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Pop Up Video

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 12, age appropriate for kids over 14; suggested age 13.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0
  • Common Sense says

    Poking fun at videos works for teens and up.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 13–14

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    Much depends on which song is getting the pop-up treatment, but behavior in videos can include everything from drinking to destruction of property and other more serious crimes. The show's writers sometimes resort to poking fun at the performers when they run out of good trivia.
  • Violence:

    The violence depicted in music videos isn't as graphic as that on TV shows, but, nevertheless, you can see anything from fist fights to shootouts.
  • Sex:

    Considering how many music videos feature sex-related material -- lascivious lyrics, scantily clad dancers, Madonna! -- it's no surprise that sex is a common theme in nearly every episode. Runs the gamut from innuendoes to partial nudity.
  • Language:

    Some songs contain offensive language ("damn," "bitch") and often their "pop ups" do, too.
  • Consumerism:

    Yes, from actual products to the music itself. In general, though, commercialism isn't as rampant as in other shows.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Some video performers/characters imbibe and indulge in some/all of the above (drugs, alcohol, tobacco), sometimes to excess.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Pop Up Video was written by S. Jhoanna Robledo

Parents need to know that this addictive trivia/music video show is, above everything else, all about the laughs. Sometimes those laughs are quite cheap, somewhat bawdy, and even downright mean. Still, for viewers with the maturity to get the jokes, it's quite fun.

Families Can Talk About

Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
  • Families can talk about music videos in general and how powerful they are at getting the message of a song across. Why do some videos seem to not have anything to do with the actual lyrics? Who comes up with their themes? What types of issues do they address? As for the pop-ups, do they come from left field? How do ideas connect from one to the next? Do the pop-ups make you pay more attention to the video than you might have otherwise? What effects does that have on your viewing?
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More on Pop Up Video

What’s the Story?

POP UP VIDEO features trivia kernels that are served up in easily digestible thought bubbles displayed over music videos. These thought bubbles are, for the most part, designed to give voice to what viewers might be thinking as they watch the videos. The info-nuggets aren't purely informational, and on the best episodes, they're hilarious, catty, silly, and surprising. Who would've guessed, for example, that the video for Robert Plant's "Addicted to Love" was inspired not by mimes but by a form of Japanese theater? That greeting-card writers get paid in the hundreds for their sappy sentences? Or that the word "choreophiliac" refers to someone who gets sexually excited when dancing?

Is It Any Good?

Some of the show's not-so-good episodes can be hard to digest: The information is sometimes ho-hum, the pop-culture references not esoteric enough. Sometimes it seems like the writers are scraping the bottom of the barrel for a piece of trivia worth including in the episode. (What could be worse than trivia that's so trivial as to be uninteresting and unfunny? Example: "More people drink tea than water." Big deal!)

Even worse are the potshots taken at the artists themselves; the show sometimes gives the impression that when writers run out of juicy details to dish out, they resort to poking fun -- which, more often than not, doesn't quite hit the mark (and doesn't really fit with the show's lighthearted, fun tone, either). Nevertheless, the tangential nature of the tangents themselves is what makes Pop Up Video so enjoyable. Writers rightly mimic the way that viewers tend to leap from one subject to the next while watching anything on television -- it's pure, pleasurable stream of consciousness.

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