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Clay and MTv, which is the Punisher and which is the Punishee?
I have to preface this by admitting I have a very love/hate relationship with MTv. When they first began, I was screaming for my MTv. I got cable just so I could watch it. I love music and was enchanted by the whole video concept. As a musician married to a musician, my kids grew up watching those videos. I can remember my 2- year old daughter rocking out to White Wedding, and my son rocking in his crib to We Are The World. Sometime during the early 90's, the focus of the station began to shift and so did my interest. They ceased to be about the music, and instead became about the music culture, what was cool with the music culture and what you needed to do and worse yet think in order to be palatable to the cool music culture and sadly, MTv and I went our separate ways a bit. I still watched occasionally, but I was not interested in the lives of the young, horny and beautiful who live rent free in classy digs done up by some ritzy hot designer, which MTv deemed the "Real" world.
No.
Toss them on the street with $200 and bad credit and then let's watch the Real World happen.
Anyhow, it was not much of an issue and i sorta switched over to alternating between VH1 (where they still actually played videos) and MTv2 cause they played more of the stuff I liked anyhow. MTv was forgotten till a few summers ago when they happened to decide to move the Real World into my Real World, a block away from the property I own in Chicago. My neighbors there and I threw huge hissy fits worthy of a vending machine and hydraulic lift.
We didn't want them there, not for the cameras or attention, but because we didn't want a bunch of suburban kids coming in and hanging around and getting drunk and snotty, which pretty much happened anyhow. People still block traffic on Milwaukee Avenue on a Saturday afternoon to jump out and take a picture next to the front door of the Real World Chicago. I know cause I got stuck sitting there hissing for ten minutes two cars behind them, while they did it. BTW - it's since been painted brown.
So I sorta understand MTv.
Along comes the Punisher and the Punisher's fans and the Dark Overlords. Seems the DOL's want the Punisher on MTv but MTv is not doing what the Claymates want.
I imagine the DOL are mad cause the Punisher is not #1 every day. The Claymates are mad cause they think it's rigged and MTv hates them. MTv is mad cause they're playing the video and they're still getting flack.
And the tension is set and escalating.
Before it snaps, I thought I should make these views known. I don't know if it will help, but as part of the subculture that MTv cherishes, I understand them from a little different angle than those who might not have had to deal with the music industry as much.
Claymates:
MTv does not need us. They are a monopoly. There is nothing out there even remotely near what they are. As such, they set the price and MTv knows this. They don't really sell any products YOU as a consumer buy. Their financial interest lie in advertising and cable companies.
We can no more impose our wills on them by a boycott as we could impose gravity on the moon.
Are you honestly going to get people to stop eating Skittles because MTv won't play Clay? Are you going to tell your teenage son he cannot buy any more Xbox games cause MTv won't play fair with Clay? Are you going to tell them to stop using name brand feminine products, zit medication and makeup, cause Clay is being shortchanged?
And just how effective will this be? In both the small picture and the big picture?
These companies are so huge, the Clayfans are a drop in the bucket.
MTv is a product and a very specific product at that. It is marketed at a very specific group and prefers to exclude other groups. It is marketed at urban kids from 14 to 24. It is marketed at what these kids want. Rock music. Hip Hop. Dance Music to club by.
MTV is not about Pop, although once in a blue moon, if a pop singer is popular in their age demographic, or comes out with a really steamy video, they will make an exception, but most of MTv's programming is done with cutting edge city youth in mind. Or what MTv thinks these are supposed to be. Sure, you do not see the Punisher much, but you don't see much of Norah Jones, or Faith Hill or anyone like that either, in spite of their high sales numbers and multiple awards. They have to be a certain type of video to make it on MTv, and pop usually is not it.

