In July, we got word that UK indie rockers The Vaccines, record label Sony Music and agency Anomaly London were banding together to release the first Instagram crowdsourced music video for the new single, “Wetsuit.” Over 3000 images from 30 countries and one “epic summer” later, we have the finished product (above) in all of its super-hip, vintage-hued, square-shaped glory. We now have iPhone-produced photographic evidence that the summer of 2011 was almost exactly like the summer of 1971, right?
Okay, so maybe the idea of creating a music video using a social photo-sharing tool like Instagram sounded much better on paper than it looks in execution, but what were we expecting? Maybe it’s because the actual song for this video is kind of dull, but it feels a bit underwhelming, doesn’t it?
But, creating a visually groundbreaking music video wasn’t really the goal, as the Vaccines’ frontman Justin Young says in the announce, “This felt like the ultimate interaction. Instagram was suggested to give photos taken on people’s phone a nice warm feel. It’s great to be able to make the fans part of our art.” A look at the band’s Facebook page shows that fans’ reactions the video are overwhelmingly positive. After all, this wasn’t created for advertising bloggers; it was created for the Vaccines’ devoted fan base, who include seeing the band play live as a highlight of their summer. From this perspective, the social media experiment was wildly successful in the eyes of the intended target audience.
