Those of you who thought you’d been Terra Nova’d back to the ’90s when you saw both Clarissa Explains It All and Pop-Up Video on your programming guide last night, know this: Pop-Up Video is back with brand new episodes. After a nearly decade-long hiatus, the VH1 show that paired popular music videos with bubbles of trivia about their artists returned yesterday with 10 years’ worth of pop culture to catch up on.
I recently reminisced about this show when VH1 ran a marathon during a trans-continental JetBlue flight. It was one of my favorites throughout the precious time in my life when the debut of a new *N SYNC video was an event worthy of a half-hour-long behind-the-scenes television special. The trivia was irreverent but fun, and every now and then I’d even learn a cool thing or two about one of my favorite artists. Basically, Pop-Up Video was what you got if you combined Making the Video and Behind the Music, but you didn’t have time to cover the whole thing so you had to skim the CliffsNotes.
The thing is, the CliffsNotes are readily available now. Those little pieces of behind-the-scenes information that Pop-Up provides can be found on Wikipedia in the time it takes Britney Spears to shed her next layer of clothing. And with gossip sites reporting the scoop on celebrity “events” minutes after they happen, I seriously wonder who is going to care that Britney thought the set of Downtown L.A. set of “Till The World Ends” felt like it had “poop everywhere.” That happened months ago, VH1.
Still, the nostalgic in me was pretty excited that this staple was back. I remain a music lover, but I dropped off the video circuit when MTV started replacing them with re-runs of Next. (What? I swim with the tide. Don’t judge.) So even though Pop-Up is never going to be a must-watch, I thoroughly enjoyed my re-introduction to its inanity. Yesterday I had no clue that Britney hated fecal matter, or that an extra was kicked off set for talking about poop. Heck, I didn’t even know that that same extra later “farted in front of Britney!” Today, thanks to Pop-Up Video, I know all of these things and more.
After appropriately kicking things off with Britney, Pop-Up continued with Diddy Dirty Money’s “Coming Home,” Good Charlotte’s “The Anthem,” Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor,” and Lindsay Lohan’s “Rumors.” The bubbles were noticeably snarky, particularly with the comments on Spears and Lohan. I’m not sure if I just didn’t notice this when I was younger or if the writers have gotten meaner with age, but I definitely think that mocking Lohan’s alcoholism was in poor taste. Way to kick a girl when she’s already down to the point of probably never getting back up.
All Lohan digs aside, I thoroughly enjoyed re-acquainting myself with pop-up videos for 22 minutes straight last night. The silly stuff is still silly, but the behind-the-scenes facts are as marginally interesting as ever. Did you know that they wanted to film “Coming Home” on a glacier in Iceland, but they decided against it after the volcanoes started erupting? Me neither, and I probably didn’t need to. But it’s still kind of interesting, no?
What do you think, PopWatchers? Will you shed your 2011 skeptic to revert to a simpler time when music video trivia actually seemed important? I personally won’t be regularly tuning in for more, but I look forward to the hours of mindless entertainment this show will provide when I’m on the treadmill.
Pop-Up Video airs weekdays at noon on VH1.
Read more:
‘Pop Up Video’ reboot: Watch them skewer Britney Spears’ ‘Till the World Ends’
Loved it!
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You’re a 30 year old loser if you need to post your crap site here.
Do people still care about videos?
I’d definitely watch this show, as long as they put good videos on there — Good Charlotte, really? No fun to watch. Lauryn Hill would be great if it wasn’t such an old song.
But yeah, Britney, Gaga, Usher, Adele? I’d definitely DVR this show religiously.
I watch youtube and I don’t care about this crap.
I’d watch it, but from you’re comments it sounds like the tidbits of info have gone from fun/ interesting facts to attempts to bag celebrities.
That is what I thought when watching it. The facts weren’t as fun and anybody who keeps up with celebrity news knows the stuff in the bubbles anyway.
The facts in the bubbles have always been snarky though. You can watch old episodes on Vh1 Classic and get that.
I’d watch it if VH1 ran the original shows when music videos were about songs and not crap like rap.
Wow, racist much? If you don’t enjoy it, fine, but that’s an entire subculture you’re dissing there, buddy. And it doesn’t matter if you like it or not: rap is still music (if you’d like a lengthy diatribe regarding why, I can certainly oblige). And while yes, I know there is more diversity in the rap field than there used to be, you can’t argue that it is dominated by black artists, and by discounting their form of expression, you are, in a way, discounting them (I would use the PC “African American,” but it’s certainly not limited to America see: Nicki Minaj, Tinie Tempah, etc.) .
blacks dont only make rap music we make soul,r&b, sometimes rock and anything else. and the current state of rap is crap anyway. so if its not 2001 on back, i dont want to here it , no matter the color
rap….add C and you have CRAP. I think initially it must have been a typo to forget the C.
