MTV Buzz Bin: Volume 1 - The Zen of Buzz Clips: From a Guy Named Buzz

lol you live for beef! it's not any truthbomb anything it's just how that shit actually worked. you asked! label marketing depts discussed strategies about what audiences they wanted to build and worked cooperatively with MTV (and radio) to expand/define the markets of their acts. I know that you're probably going to read a lot of "...and that's BAD" into that, but it's actually a value-neutral description of how a band like the Cranberries winds up in the buzz bin. label submits video for consideration in Buzz Bin, has a guy specifically working the track for that purpose, Buzz Bin's a proven moneymaker. MTV has meetings, programmers say "dude at Cranberries label has been calling me all week, says this is a priority." video goes in buzz bin, feels like a good fit in an era of occasional feel-good alt-political anthems, what the hell, everybody loves U2, these guys are Irish too, meeting wraps early let's all get fucked up

― tempestuous alaskan nites! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 2:14 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but i mean...they had lots of ways to spotlight new videos by established artists, back in the 90s boom years MTV would do 'world premieres' for vids by big acts every hour on the hour probably more than once a week. that doesn't answer my question of why the whole 'buzz bin' idea of featuring up-and-comers would be compromised, you're just totally off on your little hobbyhorse right now.

it's not even a "the nominee for Best New Artist is on their second album" thing, it's more like "the nominee for Best New Artist is on their second platinum album"

but i mean...they had lots of ways to spotlight new videos by established artists, back in the 90s boom years MTV would do 'world premieres' for vids by big acts every hour on the hour probably more than once a week. that doesn't answer my question of why the whole 'buzz bin' idea of featuring up-and-comers would be compromised, you're just totally off on your little hobbyhorse right now.

iirc those world premieres were once a month at most & carried throughout the following two weeks - they didn't have bunches & bunches of big premieres, those were giant acts only ("Jamie's Got A Gun" was one of them, hard night here in the camp) weren't they? "The whole 'buzz bin' idea of featuring up-and-comers" is something you accept, when that's not actually the idea, the idea is developing a market & forging an identity (I want to say "corporate identity," but you're incapable of reading that without thinking I am thereby saying something bad about corporations). This isn't a "hobby horse" of any kind; it's just how the business actually works. Your questions kind of answer themselves here ("it's not even a "the nominee for Best New Artist is on their second album" thing, it's more like "the nominee for Best New Artist is on their second platinum album") but don't take it from me, talk to other people who actually know lawyers & execs who worked closely with MTV at the time. Or hold onto "what about the purity of the Buzz Bin" that's cool too

but i mean...they had lots of ways to spotlight new videos by established artists, back in the 90s boom years MTV would do 'world premieres' for vids by big acts every hour on the hour probably more than once a week. that doesn't answer my question of why the whole 'buzz bin' idea of featuring up-and-comers would be compromised, you're just totally off on your little hobbyhorse right now.

no he's not, he's right. he's just talking sense. "buzz bin" has no intrinsic meaning. MTV developed the phrase as a branding device to generate an exciting frisson of value-added *newness*, but once established, they could use it to add that quality to less than totally novel offerings. no surprise, just good business.

no contenderizer buzz bin is a beautiful dream and they ruined it

bring back the dream of buzz bin

and really, can anyone argue that "Zombie" does not fit in sonically with the rest of the CD?

Let's all just agree that nothing MTV labeled as 'alternative' or 'buzzworthy' post-'93 (to be super liberal with the date) was a particularly buzzworthy alternative to anything else they aired.

watch yer buzz bins I'm tellin' ya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIzSZH6oqeM

"Jamie's Got A Gun"

lol

sure he's talking sense, nothing he's saying is WRONG, he's just deploying it like inside knowledge and not shit that everyone knows, which is really condescending and annoying

the whole use of the word "buzz" is pretty much universally understood to mean this is something new that people are buzzing about, and definitely in that context more "people are buzzing about this new band," not "people are buzzing about this new Janet Jackson video". it's not like i'm mad they spoiled the secret garden that was the buzz bin, just even as a tween i was like 'uh yo why are the Cranberries still in the buzz bin, their last shit went plat'

aero totally otm

xp

"something new" != "something by a new band"

all that Buzz Bin ever meant was "we are hyping this"

the extremely poorly edited wikipedia entry i linked upthread disagrees with you, but that's not the best backup admittedly

No old-skool 120 Minutes viewer who watched the slow encroachment of Alternative Nation could argue that MTV's motives wrt this stuff were anything other than cynical.

sure he's talking sense, nothing he's saying is WRONG, he's just deploying it like inside knowledge and not shit that everyone knows, which is really condescending and annoying

lol no that how you're reading it because of your thirst for beef and the tiresome baggage you bring to the subject! stop giving a shit about the name at the end of the post & just read the post, maybe

