and we went to San Diego. On our way back we got cases of beer for the band, I drove, and they got drunk on the way back," he says. "And we all just bonded and documented the thing on 16mm black and white film."
It was, essentially, the music video to end all music videos.
Abbott's ending point was Tipling Rock's starting point. In their quest to create something people would actually watch, they enlisted their friend and videographer Matt Lewis to follow them as they headed to Miami to simply have fun.
"We knew we wanted to have a trip to Miami and that was pretty much the end of the conversation," says Lewis.
"We were thinking, we want to get our personality across and round out our image as a band rather than a promotional tool for the music itself. We thought the documentary style would be good insight into what it's like to hang out with us, and what we're like on a daily basis," says Salkovitz.
Much like the trend that Abbott saw forming with The Drips, Tipling Rock seized on the idea of the music video as documentary.
Lead singer Ben Andrew says, "We thought it'd be really cool to take a trip to Florida. We want to go down and have a fun weekend and capture it documentary-style."
Lewis says that the process was truly closer to documentary filmmaking than shooting a music video. "We ended up just coming up with a bunch of things that we wanted to do," he says, "and I told myself that the video would create itself if we just followed this list and if I adopted the mindset of a documentarian. If I just tried to capture the moments as the came."
There's no question that music videos are evolving more competitively now than ever before. With every new OK Go video or art-piece like Beyonce's "Lemonade," the bar is raised.
The hope of the documentarian approach to music videos isn't just that they'll be something different, but that fans will be attracted to the truly genuine emotions on display.
"We didn't just feel like we were shooting a video. I was a fly on the wall capturing the band while we were having fun. Most of the questions were, 'what's the next fun thing we can do' rather than, 'what would make the best footage?' It was a blast," says Lewis.
Similar thoughts were shared by Abbott of his own music video as documentary experience, "I became friends with the band. And I'm still friends with that band to this day."
In a world where being relatable online is the new pathway to celebrity, perhaps the course is being charted for what the new standard music video looks like.
"For me I think the 2.0 in this genre is redefining what a music video is," says Abbott. "I think that's where I'd like to see young filmmakers shifting the dynamic. What if someone really approached it? Really thought about it."
With their most recent entry into the music video game, Tipling Rock might be doing just that.
Reach Staff Reporter Jolene Latimer here.
Annenberg Media