Favorite Music Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21OH...ick-gallery/1108352-bert-ernie-got-flows.html

a classic.

 

Really cannot deny the awesomeness of this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=140mcWQPGcA

 

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On May 11, 2k8, I posted this at The Other Place:



Last week I picked up one of those free download cards from Starbucks...I thought it was for a song, but it turns out to be a video. It reminded me again of why I never watch music videos.

See, the video was of Hilary McRae, who is an attractive young woman, though not the finest voice I've ever heard. The video director uses this to his advantage by spending more time stuffing the camera in her mouth, down her shirt, up her dress, whatever. I didn't even notice that a song was playing...and while I like hot chicks as much as the next guy, I don't like feeling like I'm being manipulated with them. Hell, the opening scene is three chicks on the bed together. And given that muscians are artsy types who want to end hunger, poverty and war while simultaneously saving the whales from fishers, ferries and purveyors of hokey knick-knacks, I wonder how the directors manipulate them into sleazy, cheap commercialism?

"Okay, now for this scene, you'll be on your knees, bouncing on the mattress like a child on a trampoline while dressed like a Catholic schoolgirl at the beach..."
"Why am I doing that?"
"It's a metaphor for the starving victims of oppression in the Sudan who can't afford maps."
"Oh, okay. Like this?...."

After a minute or so of noticing that I haven't heard any of the song, I hid the video window....now I can hear the song ("Every Day") and it's production. Very good stuff...I'm certain that the 5:30 Band and their fans here would enjoy it....it's right up their alley. It's kinda like if Vanessa Carlton was backed by Steely Dan instead of an orchestra.

But...the music would never make it to the radio if there wasn't a film of ******* being wiggled in your face. Thank you, MTV, for turning the culture of music into the whore of Babylon. When I was a kid, EVERYBODY I knew had a copy of Christopher Cross' debut album; that changed once we saw that he was one fat, ugly slob (okay, that's a little harsh, but you get the idea).

Okay, so it's easy to sex up the chicks...what about the dudes? Musicians aren't generally fine specimens of masculinity, ya know. Well, if you can't make a dude hot, you can either put him in a position of power and affluence or make him look like the leader of a murderous anarchy cult.
Rap and grunge videos are a given in this format, but trying to pass off that Maroon 5 dude as James Bond is really pushing it.

So, it occurs to me while looking through my album collection that most of my faves are bands that I have never actually seen outside of a beer joint or concert hall. Notable exceptions are Steely Dan and The Tragically Hip (who never try to look like anything other than some basic dudes who play instruments); and Rush, who began falling from my favor about the same time they started making really crappy bluescreened videos. I'm not sure if I started disliking them due to the bad videos or due to their decision to become an adult contemporary band pandering to 13-year-olds, but let's face it (n.p.i.): after seeing Geddy Lee, you can't help but laugh when you hear him sing "In The Mood".