"you're only disagreeing with my stone cold truth because of who's saying it" is the #1 most condescending bullshit anyone can say fyi

i disagree w/ tons of people i like and dislike on here all the time, as we all do, without anyone yelling "beef! personal vendetta! beef!"

yeah but it seems to be true here dude! you do a bunch of weirdo reading-into stuff with the posts on this thread, whatever the core's about you do it on any thread where we're both posting about bands from the 90s. I say I hate smashing pumpkins, you have some theory about why that might be - a theory steeped in totally delusional ideas. it's deeply weird tbh

we have found some dude's "in my world of young people"

(actually I just wanted to type that because that phrase always makes me lol, please carry on)

beearf

in my buzz bin of delusional beefs

all i'm saying is that whether by design or not, 95% of all 'buzz clips' were the act's big mainstream breakthrough, which makes the other 5% stick out and seem like they don't belong, not that whether they """"belong"""" in such a dubious enterprise actually matters

i wouldn't even remember who i made fun of for being hilariously angry about smashing pumpkins in 2011/2012 if he didn't keep talking about it tbh

it cannot be worse than Zombie (nothing is)

you and I do not often see eye to eye but in this matter we are brothers

haha you and I have been agreeing on a lot of things recently!
i don't hold grudges, esp for internet stuff, so im not going to avoid otming you when you are. and everything you've said about buzz bin is otm.

however i like smashing pumpkins so you might hold that against me! ;)

all i'm saying is that whether by design or not, 95% of all 'buzz clips' were the act's big mainstream breakthrough

no, that's just how it seemed to you. all these acts were established and playing large rooms by the time their videos aired. here's one example:

In 1993–1994, almost six years after its original release, the song became a hit on radio and earned Buzz Bin rotation on MTV[3] after a music video incorporating live footage was created to promote the band's new EP, Thrall: Demonsweatlive. The concert footage was taken from the band's Halloween 1992 performance at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in California, with additional footage shot in the UK.[4] This version of the song was retitled "Mother '93" and included an overdubbed "live" concert audience atop the original track, extra reverb, and a minor modification to the guitar solo.[5]

Feel like all the buzz bin = buzz bands owes something to this:

http://www.oaktreevintage.com/web_photos/effects/DOD_Buzz-Box_FX33_Distortion_Pedal_web.jpg

Confusion understandable.

The real point here is that "Low" is not getting nearly enough respect here, so I'm voting for it, and also "Thunder Kiss '65" >>>>> "More Human Than Human."

(Why is there not yet a Chinese food chain called "More Hunan than Hunan?" WHY?)

there's kind of a big gap between 'playing large rooms' and 'one million people bought their album'

Lol this thread was worth it for leading me to the first graf of the history section on noted buzz band Lit's Wikipedia:

Pre-Lit (1989–1996)
The band was formed in 1989 under the name Razzle. The group released a demo tape in 1990 and an EP entitled New Vibe Revolution in 1993. Razzle dissolved in 1993 and became Stain in 1994, which had a much harder and heavier sound. They released a demo tape in 1995 and eventually signed with Malicious Vinyl in 1995. Due to another band owning the name, they changed their name to Lit in 1996.

this is a band that literally never had a good idea

dod made a grunge pedal too! they still might

xp and one pretty good song

last I checked, the dod buzz box was selling for $300 on ebay.

haha new vibe revolution by razzle

we should poll all cultural artifacts named "-zzle"

did the melvins ever get in the buzz bin?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/delivery.midheaven.com/k/103680/images/0381610032260_main.jpg

http://s3.amazonaws.com/delivery.midheaven.com/k/103680/images/0381610032260_main.jpg

Some Dude, in the UK Razzle is a porn mag

king buzzle

Also the late drummer of Hanoi Rocks.

we'll note that for the poll, Algerian Goalkeeper

can we just do a poll of things with gratuitous Zs in them, because than ZUBAZ will win

Also the late drummer of Hanoi Rocks.

Aye
I fucking hate vince neil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SfE592gzSI

interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0idrwhYJZk

i totally get some dude's point - saying "buzz bins were bought by record labels and given to already popular bands" doesn't contradict that the Cranberries already received and could expect plenty of MTV airtime by "Zombie" and most of the groups given buzz bin nods didn't.

that said, i've been accused of selective memory and long-held, judgment-clouding ilx beef by aero before, too, so i can't be trusted.

tbh I prefer waygu beeg

uhhhhh beeF

my typing is horribad today

some dude and aero are both otm in a way

i mean, clearly, that Buzz Bin was 80% "new artists" made to give the thing cred and 20% "alt-leaning already-popular things" so people had some reference point for why they were seeing the Eels on TV.

yeah, that 94 ad you posted has only two real mtv 'breakthrough' vids (weezer and dino jr), a follow-up to a hit (offspring) and a 'wtf they're already huge' way more absurd than the cranberries (beasties). so yeah, by "zombie" the brand had been diluted.