Hey if they want to have song on video then black people should have to learn to sing “NOT SPIT INTO A MIC”. This is America, not africa where that is music.. I say Down with rap music,
@umadbro- How do you surmise that by having the opinion a specific genre of music is crap is somehow racist? Your conviction is narrow-minded at best and shows a prejudice against those who don’t share your taste in music. I feel the same way about Country music as Barry does about Rap. We’re talking about music. You’re making it about race. Open up a window man, the paint fumes are getting to you…..jerk. lol
I actually quite enjoyed it. The comments were snarky, but not mean. And though I *could* look up facts on Britney Spears, I’m not going to. And it’s much more fun to learn a few of them while watching a music video. Suffice it to say, I’m DVRing it again today!
Agreed
Brian- I agree with you! you get the best of both worlds: trivia-worthy info and a kewl video!
I didn’t know it was back on. I loved this show when it first premiered (back in the day), so it will definitely have a place on my DVR.
Nobody is going to DVR music videos. You must be on crack.
Clearly, Amy and Brian are, since they said they would…
Laughed my butt off at it. I always enjoyed Pop Up Video, and as it appears, my older self still has a hankering for it.
The first two episodes were fun. And I didn’t find the jabs at Lindsay to be in poor taste. Most of the time words that could be used as a double entendre toward her alcoholism or sexuality were presented but then brought in a different direction. Like “overexposed” was used to show a tidbit that the helicopter blades kept blowing her skirt up, stuff like that.
Yeah, or the very loaded “loaded” label as pertaining to Herbie: Fully Loaded. It’s mildly clever fun. And I actually didn’t know that they digitally reduced Lohan’s breast size in that not-so-loaded, lousy movie.
I think it’s great they brought it back. I finally saw a Justin Bieber video, so now I can see what the big deal is. Still don’t see it.
If I want to watch a music video, I will go to Google.com and I can probably see almost any music video ever made; from Rick Nelson’s Travellin’ Man (1961), (shown on the Ozzie and Harriet Show) to the latest videos made in 2011. I prefer to watch music videos without trivia written on to them, or added “bubbles”. I also want to watch the music videos I want to see when I want to see them. I will not be watching Pop-Up Videos. If I did not work weekdays at noon, I would be using the time to watch something more informative, such as the news, or science, or history, (or a movie on TCM), instead of VH-1.
Wow, you sound like a really fun guy.
Haha, no kidding. Lighten up, dude. There is time for work, news, science, history AND pop culture snark.
I enjoy the trivia of pop up videos and commentary on videos. It may not be necessary or interesting by itself, but I often enjoy it.
I remember Disney channel sometimes does this with its made-for-TV movies.
I love this show, and missed it greatly. Just wish it would not come on at NOON!!!!!! I have to work I don’t have the opportunity to watch it at noon or at midnight, when the “Preview” came on.
THe notes are not mean, they are not a roast of any kind, they are fun, some facts and some funny. Better keep this show around for a long time, VH1 gave up on Best Week Ever, better not desert this one too!!!!!!
I wish they had a POV channel…then when I’m working on a project I could put it on and look up and randomly see fun facts…
The person writing this article can’t make up their mind:
1. She complains that you can look this stuff up online.
2. Later says that she herself wouldn’t bother looking it up.
The behind the scenes stuff they’ve told so far I think is interesting because you can’t find it anywhere else. And the celebrity scandal info I’ve seen was really ironic in the video (the Lindsay Lohan video I’m particular) I don’t know another show like it.
“the celebrity scandal info I’ve seen was really ironic in the video (the Lindsay Lohan video I’m particular)”
That was my thought, too. And I’d say their take on Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” was surprisingly, relatively tasteful.
Sigh. Apparently, having complex opinions is no longer welcomed in modern society. I *think* what the author is saying, dear reader, is that she doesn’t know how well the show will do or if it will hold quite the place in our collective imagination as previously, given the ease with which we can look many of these facts up nowadays. But she, herself, enjoys the show, both for the nostalgia factor, and because it’s just fun. That help clear things up for you? \. Also, yes, I know I’m being a condescending a-hole, because sometimes it’s fun.