Break time!

Taking a break from all this since it’s been mostly status quo and that’s no good. I shan’t be long away, perhaps a week or two as to just settle some projects and my life a bit, nothing to worry about.

But before I kick off, my good buddies Mushy Callahan recently compiled a nice new video for their song ‘Loose Lips’. It’s a mighty fine video and best of all I was able to contribute some footage to towards it. Also follow their Facebooks and Twitters.

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Art of Music Videos – The Cover

One of the staples of  the music industry is a different band singing a song from another, aka the Cover. Not to be confused with what happens in Rap/Hip-Hop which is the sampling, aka borderline theft. That aside, one of your best bets to making it big is to take an old popular song and do it your way to be popular too. I mean YouTube is full of shitty up and comers doing a cover or someone’s music. But here are some you may not know so well.

Orgy – Blue Monday (Originator: New World Order)

The year, 1999. The mood, CYBER PUNK/GOTH/FREAK. The band to bring us this in a dawning Millennium, Orgy. I mean the song is so dark, and they’re totally dark too. No one is going to tell them what to do man, they’re not some prissy boy band like N’SYNC or Back Street Boys. And they’re totally not as creepy as Merilyn Manson. Really  not much to this, the band is just being fucked with and they keep showing how fashionable they are by changing cloths. Surprisingly this video got a lot of props, but not surprising given the time culturally.

A1 – Take On Me (Originator: A-Ha)

Nice work A1, you certainly have set yourself well apart from the pack with this music video and cover. I mean, take one of the top iconic songs of the 80s and add a boy band, bad synth and awful manual returning of the vocals and BAM! You have the formula for a bad music video that involves 95% crappy blue screen. I’ve posted the original A-Ha video before, but here it is again for comparison.

See, that’s something that wins awards. That’s something that’s far from a Sony Ad and stealing left and right of anything which people would call cyber space. No need to rip off The Matrix and Tron, no reason to make me want to puke. Actually I did because this was really popular in Europe for reasons forever unknown.

Jay-Z – Forever Young (Originator: Alphaville)

Remember what I said in the intro? Well here’s the proof. Lets use 80% of the song and just add new verses. This isn’t so much a cover, but a Hip-hop re-imagining. Can’t say I ever expect much when the Z wants to do a song his way. The video for itself? Totally representing everything proud and American just like Alphaville. (Who just happen to be a German band) None the less, have some chuckles at the original video which is pretty much Post-Apocalyptic Renaissance.

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Art of Music Videos – The 80s Rise Again

Trolls however, dead.

It’s hard to live life in this age without having to be haunted by the 80s (which chronologically ended 22 years ago, and will be back in the swing of things in 68 years…) I mean wars have been forgotten faster than the 80s and all it managed to produce was two generations of awful people. They couldn’t even kill Communism in the 80s (which technically still exists today, but Major Communism died). Anyways since the 80s are going to be around for a while, lets just kick back to some music videos from one of the more interesting periods modern of music.

Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star

While this wasn’t actually recorded in the 80s, it’s very much a milestone video in pop-culture. This has the significance of being the first music video to be played on the newly airing Music Television station, being the first video to be aired on MTV one million times and whole other bunch of things. It’s been covered many times, Hans Zimmer has a cameo and this is the only song the Buggles are known for. If you need to think 80s, you think Video Killed the Radio Star.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come on Eileen

People know the song, but don’t really know the clip-show music video. Anyways, thankfully the young people haven’t picked up dungarees as sporting fashion. Anyways, this is a small spin on ‘band playing for the music video’ mostly due to the copious amounts of sexual harassment found in both the lyrics and the action in the video. Yep, that’s right, this is a popular song about forcing yourself on someone (poor Eileen in this case). Watching the Pop-up Video edition of this is pretty awesome, but not as awesome as the electric banjo action which it shows.

Madness – Our House

This is musical madness?

Madness? THIS. IS. OUR HOUSE! (in the middle of the street)

Again, as with  many, many, many 80s music videos, we see the rather large-sized band playing and acting out all the madness that happens in this house of massive size. Apparently the size of a British house is deceptive from the outside (which would explain the TARDIS from Doctor Who.) Madness apparently did other songs and such, but no one really cares and they’re now a staple of 80s music.

Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun

The real female front man of the 80s. Forget Madonna doing crazy shit to get attention. Cyndi just did crazy shit. (remember, she’s already in her mid 30s during the 80s.) Although Madonna got an album out first, Cyndi got more praise and awards (and didn’t lose her shit in the second millennium.) Still, this video stands as a great example of what the typical 80s female looked like. Actually, I see very few differences between chicks today and back in the 80s. All and all a fun video, even if one of them is walking like an Egyptian. Wait a minute, is that SUPER MARIO?

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Art of Music Videos – A Series of Series Part 4 – Spike Jonze

Creative or insane?

So I don’t think it should come to much surprise that I tend to enjoy some of the music videos directed by Spike Jonze. I’ve posted quite a number of them up here and he’s been one of the more creative directors I’ve seen (along side Michel Gondry and Chris Cunninham) and if you check the kinds of artist they direct for, you see the why the awesomeness comes out. In addition to directing music videos, Jonze has also directed a number of quirky films (Where the Wild Things Are) and is one of the few directors left who hates CGI and uses it as a last resort in his work. But don’t take my word for it, let his work speak for himself.

Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice

This is one of the rare videos that has been able to capture the awesome power of Christopher Walken in his natural state. That’s some incredible shit he pulls off and if you can pull moves off like that to a T, then you’ll never have to worry about women problems ever again.

Chemical Brothers – Elektrobank

So this goes back some years, when the Chemical Brothers were on the upstroke to Coolsville in the electronica world. Electronica and techno music is always a bit of a challenge to get a good video going done. So what got done was basically the Karate Kid in Gymnast form. The chick doing the routine, that happens to be Jonze’s wife (at the time I believe) who was actually a gymnast. If you ever get a chance to hear the commentary by Jonze on this video, it’s got some pretty good insight into it on him and his process. Oh look, another Chemical Brothers Cameo.

Björk – It’s in our Hands

Given this is Björk, it’s a bit tough to guess who came up with this idea. I’m actually pretty creeped out from this video when normally I’m intrigued or fascinated by what the directors do. I think it’s mostly the use of the night vision and Björk’s weird expression. Either way, I never want to watch that again. Ever.

Dinosaur Jr. – Feel the Pain

Turns out New York was once host the most xtreme game of golf ever. I wish I had been there. I mean seeing dudes get beaten the fuck up over a golf ball, driving around in a golf cart like it was nothing. I mean who wouldn’t want to be given the chance to do that? Not even Tiger Woods is really that extreme with his golfing. But think of the entertainment factor.

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Art of Music Videos – Jan 13

Here's FRIDAY!

Hey look is that Friday the 13th? And no less in the first month of 2012 as well! How spooky and ominous. I guess the world does have a good shot at ending. Or you know, starting a new calendar when the old one expires. Anyways, moving on to some more rational things, lets irrationally look at some random music videos. Hurray!

 

The Ramones – I wanna be Sedated

Just a bit on the weird side of things with this one. I mean there you have the Ramones just chilling and all this insanity is happening around them. Well actually they’re moving slow and everything else is going normal speed and they pressed fast forward for the final cut. But it’s a simple video, as the 80s were simple times for everyone.

The Pillows – Another Morning

Don’t ask me aboot the lyrics / meaning / anything because all I really know about the pillows is that they basically did the entire soundtrack for the FLCL anime movie. And it was done damn well. If it’s weird, well remember they’re a mid 90s punk rock band out of Japan. What’s cool is the shout out to Peanuts being incorporated into the music.

Wamdue Project – King of my Castle

Speaking of which, here’s what’s basically an MTV throwback to 1998/99 which is like an official mainstream Anime Music Video that made it on to TV and the history books. The footage is taken from the world-famous anime movie Ghost in the Shell (which recently got a makeover), but which was still having it’s cool buzz due to the increasing rise of anime in north America over all. Plus I mean it’s got guns and shooting, and stuff. This video rocks!

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Art of Music Videos – Jan 6

Well a new year is here, so what better way to look forward to things that trying something new. Now ye olde Youtube has this nice feature that displays all the popular videos as seen by the country, so I’ve taken to nabbing some off the list and seeing where things take me. Welp, lets see how awful this can get!

Carly Rae Jespen – Call me Maybe

Yeah I don’t know who this chick is and I really don’t want to know. There’s so much instantly wrong with this I’m not sure if it would be fair to critique it. Thankfully I don’t have to be fair. Alright from the get go we clearly see this is a girl sees boy and wants his penis, however, this dude is a fucking idiot. Who starts mowing a lawn in the middle? Then it’s followed up with him taking off his shirt for eye candy purposes. What’s plan B? WASH A CAR FOR SEXY APEAL. Oh too bad he’s listening to his iPod while actually getting work done instead of paying attention to your piss poor attempt at cleaning something. Oh then there’s that twist, how topical.

Victoria Duffield – Shut up and Dance

So it turns out music videos are going the way of modern video games and Brown is totally realistic and you add some bedazzle and shine in other places to make it seem high-rez. But all we end up with is a music video about a chick losing her mind and imagining this Ryan Reynolads/Enrique Iglesias combo pack telling her how to dance instead of showing her. Yeah this chick needs some help and counseling. All and all while I think it’s cool choreography based music videos are coming back, there’s so many cuts from move segment to move segment done that it’s hard to tell if these peeps can actually dance well. That’s why WORLD ORDER does such a better job is they don’t cut as much so you see the skill involved.

Alyssa Reid – The Game

I don’t think it would be much of a stretch to assume that Miss Reid knows anything about THE GAME. First off the point of the game is not to stand alone, and it’s dumb to try and prove this by crouching down in a crowd of people. Second, if you are going to stand alone, don’t have the eye candy in a wife beater stand beside you. (But personally I like the part where he jumps on his Black Berry and ignores that hoe) Also to the director, don’t include a guitarist and a basis in a music video where neither of those instruments are played. You have successfully made everyone look bad and stupid. In fact, this video just seems hap-hazard in the end and should never have seen the light of day.

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