THE VIRAL GENERATION WEB VIDEOS PROVE FAR MORE INFECTIOUS THAN MTV FARE.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

A rock band perilously dancing on treadmills has jump-started the fastest-growing music marketing craze since MTV took flight.

In the space of months, countless millions across the globe have caught the viral video bug, logging onto free sites like YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Google Video and MySpace to enter a fast-multiplying universe of low-budget clips by bands they might never have heard of before. Sensing the era of the $500,000 video budget has passed, a struggling record industry is wide awake to the potential.

The witty rock quartet OK Go struck the gong, attracting 3 million viewers with its hilariously choreographed clip, ``Here We Go Again,'' within its first two weeks online at the end of the summer. Alt-rock act Beck Hansen, usually on the cusp of emerging trends, just uploaded cheaply made, self-shot videos for each of his new album's 15 songs onto YouTube, MySpace, Beck.com and various other corners of the Internet.

The MTV gap

Michael Laskow, CEO of Taxi, a leading independent talent-spotting company, predicts the viral video phenomenon will spawn thousands of Internet video sites as well as TV channels and specialty programs focusing on indie video.

``MTV may be at particular risk because it doesn't play many music videos these days. But it's important to recognize that they don't play them because their audience told them they wanted more shows and less music videos in their market research.''

Since emerging out of the ether last year, YouTube holds the leading position in online video with 29 percent of the U.S. multimedia entertainment market, according to data from Web measurement site Hitwise. More than 100 million videos are viewed per day, and 65,000 new videos are uploaded daily on the site, which recently began working with Warner Music Group to smooth out potentially sticky areas like licensing of recordings and lyrics of Warner's material.

And those areas are definitely sticky -- insiders predict that if YouTube is eventually snapped up by a media giant, a dicey legal landscape awaits in the form of endless copyright lawsuits.

It's very viral

The new video world works this way: YouTube and other sites allow users to post any video they want with only the barest quality or copyright controls. With such a gigantic amount of content, viewers have to wade through a ton of trash to find something good. And that's where the viral part comes in -- just like a flu bug, quirky, clever, intriguing or just plain gross videos are instantly transmitted from one viewer to another, across the office and the world.

``People have been discovered, careers have been revived, and groups are finding their audience through the site,'' said Julie Supan, senior director of marketing at the Bay Area- based YouTube. ``The labels are on the site constantly, combing it for talent. It basically levels the playing field. It democratizes the experience -- and the best content will win.''

Of course, as a result of the open floodgates, a good deal of YouTube content is just plain insipid -- for example, countless clips of girls and boys dancing in their underwear to their favorite hits by Justin Timberlake. Or dumb pranks that make ``Jackass 2'' seem like ``Mystic River.''

But, for up-and-coming bands like Los Angeles-based Buckfast, the free video and music sites are at the center of what could develop into a storm of interest.

``Six years ago, there were only a few places on TV to show your videos, and unless you had a large pocketbook, you had no shot of having your stuff broadcast,'' said guitarist Vic Belonogoff of Buckfast, which has just released a buzzed-about debut album and is a presence on nearly 50 sites that accept videos. ``Now, bands like ourselves have the opportunity to experiment and get immediate feedback from fans. Having our stuff on YouTube, MTV.com and MySpace is a huge selling point for us.''

Even as obscure young hopefuls in every corner of the planet are busy posting music and video, million-selling acts are joining the fray. In a further example of the potential reach of YouTube, producers of ``The Cars Unlocked,'' the first live DVD by the perennially popular '80s rock group, recently uploaded a 10-minute sample of the two-disc set, along with other Cars-related content.

``The great thing about these sites is the end user has complete control over what they see,'' said Erick Opeka, marketing manager for the company releasing the Cars set.

``Viral videos can be a way to sample things that will lead you to find more by the artist. It also allows the artist to find their audience very, very quickly. It's a mainline to a niche. The biggest challenge is not coming off slick and overpolished, because most of the content is viewer-produced. The content has to have a look, style and feel that matches the site.''

Highly contagious

While it's easy to get lost in an ocean of video, groups like OK Go have seen their careers turn around as a result of clever, compulsively watchable video clips that circled the globe with the speed of sound.

``I'm not saying this is the best or only way to get noticed if you're a new band,'' said OK Go bassist Tim Nordwind from a tour stop last week in Spain. ``But it does show that with a good idea that's different enough from everyone else, amazing things can happen. This was all totally unexpected.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

[e-mail]

Rare and cool viral videos

Another world awaits at YouTube.com. Here are some video gems we discovered during a recent visit.

Grant Green, Barney Kessel and Kenny Burrell jamming together.

``Dixie Chicken,'' Little Feat (with Lowell George)

``Alcohol Dance,'' Bukka White

``Death Letter Blues,'' Son House

``Anthrax,'' Gang of Four (at SXSW '06)

``Glory Box,'' Portishead (at Glastonbury '98)

``La Jetee,'' Chris Marker (legendary 1962 French black-and-

white short)

``What a Diff'rence a Day Makes,'' Esther Phillips

``Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours,'' Cornell Dupree

``Twisted Blues,'' Wes Montgomery

``On Your Way Down,'' Gov't Mule

``Look-Ka Py Py/Jungle Man,'' The Meters

-- Compiled by Fred Shuster

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) YouTube: Who needs their Mtv?

(2) TREADMILL SMASH: OK Go -- Damian Kulash, left, Tim Norwind, Andy Ross and Dan Konopk -- next appears locally Oct. 29 and 30 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

(3) SILVER LAKE'S FINEST: Junk- culture bard Beck, below, performs songs from his new album, ``The Information,'' on Saturday at the L.A. Weekly Detour Music Festival downtown.

Box:

Rare and cool viral videos (see text)

- Compiled by Fred Shuster