Music Videos Gone Mad?

Hey, I’m not one to judge, nor am I one to pry on political correctness, but is it just me or are music videos getting a little too-big-for-their-boots? I was just thinking recently about a few videos, and how some of them are done really well, and how others are done well in some respects, but maybe have gone a bit too far.

When I heard one of my favourite comedians Peter Serafinowicz – mute scientist of Look Around You, terrifying voice of Darth Maul, zombie housemate of Shaun (of the Dead), and star of The Peter Serafinowicz Show – was set to do the new video for Hot Chip, I was enthralled. I also wondered what the hell he was gonna do. When I saw the end result, I was at first thrown off – was I watching the right video? Luckily I immediately recognised Alexis and Joe’s voices (despite the autotune) and soon the video was a revelation. Then I noticed the success it achieved across Twitter and the like. Now that proves how a music video can be successful if it throws away the usual formula but doesn’t go too far. I think the same can be said for the Major Lazer video that Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric fame directed (that I posted here a while back), or the one I posted the other day for Die Antwoord – entirely novelty, a bit risqué, but not too graphic. That’s the word I’m looking for on the flipside…but yes, below you can watch a few videos I think are original, and quite playful, but good enough to show on MTV without your little sister crying/screaming/pointing.

So then we have the other videos, that throw ‘weird’ right out of the window, and straight into a deep, murky puddle of ‘dark’. Now I’m sure the film industry has had a large impact on the content of music videos, and we now see music video directors striving for a place in Hollywood, so it seems they need to perfect something that’s 3 minutes long maybe to prove they are adept at that particular aesthetic, or to appear professional, or whatever. But if they are doing that, then they’re bullshitting the public. And the only people who are likely to fully enjoy these kinds of videos are obscure scenesters (I don’t dwell on the correct labels) who revel in that kind of shit. What ever happened to the days of classic hip-hop videos in the late 80′s, or a grunge skate video a la Spike Jonze? The music video has become too filmic, in my opinion, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing a majority of the time. Now by saying these things, I’m not attacking the artist or the director or any of their skills or talent, I’m just asking when does creativity turn a bit sour? I’m thinking a couple of videos I’m about to post could curdle in time – the first one seems to have been directed in response to Lars Von Trier’s last film, Antichrist, and is surprisingly directed, again, by Eric Wareheim, and the video following that, for M.I.A, has only just been released, and seems to be a combination of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant with Alfonso Cuaron’s Children Of Men – both videos with a ridiculous level of Saw-style gore (i.e. I could pretty much guess what was going to happen by the end). I wonder if these will get shown on daytime music channels next week?

Also try and watch the new Erykah Badu video and let me know if you think she went too far – I’m personally not offended by it, but do think it’s trying to be a little too ‘arty’, which affects the substance of the song, in my opinion. It was influenced by the Matt & Kim video (they first used that idea) which I really didn’t like. Anyway, let me know what you think – comment, and leave any videos you enjoy/don’t enjoy! I hope I’m not being too shitty and over-PC about all this – then again I don’t mean it in all seriousness! After all, I didn’t mind the Chris Cunningham videos for Aphex Twin…