Ah, Jack Black, what a great scam. His hilarious supporting performances in High Fidelity (for us Cuze fans) and Saving Silverman (for you low-brow pie loving fans) gave Black the opportunity to set his own course. And he's planned out his rise in a way that most of us never saw coming. The arrival of the self-proclaimed "Greatest Band on Earth" Tenacious D is the final masterminded installment in Black's rise to fame. Where Don Johnson failed, Black will succeed because of the immediacy of his band's popularity in his breaking career. Jack Black went about pretending to be an actor so he could have his own rock band. What a great scam! Along with partner Kyle Gass, their two-man musical comedy act offers a satire of rock's common themes: draw off of a cult following, imply a sense of grandeur and mention the name of your band as many times as possible. Packaged with Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque audience participation, Tenacious D has appeared in BioDome, on "Saturday Night Live" and even in their own HBO show chronicling the band's journey. Their new song "Wonderboy" has hit MTV with all the spectacle of The Never Ending Story (Black actually played Slip in Pt. 3), the self-involvement of a Magic player and the ulterior world of Dungeons & Dragons. But all doubts of their madness escape when you realize that they're actually pretty damn good. Black has a new movie coming out called Shallow Hal. A movie, a video and your break into the mainstream all at once? Be prepared, it's time for Jack Black overload. You've got my approval, and I'm sure the JHU Gamers Club has noticed you as well. Just make sure you don't get annoying and we'll get along just fine. Go, Black, go.
With all the U.K. hype carry-on baggage, The Strokes have boarded the American pop culture express. Their video for "Last Nite" offers a low-fi sound with high-fi MTV-bright colors lighting up an Ed Sullivan stage. Much like Nirvana's video for "In Bloom," The Strokes video offers a studio performance reminiscent of the sock hop era. Its a Beck-meets-Buddy Holly sound from within a generation that consciously markets image before quality, but now that this country's at war, we're all ready for some good ol' American rock 'n' roll. Be warned, a mic stand does fall over in the video and it will release within you a plea to reshoot the whole damn scene! But let it go. These guys are going to be huge.
We are subjected to one of the largest orchestrated efforts by MTV to establish the face of their network. It doesn't come in the relentless promotion of a few bands rising simultaneously in a common genre. It doesn't come in the form of a week-long marathon of a promising anchor show. MTV has four people placed in a long-term, self-promoting marketing plan that allows for a common rise - the MTV News anchors. Not since the days of Martha Quinn and Adam Curry and not after the death of the VJ has MTV pushed non-musical personalities so concretely. The first to receive his push was Gideon Yago. He's a young, hip Kurt Loder with a cool name. He's the bigger-than-John-Norris straight man working for "MTV News" to cover the biggest stories and looks promisingly capable of outgrowing the format. Don't be surprised if he's out from behind the news desk soon and involved in his own much larger venture. Iann Robertson was the next to break, although his acceptance was more of a surprise. He's fat, bald, tattooed and hardcore as hell. Where do you put him? You put him on the channel that you're trying to convince viewers an alternative guy like him would watch - MTV2. But it was Robertson himself and his sarcastic editorial comments on the "oh so fun music world" that were solely responsible for his early break. Then came Sway - I sigh and shake my head. Sway, Sway, Sway. if it wasn't for your monotone voice and your noticeably moving head as you read the cue cards, people might not even notice your uncool awkwardness and your inappropriate questions like, "DMX, are you worried about the bootleggers?" How did he even get the job? I don't know, maybe his performance with Carson Daly on the casting couch was just that spectacular. Finally we come to Suchin Park, another unattractive Asian woman on TV. I thought with Lucy Liu and Lisa Ling we were moving us past our Margaret Cho phase as a culture. I guess I was wrong. Park's rise is just starting now, and I'm kind of already beginning to miss that goofy Sway's heavy rotation. We'll see where they go from here.
Now, I know we've come to trust Dr. Dre in his ventures, but sometimes you get the idea that he's not even trying anymore. He's got a new project - a tall, skinny rapper with two braids and a smooth voice. No, not Snoop Dogg, but an uglier, less sedated version by the name of Knoc Turnal. For every dashing Nick Nolte, there's a less fortunate Gary Busie and apparently Snoop has found his Gary Busey. This entire bit was done by Snoop years ago and now Dre is repackaging it all over again. But the likeness is so uncanny, that its infathomable that he's actually getting away with it. Isn't there some kind of rule against bit infringement?
Rock acts such as Motley Crue, Guns n' Roses, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers succeeded in capturing the marketing power of two. When selling an image, it's always better to have two faces associated with a product than one. For every Vince Neil fan, there was a Tommy Lee fan and so on and so forth. Drawing upon this concept, many rap acts proceeded to combine forces and feature other artists in their songs to relieve the isolation of being the only person on stage. It's convenient to give an up-and-coming rapper on your own label a verse in your song if it means that both of you will sell more records because of it. And now, in this tradition, comes Linkin Park with their "spikey blonde-haired lead singer with an affinity for breaking glass and the color blue" - who also seems to be a big fan of this sort of crouched, arms to the side, head to air screaming eagle pose - and the "background guy," a dark-haired lyrical beat master. But their new song, "In the End," issues in a stronger proposition - what happens if you switch the lead singer? Not only do you have two faces to market, but two faces identifiable with different songs and different attitudes. This two-headed lead singer concept is never more apparent than video's color scheme. "In the End" is meant to be the breakthrough song for the "background guy" and as upon assuming the role the video rests in this brown, grassy, earthy, Crazytown-like color. But when the chorus really starts to hit and the song reaches its climax, the "blonde-haired spikey guy" takes over and the video changes back to his favorite color - blue. With this concept, you can set up either guy as the lead singer for a few singles and then change it up on everyone and attract new fans that were lukewarm to the image before. Now if they could only figure out how to feature the dramatic button pusher guy, Linkin Park would be unstoppable.
