Bob Dylan has never really been celebrated as a cutting edge technocrat, so it is slightly odd to find his website hosting a ground-breaking video. Even odder, the song in question is nearly 50 years old. Like A Rolling Stone was recorded in 1965, the moment Dylan really cracked his new electric phase, combining the depth and resonance of folk lyricism with the primal force of rock into six minutes and thirteen seconds of blistering attack on a world adjusting to new realities. “That snare shot sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind,” is how Bruce Springsteen recalled first hearing this at 15 years old.  The new video, meanwhile, seems aimed at trying to engage with today’s 15 year-olds. Created by digital media company Interlude, it has sixteen different storylines (presented as distinct TV channels), which viewers can toggle between. On each channel, actors and presenters mouth the lyrics, so you can cut from a fake news channel where the victim of a mugging sings about mystery tramps selling alibis to a vacuous game show host asking “Do you want to make a deal?” An innovative video for the interactive generation, it allows the freedom to channel surf through the same song, with each viewing experience essentially creating a new edit.  It’s clever stuff and if it was Lady Gaga it might even work but if the plan was to engage with a new generation, I think they might have to start with adding Auto-Tune and a rapper. I strongly suspect that most old Dylan fans will come to rest on the Music 1 Classics channel where there is some raw old DA Pennebaker footage of Dylan and The Band performing live. While most pop stars may benefit from such visual bedazzlement, Dylan is at his most compelling intense and unadorned. Previously the most famous Dylan video was a black and white single shot of Dylan holding up lyric signs. Frankly, I think its iconic position is safe.
A new video for Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone has been posted on his   website. But it might not impress the interactive generation, says Neil   McCormick