Everybody accepted that the promotion of music videos on television and radio has a “give and take” system connected rather than its artistic values. The audience also understood that a catch was required for the producers of the musical shows on various media channels in order to promote their products.[break]
“If one can get producers and anchors of these broadcasting media to their favor through various unethical means, then there’s no need to do anything else for promotion,” a musician clearly added.
Music director Shishir Yogi is one of those affected by this ugly trend. “Sab kaam chaadi ajha ek kaam roji rahechhu” is his song which, although being extremely popular, hasn’t yet had a music video release.
He believes that if a song is beautiful lyrically and if its music is touching, then there are very less likelihoods of it turning into a flop. In other words, he says, a music video is not required for such a song.
“To come up with video tapes has financial issues attached to it. The other grief-stricken thing about it is the promotion and marketing of the tape. It’s wonderful to hear songs which have emotions attached to them. A song of this genre has ten things to say whereas a music video of the same has only one thing to show,” he said.
He seemed quite depressed when he said that videos are made for fame with money going hand in hand.
Rajesh Payal Rai is an extremely popular singer. But sadly, most of his songs don’t have visuals. He reckons that spending Rs 200,000 to Rs 300,000 for a video is not only difficult but out of his reach.
So, spending cash on recording is far wiser, according to him. “Darshan Namaste” is one among his songs which was a massive hit without relying on video tape.
The fact behind visuals not being made is not because Rai didn’t try but it was because he believes that there are a number of other ways by which music can be broadcast. He shares that using social networking sites, Youtube and other mediums is a better idea.
Prasanna Poudel, a freelance director, says, “It’s hard to promote one’s music video. A lot of songs get played continuously on air whereas videos may not even arrive at the TV stations,” he adds.
He believes that television personnel are behind this. He even thinks that that who are involved in such unethical practices are responsible for degrading the quality of music videos.
Therefore, he suggests that directors put in a little extra effort in promoting their videos without relying completely on television channels. He informs that a music video will cost anything from Rs 20,000 to Rs. 300,000.
“It’s rumored that many of today’s music video directors are in this profession not because of their skills but because they work for television channels” a professional at a TV channel said.
Bhushan Dahal, media personality and director of many music videos, said although he can’t question the above claims completely, he can’t agree, either. He thinks that the explanation is not precise.
“Selection on the basis of various qualities, including the music of a song, is important before playing it on air, and it can’t be called unfair if a certain music video isn’t broadcast owing to its low qualitiesy,” Dahal explained to the audience at the said event.
“The ever increasing number of music videos is due to the fact that the people involved in them want fame,” he further observes. “As for my work, people come to me because they like what I do and not because of my association with any television channels,” he claimed.
Dahal is considered to be an expensive director but he says he has never worked on a project surpassing Rs 150,000.
“I’ve even worked for free many times,” he said, adding, “The success of a music video doesn’t solely depend on its budget but on the correct ways to utilize the available resources,” he concluded.
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