Offensive. Endlessly offensive. There has been a small amount of recent hype regarding a new MTV project called $5 Cover, a Real World-esque series based on the lives of a handful of Memphis musicians.
Reading the articles, one would be under the impression that $5 would be vastly different than the normal pabulum that passes for mainstream music. That is simply not the case, though when has public relations ever had a straightforward relationship with the truth.
Directer Craig Brewer, the Memphis-born filmmaker behind MTV’s Hustle & Flow, has put together a fictional show that is supposed to view like a documentary and features actual Memphis musicians in the acting roles. Really, this series comes off as a lame attempt by MTV to retain any measure of the musical credibility it began to shed fifteen years ago.
Brewer, who is touted as an “indie-filmmaker” (though how MTV financial backing constitutes “indie” is beyond me) blurs the line between documentary and drama through mixing the substance and docu-narrative of early seasons of The Real World with the aesthetic of films like Richard Linklater’s Slacker. As someone who came of age during the grunge heyday of the early-mid ’90s, I feel like $5 Cover is aimed directly at viewers like myself who long ago disposed of MTV.
Call me out on being a pretentious, judgmental old Gen X-er, but either Brewer & Co. have a half-baked conception of what constitutes “real” or I live further out in left field than I previously imagined.
This is all too polished and little resembles the lives of any artists I know. As a musician who is acutely aware of the struggles to work and keep a tight practice schedule, I find this show offensive. For non-artists, I’m sure there is a belief that we all live some manner of Dionysian lifestyle and that we’re endlessly entertaining personalities (hence the never ending coverage of the private lives of famous people), but in truth we’re kinda boring. All of us.
One thing about musicians is that the majority of us are ugly, dysfunctional and argumentative. $5 Cover certainly nails the “argumentative” side of us, but why the need to film bassist Amy LaVere at home in her skivvies? Is that really the only way to “sell” an artist these days? “Look, she’s got a great bum! No, her music isn’t that interesting, but look at that bum! Dear Jesus we’ll sell millions!”
This is “new”? Don’t flatter yourself. How about a series that shows the real process of creation, perhaps one starring someone like me and my drummer nitpicking the placement of a change in downbeat or whether a difference in a half tone on the bass sucks the energy out of the accompanying guitar phrase? Yeah, I told you we’re kinda boring. But that’s what we do.
While $5 Cover is touted as a new medium in art all it actually does is slightly twist previous modes of music video. Instead of straight marketing live performances or traditional-format music videos, this show concocts a fictional plot and then sticks non-actors into the key roles. Therefore, a rationale is contrived to stage performances.
If this was an actual documentary series that followed artists around it would be far more plausible and interesting. This show feels forced and contrived, the artists only there in the drama so that the most tenuous links to authenticity (the meaning of which is endlessly debatable, I know) can be preserved. To be succinct, it’s a marketing gimmick.
It’s difficult for me to find positives in the series, but I will give credit to Brewer for at least staying local with the project. All the crew members and extras are actual locals and the show was shot entirely on location in Memphis. And the intention to give indie musicians an outlet for exposure is admirable, but everyone knows the old canard about good intentions. That holds true here.
Locations aside, $5 Cover is an affront to the idea of reality; if nobody is gonna be a hardass about this, then I’ll gladly step in. Check it out for yourself. New sevenish minute episodes air on Fridays at MTV.com.
Related News:
Comments
While I understand the review. I see this commentary more of an infomercial for the fact that you are also in a band. Who cares? The “new” aspect of the project is that it is produced for an Internet only audience, and that’s a first for MTV. Another thing is that it falls between the realm of “reality” shows and pure fiction. It also falls outside the realm of Hollywood controlled visual entertainment. Even when done poorly, can be refreshing. It’s like listening to recordings from the 30’s. rough around the edges and not so refined. That’s more like art than most things “contrived” for viewers these days.
Besides, are reality shows anyone’s true reality? I’ll take amateur acting musicians over the Kardashians anytime.
Cheers!
Call me crazy, but I think this show is a step in the right direction. Sure, it’s not great, or even “realistic”, but it’s a neat idea executed relatively well. I’m glad to see the Memphis scene (which I knew nothing about) gain exposure. Obviously they’re glamming things up a bit… but that’s the nature of an MTV show. At least it’s about actual music. If MTV can help make more people used to watching web content, then more power to them. I’ve known that I’m not their audience for a long, long time, so I’m not surprised the show isn’t my favorite.
