Fri. August 19, 2011
New York City -
It's August 10, 2011: Adam Barta's as-of-yet-to-be released video for "Give Yourself Up (To the Music)" has just been "leaked" to TMZ. Noting the major vocals by Kathy Sledge and the appearances by a handful of contemporary reality-TV stars—-from Real Housewives and Project Runway to Cake Boss, Millionaire Matchmaker and Jerseylicious-—the entertainment news site's report referred to the cameo makers as "reality fame whores partying it up." The video-leaking coverage has forced Barta to contend with a great deal of "craziness," as he calls it, but implies circumstances surrounding the aforementioned leaking may not have been totally outside of his team's control.
"I'm not at liberty to say if it was ‘leaked,'" Barta laughs when asked of the true nature of TMZ's acquisition of the video—-which since has been accepted for airplay on MTV.com, LOGO, HBO, and bpm:TV in Canada. "It was just supposed to be a catchy, hit song, and crazy, ridiculous, random reality-TV stars came together for the song—-that was the point," he explains. "Random people you've never expect to see together having a good time for a fun, not-so-serious, lighthearted song that makes you feel good."
However, it's unlikely the video's reality-TV personality concept was simply inspirational happenstance for Barta. The openly gay musician's work has toured the gambit of "reality" culture, from television to retail. Barta and/or his music has appeared, been promoted and/or played in Abercrombie and Fitch boutiques across the U.S. as well as on New York's off-Broadway circuit, LOGO, MTV's The Real World series, The Real Housewives series and on The Oprah Winfrey Show where Kathy Sledge, of Sister Sledge fame, appeared to promo "Give Yourself Up."
"Human drama fascinates me," Barta says of his affinity for "reality" shows, "the creative element, the putting together storylines [which] remain real in the sense that they're not scripted." Yet despite what he finds enjoyable about this popular programming medium, Barta comments such shows should be taken with "a grain of salt." "They're not representative of American values," he explains. "There are different kinds of reality TV, and they're always polarizing extremes of positive and negative. And people always focus on the negative." Citing the varying types of reality programs, Barta mentions Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman as a one show that's less human melodrama and more metaphysics. "There are two sides to every coin," he says. "Take it for what it is."
In the regard, Barta is in the process of shopping around his own reality production to television networks. While the show's concept is somewhat under wraps, Barta hints its thesis surrounds reality stars being given "a second chance; those with a bad reputation having an opportunity to turn their life around." Barta promises the show will feature something "never done on reality TV before."
Yet until those never-before-seen scenes are seen, Barta is going to finish the pretzel and Mountain Dew he just purchased from a 3rd-Street vendor and plans to put all the video-leaking craziness behind him during an upcoming weekend in Fire Island.
"I'm looking forward to some serenity on the beach, despite the drag queens and muscle heads," he jokes.
www.adambarta.com
Kathy Sledge ft Adam Barta "Give Yourself Up"
For the complete article (non-reader view with multimedia and original links),
Tap here.
Head to the local LGBTQ news, events, directory and people network at ChicagoPride.com