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This is a (sort of) sequel to another post.

FM Rocks was the largest music video production company in the world over the last decade and a half. They were the home of directors like F. Gary Gray, Paul Hunter, Dave Meyers, Bryan Barber, Benny Boom, Jake Nava and Erik White. FM Rocks did videos like Notorious BIG’s Hypnotize, Beyonce’s Crazy in Love, Outkast’s Hey Ya and hundreds of others. FM Rocks produced multiple clips for Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Britney, Creed, Celine Dion, Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Lopez, LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes and so on.

If the music video industry were the auto industry – FM Rocks would be General Motors. And they closed their doors at the end of the year. Check out the “FM Rocks” tag on videostatic to see all the videos they did since the beginning of 2005. And that was while they were "going under."

That’s right, the biggest music video production house in the world went under (or simply 're-organized'). These photos show the building in Santa Monica where FM Rocks was officed until the end of 2006.

By looking at the building you can tell their overhead was probably just a bit high. This building is about four blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Prime real estate to be sure. That kind of extravagance is part of the problem.

But, the industry also changed. That’s probably a good thing – unless you worked here or they owed you money. Maybe they went bankrupt, maybe they just moved away. You can rent the building and find out.

Most of these pictures i took myself driving past one day, but below is a photo I got through a friend of a friend. It is a dumpster full of three-quarter inch video tapes that got thrown away as FM Rocks cleared out.

Try the phone number, (310-587-1501) – it is disconnected. I pity the next person that gets assigned those digits by AT&T and is inundated by collection calls from post houses and camera rentals joints trying to get paid.

Labels: Beyonce, death, music video, prod co