MTv does not need the Clayfans and would be just as happy if we went away. Since they are untouchable in their large-market, large-cross section advertising, there's not much we can do to boycott MTv for what some of us view as unfair.
Going on TRL boards and screaming conspiracy is not going to get the Punisher more airplay. Going on the boards and calling them cheaters is sort of like trying to teach the proverbial bull to sing.
It don't work and it irritates the bull.
There are seven thousand other acts waiting to step up and take the Punisher's spot on MTv. Many of them are much more friendly to MTv's type of music.
They're gonna ax him if you keep up the harrassment and unpleasantness.
MTv has been more than fair with Clay. They own another station, VH1, which is specializes in playing pop music. This is where you see the stuff MTv does not want to play. Clay fits in very well there and has been in heavy rotation.
MTv is entirely within their right to do this.
It might not be right, in your mind, it mind not be fair, but it is what has worked for them for over twenty years and has given them immense power and the artists on them worldwide exposure for the past twenty years. They are not a democracy, and you're not electing representatives. They are a private business, owned by people, that is in the business of picking and choosing what type of programming they are going to air, and who they want to target.
And we're not in the bullseyes.
By their choice.
Which is their right.
Just like we don't want people who hate Clay or people who want to talk about Iraq or people who want to rant on how gorgeous Simon is on this board.
We have set our own standards, as is our right. We made those choices using our discrimination, which is our right. There is nothing wrong with discrimination. I am not talking discrimination as in racial discrimination, but in discrimination as in using this to guide your choices to the conclusion that brings you the most enjoyment. I am discriminating with my pineapples. Wouldn't buy a green pineapple if my life depended on it. So I do not purchase them at stores that carry only green ones. I go to the one that gets them a bit more ripe and ready for eating. Yet there are undoubtedly some people who love green pineapple. This is the type of discrimination I mean and MTv is practicing.
So why are they playing Clay?
Simple. He's quite popular in his demographic. He's in demand. He's seduced them with his charisma and they really like him. Not his music, but him as a person. One of the veejays went so far as to say something like Nah, Nah, Clay's cool when faced with someone attempting to say something bad about him the other day.
This has gotten him far. Our votes have gotten him exposure. But it's not going to last if two things do not happen. It will get old fast and MTv has ADHD and will move onto the next glittery bait that catches their eye.
Clayfans have got to get the finger off the trigger. If they don't do what you want, you cannot and should not run screaming on every board in the universe yelling conspiracy. Again, it does no good and irritates the bull. MTv is not using Clay. Clay is using MTv for the power of the worldwide exposure it gives him. MTv is good for Clay and Clay will be good for MTv if he does what I point out next. But it's not going to happen if we don't put the hatchets and arrows down and give them a chance to stick their heads up and survey things once in a while.
And secondly, Clay is going to have to respect MTv's right to air what genre they wish, and either not demand exposure, or provide them something that is a bit more friendly to their airwaves or they're just going to lose interest and patience when the honeymoon is over and all the nice guy charisma in the world won't get him into rotation.
So what sells on MTv?
Sex -
Clay refuses to go there.
Nudity -
ah, a binks can wish, but it ain't gonna happen.
Violence and urban strife-
moshing Clay is a fun thought, but gangstaClay is a pipedream.
So what does that leave him?
That leaves him either the artistic route - to work on a video that is outstanding in it's artistic interpretation (Sledgehammer, Perfect Drug, The White Stripes video with the legos) or he's going to have to give them a message that is powerful and positive. Don't pull the trigger. Hang in there (Good Charlotte), Daddy I tried, but I could never meet your outrageously high expectations and now I am depressed cause I am such a failure (Simple Plan).
You get the idea.
Trouble is, Invisible does neither of these.
Invisible is a catchy song with a harmless video of a cute, nice young guy.
This is VH1. Not MTv.
But MTv gave him a chance on New Years Eve and they saw (and you could see from their honest, immediate reactions) they loved Clay live.
Clay live is electric.
Clay's recording and Clay's video do not have that same electricity, although it is there to some degree.
How much do we love Invisible for the recording it is, or the video it is, on it's own, without the memories of Tampa and swirling hips and St. Louis and the smirking and Anaheim with the lethal barrage of combos?
Clay's managers need to step up to the plate on this.
The Punisher has done nothing wrong. He sang the songs he was allowed to select from to the best of his ability, putting his all into it, and giving all us Clayfans something to cherish.
But for mainstream, hey, you all are the record people.
You know what you need to do.
He needs better songs with better arrangements.
Let the Punisher himself speak.
He's a bright, quick, funny guy who has an uncanny knack for reading his audience and adapting ( a study in schizophrenic (All right. All right. It's DID but schizo sounds better) Invisibles - Ellen - done is a soft, choir boy like voice, that just reeked sad, and the joyous attack on New Year's Eve - complete with giving throat.)
He knows. He knows far more than you think. Trust his judgement a bit.
Give MTv something they can get their chops into and they will push Clay to the worldwide heavens.
Give them "I love you" and they won't. Especially not ten times over.
It's not even We're in Love. It's just I Love You. Or butterflies with eyelids, which they don't have, so how can they open their eyes?

Come on. You can find some songwriters that produce something besides this. It's nice once in a while, but it is not going to sell on MTv, cause MTv is about hooking up, not love. Love's a bit silly to MTv and definitely not cool.
If you do insist on a love song without nudity, you're gonna have to step up to the plate for our boy. If you are reluctant to do this, then please, do not stress us fans out by asking us repeatedly to get him played.

Hey, if Tool can do it, so can you guys, cause you have more to work with to start.

I know the pieces fit
cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smoldering.
Fundamental differing.
Pure intention juxtaposed
Will set two lovers souls in motion
Disintegrating as it goes
Testing our communication

The light that fueled our fire
Then has burned a hole between us so
We cannot seem to reach an end
Crippling our communication.

I know the pieces fit cause
I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame
it doesn't mean I don't desire to
Point the finger, blame the other,
watch the temple topple over.
To bring the pieces back together,
rediscover communication

The poetry that comes
from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance.

There was a time that the pieces fit,
but I watched them fall away.
Mildewed and smoldering,
strangled by our coveting
I've done the math enough to know
the dangers of our second guessing
Doomed to crumble unless we grow,
and strengthen our communication.

Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any
Sense of compassion
Between supposed lovers
Between supposed brothers


There is a message there for all. Let's hope it's not a self-fulfilling prophecy.