Real-time Real World music ticker

By David
May 1, 2008 | 5:19 pm CDT

This week I took a flight on JetBlue Airways with the enjoyable perk of watching live television during the 2+ hours. Other than the near-perfect picture and sound (strange how the quality of the signal is better thousands of feet in the air than at my parents house on the ground), I was struck by something interesting on a television show I used to follow, MTV’s Real World.

This season of the Real World, as filmed in Hollywood, has a unique feature I’ve never witnessed before. Whenever a song is played within the context of the show, a ticker at the bottom of the screen displays the artist and title of the song. Rarely, if ever, does music as ubiquitous as The Eagles or Britney Spears get played, but rather new artists with no name-to-song recognition.

In a sense, the real-time notification of the music playing is no different than a soda can prominently displaying the logo of the drink being consumed or other type of visible product placement. But is this too heavy-handed a maneuver to tie new sounds to the relative information? It is now common place that a show have a place in the credits to display “music featured in this episode includes…” but the as-it-happens notice is striking.

Does such notification take away from a television show in any way or is this simply a glimpse into the future of TV & marketing?

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Add a CommentCOMMENT (4)

alynn said:

I would think it would be as distracting as news shows running headlines across the bottom. Which do you pay more attention to? Still the idea of giving credit on the spot is a nice one. I would say it is a test and if it goes over well, we will see it elsewhere as a normal part of marketing.

People will gripe at first, of course, but in time they will adjust and expect it.

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Meghan said:

I go back and forth with this.
There are so many great artists out there, and I look at it as another way to get their music heard. I love hearing a good song (Soap operas’ have actually been doing something similar for awhile now) on a show and being able to see the name of the song and the artist.
On the flip side though, that whole “product placement” thing bothers me. At what point does the line cross from it being music to being a product? You have to wonder how the artists look at it. Are they just trying to be heard, or make a quick buck?

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