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Of course Das Tube has not died. It is still there. Trust me. Click on over and see Tyler’s birthday party. All is still in order.

But when an “underground” phenomenon starts getting written up in major media outlets (think of grunge on the cover of Time magazine) it usually means the “hot, new thing” is waning faster than a Pro-Activ shilling Diddy.

When the LATimes does a piece on how “graying grown-ups who wistfully recall the giddy rise of MTV” are flocking to Google’s new viral video baby, things start to seem a whole lot LESS cool.

“YouTube and similar sites, meanwhile, are beginning to play a role as de facto syndicators of old "off-network" programming like music videos, not to mention original stuff generated by users. Indeed, music videos are particularly ripe for exploitation on YouTube. Most are brief, which fits well with the site's 10-minute time limit on uploaded clips. When Google purchased the company in October, moreover, deals were cut with major record labels that cleared the way for many videos to run without fear of litigation from copyright holders.”

Read the whole Scott Collins piece in LAT here.

I am in no way suggesting that YouTube or MVs on YouTube are REALLY going away. YouTube is here to stay but …

If YouTube is now VH1 for secretaries and mid-level manager types at Dunder-Miflin, will kids still use it? Or will it be a pre-planned youth “thang” like the Honda Element that was designed for dorm-living X-gamers and turned into the coolest mode of transport at the Leisure Village?

Labels: media, music video, YouTube