This show looks really bad. If it’s a reality show and isn’t competition or cooking based, then I’m not interested. Seriously, there is so much garbage out there–and MTV is one of the main purveyors. The Hills/The City (both MTV right?) have no artistic or even entertainment value at all. They’re background music for bored people. This show looks to be in the same category. MTV really and truly only cares about making money. The network has compromised itself by using the unique the amazing connection it used to have with young audiences and its marketing prowess with the younger people to just sell sell sell. They don’t care about making good shows–just shows that make money.
The whole point of the show is to broadcast Memphis’ scene and artists to a larger audience, and not one mention of the actual music itself was made in your article. Seems to me you’ve missed the point entirely. And what’s w/ this f’ing statement:
“(his) intention to give indie musicians an outlet for exposure is admirable, but everyone knows the old canard about good intentions”
WTF dude? “Even the good thing about this project sucks.” You may want to go get that stick removed from your ass before it leads to formation of an abscess or anal fistula. Then after that I’d recommend some psychiatric help. Not sure how old you are, but it seems like something may have halted your emotional maturation at the pre-adolescent stage of development. Therapy could really go a long way to heal those old wounds, and clear all those insecurities right up!
Now, on a serious note:
Regardless of what one thinks of this show’s entertainment or artistic value (which I think it has much of both), the fact of the matter is that Craig Brewer put a spotlight on a large number of musicians and artists in Memphis who have long been ignored by the mainstream media. The fact that MTV is airing something that features so many unknown artists is (I think) testament to the fact that it IS a departure from their past programming. I believe the forces behind this show want MTV to change for the better, and people like yourself fail to understand that things change one step at a time. I am very grateful that so many of my friends are finally getting their music out there, and you would be too if this were made in your home town. We are artists (like yourself) who have sat around for years w/ a jaded attitude about companies like MTV because they never step out on a limb to give real original artists a chance unless they fit w/in the mainstream framework (i.e. unless they were once in Mickey Mouse club and have been taking singing and dancing lessons since they were 2 years old). This is more than a step in the right direction, it’s a leap. If MTV started airing things like this about music scenes across America, it would be such an enormous improvement on what they’ve been doing up to this point, AND it would provide so many local artists who keep getting the shaft a new avenue by which to promote their music…including you! So I’d think twice before trashing this idea. You may be robbing yourself of a good avenue through which to get that band you keep talking about heard by a larger audience.
In conclusion, give your critique by all means. Talk about what you think sucks and how the thing can be improved, but don’t do this idea the disservice of ignoring it’s potential and merit. And don’t do the artists the disservice of completely ignoring them in your article.
fyi: documentaries on each artist were made to coincide the series, and can be viewed at http://www.fivedollarcoveramplified.com.
I like the show because it reminds me a little of the local scene that I’m a part of. Sure, it’s a little irritating that all of the drama concerns romantic entanglements, but at the end of the day I’m not expecting great plotting inside of 7 minutes. What IS real is the sense of friendship and community that I sense between the artists, and that can’t be faked.
The one personalized jab that I’ll lob is toward your notion that MTV shouldn’t try to make money. People need to get over the juvenile idea that it’s somehow admirable to sign up for the entertainment industry and then refuse to jump at every opportunity to turn a profit. I’m pleased that MTV is bankrolling something like this at all.
This show can be summarized in two words: midtown masturbation.
The Memphis scene always left me nauseated. I see little has changed.
When talent is real, you don’t need to strip it down to its underwear.
Pretty disappointing show.
mtv may be paying for the show, but they didn’t pay for his films, at least not his early ones…and though they may have distrubuted craig brewer’s hustle and flow, they didn’t pay for that either. i don’t know about black snake moan or anything after that, but he is or at least was (and likely still is, since his movies tend towards the non-mainstream) an indie film maker. and fyi on the indie films, that shit got so popular that every major studio tried to open art house divisions to produce their own ‘indie’ films, so it’s was a fairly meaningless concept for quite some time anyway. all it really means is that you scrounge up the money to pay for your own movie, and shoot it however the hell you want. in the end, you still sell it to someone else so people can see it, or there’s no point.
I agree with Joe. It is nauseating. The show was a very nice attempt at getting some air time for local musicians but SOME are so obsessed with themselves and consumed by ego that I don’t feel that they should have it stroked. It makes me sick. People use each other here and treat each other like crap-I guess it’s like that everywhere now-a-days though. It is sad what some people will do to reach “fame”.
Leave a Reply