Stored somewhere in a box of my adolescent memorabilia are three VHS tapes with meticulously taped mid-to-late nineties music videos. Back in the day, seeing your favourite music video was akin to (no, wait, better than) hearing your favourite song on the radio: it was a rare and delicious happening.

But gone are the days when you had to wait til MuchMusic played your favourite band’s new video, if they played it at all. Now, I can watch almost any music video I can think of by typing a few characters into YouTube. It doesn’t discriminate by genre, year, artist, anything. If you can think of it, it’s probably there. Case in point: random crazy Christian songs my mom used to listen to when I was a kid? On YouTube. Obscure rap metal song I liked when I was 19? Yup. It’s on YouTube.

Smart artists are quickly waking up to this phenomenon and doing some interesting, creative things with videos online. R.E.M.’s new site dedicated to the video for Supernatural Superserious looks more like an indie film than a music video. This awesome video for Myriad Harbour from the New Pornographers lends itself well to the computer screen. Radiohead just announced that they’ll team up with Antiboom and judge submissions from fans for their new animated video. The winner will make the Radiohead video and win a pretty $10,000. Not to mention that some artists make raunchy vids just for the interweb, away from the long arm of MTV’s and MuchMusic’s censors – check out NGTV’s NSFW Down and Dirty channel for examples.

And, if you’re interested in a music-centric video site, Fabchannel is my favourite new find. Sign up to make your own playlist featuring beautifully photographed live performances of your favourite songs. My new playlist features concert footage of Okkervil River, Of Montreal, The Teenagers, Ron Sexsmith, Low, et cetera, et cetera. It really is a treat. Check it!!

You’re welcome,

SS