The plan was "foolproof"-Iamamiwhoami
Hey, remember Iamamiwhoami, the viral internet music video sensation (famous nearly instantly for gorgeously lush youtube videos of nature-fucking soundtracked by ethereal, dreamy electro-pop) based around a premise basically consisting of "what unknown star is Carmen Sandiego"? Initially, we were intrigued, thrilled, captivated.
To wit: Iamamiwhoami video "O", aka JAM OF THE YEAR
"I thought I felt a spark/I thought I saw a flame..."? "The words that slit your throat"? This is genius elecrodreamgazesingersongwriter AWESOME, like I have not recovered from this song since iTunes released it as an mp3 single (credited, of course, to Iamamiwhoami).
But then, through a series of reveals consisting of intense, studious research by reknowned music scholars, it turned out that the entire campaign is based around a musical rebirth of who-the-fuck-cares acoustifolk singer-songwriter Jonna Lee into an artist that's, ya know, interesting. After a bazillion rebuffs, though, this game has turned beyond masochistic. We know the answer, we want the music, and yet...nothing. Yeah, oops, too much viral makes the baby go bored.
The question, though, is what good is the campaign doing for Ms Jonna Lee? With a few under performing SXSW appearances and attention spans waning, does anyone really care about the underwear-and-puppetry of the Iamami video storyline? No. We get it, Team Jonna Lee, you're brilliant, you have marketing smarts, and you're about to make some fucking great record. We also have the attention span of oh, wait, was that a shiney thing? What were we talking about? Exactly. Cut the masquerade and just come out with it, just fucking make the reveal already, and tell us how to keep consuming this glorious music--the sound that Goldfrapp wishes they were making in 2010, the sounds that slit our throat. Otherwise? This is going to be the viral campaign that caught its death in the cold.
Russ
So Jonna Lee deleted her twitter account, aka the source of a bunch of "making of the Youtube vids" information. Yawn. Could this be more predictable?
Russ
AND our "hey Jonna Lee, out with it!" post was deleted from Youtube. Oh, come on.
iamamiwhoami 
Reader Comments (3)
I hope it is never revealed for the reasons mentioned in this article - short attention spans, greed and materialism - experience the experience - happiness is not a destination
I like the idea of experiencing music without any background to it--just the music, no hype, no big name big producer influencing what I'm supposed to like. On the other hand, I believe that artists should be credited and recognized for their work.
Jonna Lee...the music industry's Banksy?
I think it's a sad commentary on our society when people can't just enjoy something like this and not let their short attention spans get in the way. These videos are beautiful and unique and completely awe-inspiring and quite frankly I could care less how long it takes to be revealed because 1) everyone already knows it's Jonna Lee, so why should she even HAVE to say anything? and 2) The story behind them is interesting. Someone wrote on livejournal that she's following the myth of the Mandragora Officinarum:
http://hellaine.livejournal.com/49637.html
So obviously there's a story being told here and people are too dumb/impatient to get it or even care because they're too busy complaining about how long it's been going on. Pathetic, if you ask me. Just enjoy it while it lasts, because talent and originality like this only comes around once in a blue moon nowadays.