Music Videos

Scenes showing brand-name beer and other alcoholic drinks should be taken out of movies, music videos and television programs aimed at youth, a coalition of health, religious and education groups told the government yesterday. In a petition to the Federal Trade Commission, the coalition said the alcohol industry should not be allowed to pitch its products to youth while sponsoring sports and musical events. It also objected to its advertisements or the use of brand names in scenes in movies, films and music videos.

The arrival of Bruce Springsteen's "Video Anthology/1978-88" in stores today is a landmark. Eighteen songs and 100 minutes long, this bounty of live performances and dramatic music videos will delight diehard Springsteen fans. For years, they've been hankering to own a piece of his electrifying visual persona. At another extreme, the $24.95 videotape may be knocked by those suffering from Bruce burnout as more proof that "the Boss" has succumbed to rock star- itis, that he's become just another packaged, exploitative pop product.

THEY WANT TO BE YOUR MUSIC DESTINATION SonicNet (http://www.sonicnet.com) is constantly reinventing itself in an attempt to become the ultimate Web site for music fans. Its mission: "Reinventing how music news, entertainment and information are communicated. " The site is divided into three areas: Music News, Music Guide and the Station, all of which make use of the latest audio and video technology for the most complete and sophisticated presentation of music on the Internet. SonicNet's Music News is the most popular, with daily music-related news and reports from correspondents and staff writers around the globe.

Jessica Alba, the famous mutant hunter of Fox's defunct Dark Angel, has exchanged the skintight black attire of the post-apocalyptic world for skintight b-girl gear in the feel-good Honey. While it isn't Breakin' or Beat Street, the footloose Alba does have a certain twinkle in her toes, and the DVD extras keep it real with several treats. Alba is Honey Daniels, a young flygirl looking to make it big in the rap game as a dancer while teaching hip-hop moves to kids at her mother's community center.

These past months have been a roller-coaster ride for Soulja Boy. Months after his third album, "The DeAndre Way," failed to make a big impact on the Billboard 200, his 14-year-old half-brother passed away. But the 20-year-old Internet imp has channeled the negative and turned it into positive, birthing a new mixtape "Juice," out yesterday. Soulja Boy recently talked to Billboard.com about his upcoming projects, teaming up with some of the original cast from "Juice" (the 1992 film starring Omar Epps and Tupac Shakur)

Sorry, we don't do sexy "singles" in this column. Just long-playing albums and music videos. Uh, some of them can get sexy, though. Especially if the talent's wearing spandex. ALL TAPPED OUT: Yeah, those blokes in Spinal Tap have sure made the British brand of "long-haired, tight-trousered hard-rocker" seem oblivious, pompously overblown and misogynist. Yet in their fake careers as Derek Smalls, David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, comedian/musicians Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest offer an affectionate and knowing wink.

MTV, one of cable television's leading networks for the past 15 years, is getting a multimillion-dollar face lift aimed at taking it back to its roots. Next month the music channel will debut an array of new shows and begin presenting more music videos in an effort to preserve and strengthen its reputation as the premier media outlet for youth culture. "Our goal is to make sure, in the increasingly competitive landscape out there, that we are providing a constantly exciting [and]

Did you know that George Harrison, Carole King, Ray Davies, James Taylor, David Byrne, Steve Winwood, Simon & Garfinkle and more than 100 other "big names" in pop music recently gathered at the Holiday Inn on City Line Avenue? No, they weren't making another superstar charity record. They were trying out for a part in a television commercial for WIOQ (102/FM). Doing a take-off on celebrity endorsements, the "big names" called in by Narberth's SBK Pictures for the 'Q' spot weren't the studs and starlets you see on MTV and Friday Night Videos.

Legend has it that NBC programming head Brandon Tartikoff inspired the TV series "Miami Vice" when he scribbled two words on a cocktail napkin: "MTV cops. " "Aria," which opens today at the Roxy Screening Rooms, could very well have sprung from a similar phrase: "MTV sopranos. " The idea was producer Don Boyd's, and it was an inspired one. Given that music videos may be the most momentous cinematic innovation of the decade, he reasoned, why not give the full MTV treatment to a whole new kind of music, namely opera?

Did you know that George Harrison, Carole King, Ray Davies, James Taylor, David Byrne, Steve Winwood, Simon & Garfinkle and more than 100 other "big names" in pop music recently gathered at the Holiday Inn on City Line Avenue? No, they weren't making another superstar charity record. They were trying out for a part in a television commercial for WIOQ (102/FM). Doing a take-off on celebrity endorsements, the "big names" called in by Narberth's SBK Pictures for the 'Q' spot weren't the studs and starlets you see on MTV and Friday Night Videos.