Popping Back Up Into Culture

 Even though many people decry the state of music videos and their success, VH1 is once again returning one of their most iconic series in a couple of weeks. That's right. Pop Up Video is making a grand comeback. The show known for quirky factoids, celebrity trivia, and snarky anecdotes is back. And back in a big way. On October 3, we'll see for ourselves how this show has evolved.
 For those of you who don't know, Pop Up Video debuted back in 1996 as a new way to watch videos. Instead of watching videos and just looking at the image, you get a behind the scenes glimpse into the making of the video and the circumstances. In small bubbles, you get to see what happened or what should have happened on a video set.
 It signaled the birth of the internet age by inserting trivia and random facts. It also helps those in pursuit of world domination of all things trivia. I always liked watching it because it's equal parts funny and interesting. What's also enjoyable is how they give specific themes to each episode. For instance, back in the days of VH1's Divas franchise you would watch a show featuring all five divas in their respective music videos. Or if you were a devoted metal-head you'd watch the Metal Mania episodes. So you could see how this translates into catering to the interests of the music video viewer. The show ended several years ago, but some episodes replay from to time to time on sister network VH1 Classic. But now with the Twitter and Facebook revolutions, it only makes sense to capitalize on the new generation of video viewers.
 It also reflects a return to nostalgia-influenced programming on both VH1 and sister networks. VH1 also resurrected the award-winning franchise of Behind the Music a couple of years ago. 120 Minutes, the independent and alternative music video showcase, has made a comeback on VH1 Classic and MTV2. MTV has shown various new episodes of Unplugged as well. It's good that these networks are finally realizing that way actually do want some music on channels that were originally created to showcase music and that there's only so much Snooki and the Situation you can bombard us with.
 Here's to Pop Up Video recapturing the glory of yesteryear.

Pop Up Video Preview
Pop Up Show Page