Pop Beat : The Listeners Are Watching : After a lull, music videos are bigger than ever to a generation that insists on seeing the hits before buying them.

By GEOFF BOUCHER

Sept. 4, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

It was a long, rough road that led Kid Rock to the MTV studios in New York’s Times Square in April. After a decade of obscurity and lean times, he arrived at the taping of “Total Request Live” as a promising new artist--and he left a few hours later as an ascending star.

“It was like boom, overnight,” Rock says of his appearance and the airplay he got for his video. “Man, you hit that ‘TRL,’ that’s the biggest thing going in music. Video is more powerful than radio these days, and who would have thought that we would ever reach that point?”

Some likely predicted it back in the ‘80s when Michael Jackson and Duran Duran showed the star-building potential of the medium. But after a lull earlier this decade, the music video is reaching new, greater heights, and this time the success story may say more about the audience than the artists.

Indeed, as MTV prepares for its 16th annual Video Music Awards on Thursday, the video is more than a marketing tool for album sales. It is the music medium of choice for a generation.

“It’s extremely central to their music experience,” says Tom Calderone, a senior vice president for MTV. “They don’t want to just hear music, they want to see it.”

Today’s youthful music consumers are used to staring at screens--TVs, computer games, the Internet--and may be closing their eyes far less during music listening than the headphone generations preceding them.

The success of “TRL” as this era’s “American Bandstand” is the most obvious signpost--it’s hard, after all, not to notice thousands of kids clogging Times Square for every taping, or the show’s gaudy ratings--but there are other factors at work here.

From the explosion of teen pop (you think visuals have nothing to do with the Backstreet Boys’ success?) to the dynamic sales growth of film soundtracks (which put movie stars and big-budget production values into the tie-in videos), the music video is taking on new roles and range.

“It’s like a building wave,” says Kate Miller, Capitol Records’ vice president of video production. “Video was big, then people got kind of used to it and it took a little dip, but now it’s building up again.”

And a lot is riding on that wave--artist exposure, big budgets and hit-making.

“You try to sell the music visually in the video,” says Paul Hunter, a video director who has worked with Will Smith, Hole and Sean “Puffy” Combs. “But you also might be presenting the artist for the first time to fans, the first time they get to see the person and what they’re about. That’s extremely important.”

It may become even more important as music pushes into the Internet age.

The not-so-distant future will see more videos “streamed” to fans via the Internet as artists set up what amounts to their own “channels” on Web sites, says Marc Geiger, co-chief executive officer of ARTISTdirect, which handles online stores for the Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys and Metallica.

The online forums will likely stretch today’s definitions of music videos and give artists more options, Geiger said. “An artist is not in control with MTV, but with their own channel they are. . . . I think you’re going to see a huge renaissance for the makers of videos.”

Music videos have existed in some form for decades, such as the short-form, themed films of Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever.” But the birth of MTV in 1981 ushered in the true music video era, and the ensuing explosion has led to a host of other video outlets, such as VH1, BET, the Box and Canada’s Much Music. And, in recent years, the remarkable rejuvenation of VH1 into a ratings success and archivist of music history has created even more interest in video, Miller notes.

So it may be somewhat surprising that in recent years the number of music videos being produced by major labels has actually declined.

The consolidation and belt-tightening among music industry powers may be one reason, but Calderone says another factor could be the reduction of videos actually aired on MTV.

The network’s flagship station and VH1 both have numerous nonvideo shows and MTV has increased the airplay frequency of the biggest hits (MTV has other video-only channels, such as MTV2, but they are not widely available). The labels are now picking their shots better, he says.

For the artist and video director, that just jacks up the stakes. They get fewer chances, bigger budgets and more pressure to deliver a video that will, as Calderone puts it, “cut through to the audience.”

And just how hard is it these days to get a major hit without an accompanying video? “The odds of that,” Kid Rock says, “are slim to none.”

Budgets Can Swell Into Seven Digits

On a recent, sweltering weekday afternoon, director Hunter and his crew crowded into a Pico Boulevard nightclub to film a video for Warren G. The rapper, wearing a crisp white suit and sipping a 7-Up, looked bleary (“Bad hangover,” an assistant explained), but intently followed Hunter’s instructions.

“This video will give people a chance to see me and see that I’m back,” the rapper says. “Paul is one of the hottest directors in the game so, yeah, we’re hoping this will be big.”

Hunter, with more than 100 videos to his credit, is among today’s A-list directors and a member of what you might call the Million Dollar Club--the exclusive clutch of directors whose video budgets routinely swell into seven digits.

That type of money buys Hunter’s splashy, stylish mini-movies for music, such as Jennifer Lopez’s cyber-sultry debut video, “If You Had My Love”; the Notorious B.I.G.’s lavish action flick “Hypnotize”; and the surreal, disturbing eye candy of Marilyn Manson’s “The Dope Show.”

“Those were all very expensive and the money was spent because videos are important selling tools,” Hunter says. “A memorable video can be an incredible way for the audience to get to know the artist.”

And a signature video can provide a breakthrough for up-and-coming artists. The Barenaked Ladies and Jewel, for instance, have cited their video airplay on VH1 as a pivotal career boost. The same goes for Jordan Knight, the former New Kid on the Block whose recent career resurrection has been credited largely to the hit video for “Give It to You” and his appearances on MTV’s “TRL.”

During an August concert appearance in Irvine, Knight didn’t ask the fans if they heard him on the radio--he asked them if they had “seen the video” and an MTV behind-the-scenes special on its creation. The youthful crowd, of course, went wild in its assent.

Not everyone is in love with music videos or the creative landscape they inhabit. The quick-cut, slick production values of the three-minute movies has influenced Hollywood feature films, especially youth and action films, prompting many critics to decry what they see as style over substance.

Some music purists also believe videos have adversely affected concerts by prodding artists to add special effects on stage and limit any ad-lib variations to keep their performances in line with the expectations of video-loving fans.

Still, most observers agree the growing palette of music videos has created an exciting time for their creators. The results have been as varied as Todd McFarlane’s animated sagas for Pearl Jam and Korn and Spike Jonze’s quirky, cinema verite effort on Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” and Hunter’s seven-minute extravaganza for Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West.”

The medium is an enticing frontier, says filmmaker Abel Ferrara, who has just added his first major music video (a new Ben Folds Five song) to a resume that includes the films “Bad Lieutenant” and “King of New York.”

“Music video is the new American genre, and there’s some wild stuff being made,” Ferrara said. “The rules are different than films, too, which is liberating. I like to think of it as the haiku poem of film. But, you know, it still has to be a good song to get people to watch.” (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

1999 MTV Video Music Awards

Video of the Year Nominees

“I Want It That Way”

Backstreet Boys

Director: Wayne Isham

“Doo Wop (That Thing)”

Lauryn Hill

Director: BIG TV!

“Freak on a Leash”

Korn

Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, Todd McFarlane, Graham Morris

“Livin’ La Vida Loca”