MTV’s Cameras and Crew Invade Market Hotel
MTV disclaimer and Mae Shi at Market Hotel, by Rebekah Bassen
It was definitely a strange sort of night at the Market Hotel on Monday, and it was more than just the heat. First, there was a street team from UCB there to hit up guests of the Hotel. I stumbled upon them re-grouping in Mr. Kiwi’s, with their leader telling them to work their way down the street to Goodbye Blue Monday next. More ominously though, my girlfriend noticed a sign when we entered saying, in short, that MTV is filming and can use your likeness in all media that exists, or may exist in the future, and by being there you agree to be filmed, if you don’t agree, leave. MTV?! Ugh. I suddenly became curious as to why Japanther dropped from the bill and if the filming had anything to do with it.
When we moved inside the second band was just starting. Some second-wave type emo that reminded me a lot of breaking pangaea. I couldn’t pay attention all that well because I was busy adjusting to the sauna-like conditions and working out MTV’s nefarious scheme in my head. A profile of Todd? A new reality show? Or some sort of devious social engineering project? (see, I have this theory that at the top MTV is run not only by money-hungry marketing fiends, but also by some twisted social scientists playing with our youth culture…) To that end, might the Market Hotel really just be an elaborate, "hip" set they have been cultivating from the start?
I was drawn out of my head and into Ponytail’s set, because you can’t not be drawn into a Ponytail set, but my paranoia soon returned that MTV was lurking around every corner. Who in the crowd was a secret agent? I picked out the 2 girls and a guy with big cameras and blinding lights to be the most likely suspects. I asked one what the deal was and she said that they were just filming the bands to put up on mtv.com. Which seems plausible. However, given that the production company, Remote Productions, Inc., is attached to "Making the Band" and responsible for at least one episode of the mind-destroying "Super Sweet 16", I’m still kicking around my conspiracy theories…
Either way, this isn’t the first interest that MTV has shown in the burgeoning scene — I saw John Norris hanging out at the Yard last weekend and back in January they did a piece called "The Noise from Brooklyn" that focused on Todd P and the DIY indie/punk bands that are coming out of and passing through Brooklyn. I might be overreacting, but I would hate to see this scene implode (like poor grunge!). In the January piece, Dave Longstreth of The Dirty Projectors tells MTV that the scene has an “aesthetic of, just like, fuck this we can do it ourselves, we’re not represented by MTV,” which I truly hope survives, because once something gets big enough it seems, ultimately MTV decides whether they will represent it or not.
To the main point, I know that they have been saying it for awhile, but with its rapid cultural ascendency and increasing media attention has Bushwick really claimed the (dreaded) "New Williamsburg" crown?
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Wow, I thought this was a joke as the notices were poorly photocopied and dated 2005.
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
me too at first, until the big cameras came out during ponytail’s set
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
how can dave longstreth say “we’re not represented by MTV” but be saying it on an MTV.com interview and have his quote be taken seriously? the ship is already sinking folks…
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
i was only there for Joan Of Arc. It was so fucking hot and gross in there. and btw if Joan Of Arc reminded you of Breaking Pangaea, I think it’s more like Breaking Pangaea reminds you of Joan Of Arc, Tim Kinsella is a for father of mid 90’s emo.
that is if they were the second band. like i said i showed up they were already into a song and left right after
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
F’n hell it was hot in there. To the point of being comical even. I pretended I was in a sauna. A big smokey sweaty sauna.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
1)I thought the whole ‘New Williamsburg’ thing had been settled in the affirmative MONTHS ago. Certainly the exponential increase in white kids getting on at Myrtle-Broadway settled it in my mind.
II)Half the bands (at LEAST) at Goodbye Blue Monday owe their very lives to MTV-approved bands like Interpol and the Strokes. These bands were scooped up by MTV from the LES. Williamsburg is the new LES. Bushwick is the new Williamsburg. MTV’s gonna scoop the best-looking/most-marketable bands off the top, cause that’s what they do.
Suffice it to say that I wouldn’t be too worried about seeing Longstreth’s face on TRL. Ever.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Who cares if MTV films anything?
There are a million media outlets these days, it makes no difference whether it’s MTV or Vice TV or Pitchfork TV, they can all film whatever the heck they wish. This is not the all powerful music industry giant it once was.
I welcome the documentation and the possibility of new people being turned on to DIY ideas and good music. But in all likelihood, there will be little effect from “all this attention” at all.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
MT TV is more like it.
Fuck them. They are what’s WRONG with our culture, generation and country. They are, literally, the fucking enemy - they are why a lot of us move out here and live out here.
Cultureless, classless, without a loyal bone in their organization’s body - MT TV will bury Bushwick - after the fifteen minutes of pop culture hang time, the push pin will fall off the cork board and MT TV won’t be around to document that.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I think you’re all being a little hysterical. MTV filming in Bushwick has absolutely no effect on the neighborhood, except maybe a few people will find out about it and think it’s cool. That was gonna happen anyhow. Besides, doesn’t MTV do all the silly political crap you like, Rock the Vote to get uninformed poeple to vote for the cutest candidate and all that other hopelessly trite “we the people” delusional democracy bullshit?
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
They don’t even have music on it anymore. It’s benn highjacked by the worst possible executive decisions.
I remember when MTV rocked - and then it ended, flat ended, when Fred Durst all of sudden was on it everyday.
In fact, that really when pop music took a nose dive, a lasting nose dive…
and luckily music has gone back underground… where MT TV can’t touch it -
until they start showing up at shows. Luckily Japanther and some other artists with integrity see them for what they are - PIMPS looking for WHORES.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 am
hopefully, it works out like todd says and there is little effect other than a few kids being turned on to the fact that, ‘hey, i can do this shit.’ or ‘wow, ponytail is amazing!’
but i don’t think they are there to document, they are there to collect some cultural capital and cash in on it. mtv isn’t interested in diy culture, they are interested in diy style (or bushwick style or brooklyn style, however they think they can market it best). i’d hate to see diy become just a catch word like “green” has, and if they decide to market bushwick or brooklyn i just hope it doesn’t have an adverse effect on all of the good things that people are doing around here, these shows being one of them.
@dresden,
do you know for sure that is why japanther didn’t play? i just said i WONDER IF that is why. perhaps they ate some of the new e.coli jalepenos and got a wicked case of the shits?
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
you are a damned fool if you think Japanther didn’t play because MTV or anyone was going to be there. Japanther didn’t play because they double booked themselves and they dropped off the bill 2 weeks before the show.
stop being so hysterical, this will be a 30 second or less clip that MTV runs one time at three am. not a biggie.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
This is SUCH a weird thread…
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
is it def for MTV or for MTV2 or one of the many other channels they have which do play music?
July 24th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
they were only filming the Mae Shi, with no coverage of the location or the context, just about the band.
it’s wasn’t a film shoot about Bushwick or the Market Hotel or Todd P
July 27th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Why analyze something as meaningless as MTV’s cameras in the DIY scene. We make the scene what we want it to be. MTV has no influence over that.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Why is this site so willing to ask a question like, has “Bushwick really claimed the (dreaded) ‘New Williamsburg’ crown?” This site is a part of the “million media outlets” capable of focusing attention on Bushwick; the effects of the Market Hotel do not stop at the venue’s doors. It is dangerous not to realize the power you have as a member of this ‘new’ media, run around wielding it, and then, once things start to change and you’re not sure you like it, look around wondering what happened.