More people watch videos than ever before. Music execs recognize the importance of the visual element these days more than ever to give an artist a look or image that distinguishes and separates them from the enormous amount of music available on the internet. It is very rare when you see a house music artist cross-over from the global house music into the visual medium considered pop art.
It's 5am in New York, and DJ Producer Oscar P and director Swift finally wrap filming on the Time Machine video. A gritty, high concept, action packed clip, that aims towards poking fun the at the mini low-budget Hollywood B-movie action film. The twist?
In an age where artists are trying to get that extra edge with an attention grabbing visual ID to the music they are producing, it delivers big time. The video starts with a direct access to nightlife, and then turns part MMA, part Matrix, part Kill Bill, and part musical history lesson. Time Machine pays tribute to the club scene Oscar P came up in...
before Obama, before the war, before the Internet, before the itunes store.
“In the story line, I build a time machine and I travel back to 1996 and hop to 2009 to visit my favorite clubs of the era... as well as the DJs that played them,” muses Oscar.
Tenaglia, Morales, Vega...It's quite an adventure.
“Now the trick was, how do we make people watch, as this is not your typical house track. Today’s generation missed this entire period of house music,” Oscar points out, "I actually heard Mike Dunn's track plugging the Chicago pioneers and it inspired me to plug the guys I grew up with and represent the city and scene I came out of. Thanks Mike, see what you started?"
Atlanta based Swift (Sugar Groove), who transitioned out of the hip hop scene into dance music adds his two cents. "This was the first time I've done a video with action scenes. The editing process took longer than I thought it would. This is actually part 2 of the story."
For the first of the series with an even smaller non-existing budget shot via Flip, look on our YouTube channel for Oscar P - Tulum 2012, which was shot in Mexico in 2011. Hmmmm.
Now that music video stations have become so huge and have so many have off-shoot channels, it's getting interesting again. The variety of these channels have cemented a new culture within the music business. The YouTube generation has been alive and well for the past 5 years. But now add Vimeo, Lost At EMinor, Music Vid Kid, Submarine Channel, Promo News, VideoMilitia and RadarTV, and we have an explosion of more creative works emerging.
Some may say Oscar P has finally lost his mind.
"Well I lost my mind years ago. I'm simply trying to elevate my game, and grow as an artist, try new things and ideas. Find new ways to tell a story. I think we've done that."
Yes Indeed.
Welcome to Open Bar Music. Welcome to our House... deep, soulful, funky, jazzy, dirty, sexy, minimal, house musica
Open Bar Music is the New York based imprint of Oscar P and Jessica Bendig. The label releases commercial albums, provides artist development, distributes music digitally, and has licensed music to:Ministry Of Sound, Ultra, Hed Kandi, Samsung, SonyBMG, Sprint, Nextel, Universal, Manifesto, Rise, EMI, Club Star, Sneakerz, Planet Records, and Bargrooves.
