Sony has announced a music show called 'Movement' for PSP and PS3 users alike via the PlayStation Network/PC PlayStation Store, the first episode of which is available for download today. It's free, by the way.

The show will be seeking out the 'most diverse sounds' from Europe, stuff from all over the map, figuratively and geographically. The premise is as such: two "passionate music fans" drive a camper van across Europe, stopping in five major European cities and checking out four bands from each location. At the end, a band chosen as "the best" will "win the chance to make a professional music video". What? They win "the chance"? As in, they might go through all that trouble and the powers that be may decide "nah, you know what, we're going to invest our money somewhere else, okay"? Bizarre.

Eight new videos from the series will be available each week, which will include interviews, performances and various other footage.
 

This all sounds disturbingly like the "Bodog Battle" of last year. In some ways I like the idea on principle, but firstly, this idea is not original. Second, it seems as though the moment you get a camera crew involved in this kind of thing people start acting unlike themselves and just come off as complete phonies. You know the scene: two 'krrrazy' hosts talking either in the highest pitched or most animal-like voices their employer can get them to muster, all about stuff you know they don't actually care about. Where's the genuity? Third, I'm strongly opposed to art as a competition. That's when the art becomes kind of mangled and turned into more of a sport than anything. If I want sports I'll play a sports game, or watch sports on television or online. If I want music, I won't watch the latest "reality" show depicting the lives of supposed "musicians", or music competition shows. Quite simply, I just want to listen to music, preferably created by musicians as frustrated or bewildered by the concept of music as an industry as I am. But that's me, and maybe I'm being overly pessmisstic and this will be a pretty great show for what it is. In either case I'd love to see more perspectives on this subject, because mine is just one.