The half-hour program, which airs three times daily on VH-1, is sort of a thinking man’s ““Beavis and Butt-head,’’ the latest - and perhaps cleverest - twist on the current rage for deconstructionist entertainment. ““Pop-Up Video’’ takes existing rock videos - a mix of current hits and beloved classics - and enhances them by adding text blocks that ““pop up’’ on screen every 10 seconds or so. Some ““pops,’’ as the text blocks are called, provide behind-the-scenes detail. Viewers might learn, for example, that No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani volunteered to cry hysterically during her band’s ““Don’t Speak’’ video, only to have most of the resulting footage end up in the trash. Other pops offer tangential trivia. As Sheryl Crow’s ““Leaving Las Vegas’’ video airs, we’re told that ““people are not leaving Las Vegas. Its population has doubled in the past 10 years.’’ Or a pop might poke fun at a mighty personage. When Rogaine-deprived singer Phil Collins comes on screen with his head covered, we learn that ““41 percent of balding men wear hats.’’ Since debuting in December, ““Pop-Up’’ has built a loyal, even rabid, following, and become VH-1’s top-rated program. ““We’re trying to breathe some new life into this medium,’’ says Tad Low, 30, the show’s co-creator.
It’s a medium in need of new life, to hear Low tell it. ““Music videos suck,’’ he says. ““I remember back in the ’80s, when they were a novelty, you’d actually run home because there was a new Madonna video. The older videos had plots. Nowadays they’re like glorified photo shoots.’’ The show’s other creator, Woody Thompson, also 30, confesses: ““We’re just trying to find a way to make people sit through them.’’ The formula is working so far. Not only does the show’s telephone tip line get 50 messages a day - including calls from band members looking to dish dirt on each other - but the gimmick has popped up on other shows, from ESPN’s ““Sportscenter’’ to ““Late Night With Conan O’Brien.’’ ““It’s great to see other people attempt to do it,’’ says Low. ““They just don’t get the tone right. It’s not as easy as you’d think.''
Tone can be a problem, even for the concept’s originators. The only video to be pulled off the air because of an artist’s complaint was a popped version of the Wallflowers’ ““One Headlight.’’ It seems the band’s frontman, Jakob Dylan, is a little, er, touchy, when it comes to comparisons to his famous father. Knowing that, the pop-up team (which numbers about a dozen) prepared a video that did little but compare him to his dad. He moaned, and VH-1 felt his pain. Interested parties, however, can check out a copy of the banned script on Low and Thompson’s production company Web site. ““VH-1 doesn’t know this exists, so if you put it in, it’ll be a problem for us,’’ says Low. ““But, whatever.’’ After all, he who pops last pops best. ^
