BY MIKEY MIGO
I did an article entitled "Video Killed The Radio Star". It was a little about the progression of music into new mediums and a lot about what the current trends were in music videos. It was interesting to take a deeper look into what was popular at the time. Surprisingly, things changed a bit since then. Back then we had hit videos from Gnarls Barkley, AFI, Pearl Jam, and others. Now we have different set of releases. So I want to take a look at the new videos that haunt us on repeated play now in August of 2007. Here is just a few...
Korn
Video: "Evolution"
Visuals: It starts off with the cutesy animation that Al Gore used in "An Inconvenient Truth," but with a focus on the de-evolution of society. The second act of the video goes into a side by side shoot of comparisons of human nature and animalistic nature. We then go to a court room with more comparisons of man and ape. There is Korn performance footage mixed in that appears to be in a spooky forest looking setting. The finale is the live footage being panned really far out to reveal it being in the eye of an ape.
My Take: I think the opening animation is the biggest turn off of this video and makes me want to turn it off when I see it. It just doesn't say "Korn" to me. It's too cutesy and doesn't give the impact of the message they seem to trying to get across. The side by side comparisons and court room stuff is fine and has more of an edge, but the live performance sorta irked me. It was basically just a little different from their normal "cool enclosed performance footage" that they've used in numerous of their past videos. This is not one of Korn's worse videos by any means, but lacks the impact and "in your face" edge the better ones has.
Rating: 7.0
Plain White T's
Video: "Hey There Delilah"
Visuals: We have different sized rectangles with different clips being cut between them. We cut from the "Delilah" character and the vocalist of the band. I keep watching and there's nothing much more.
My Take: I saw this video before it hit the mainstream video networks thanks to Chicago's JBTV. Even living in Chicagoland I don't know much about these guys other than their music isn't normally my cup of tea. This song is a good tune for what it is. It's nothing that special, but the guys push it as best as possible. I really like the video lay out with the different squares and rectangles of footage. As much as I like the lay out of this clip, I can't help but cringe from hearing it so much. It could just be my geographic location, but this song is getting shoved at us very hardly. I am crossing my fingers that this won't hurt them more in the long run to follow up such a hyped hit. The same can be said for the simple, yet creative video.
Rating: 7.5
Amy Winehouse
Video: "Rehab"
Visuals: It's Amy Winehouse lying down! She sits up and for some reason there's a band playing around her on the bed. She seems to start to get ready to go somewhere (Rehab, maybe?) with the band playing all around her in each location she goes to prepare in. She ends up in what appears to be a psychologist office and the band is there too. We start recycling settings from there on with going back to the bed room, stoop, and the other locations. I think the final setting appears to be rehab, but you really can't tell.
My Take: The video is well directed and the song carries the video on this one. The main issue with this one is that it doesn't tell the story clearly enough, which might be hard to understand if you saw this with no music. Then again, it's not so blatant with what's going on and the band being in every location playing the background is a cool touch. It's like Fiona Apple's "Criminal" video just way less invasive.
Rating: 8.0
The White Stripes
Video: "Icky Thumb"
Visuals: Jack walks to the beat of the opening drums. This is the story of Jack being an immigrant and his journey. The visuals have warm coloring, but the performance footage is heavy on the color red with the room and their clothing being brightly colored red. Jack gets hit in the head and wanders around in a daze with his surroundings passing him by at a fast pace. He finally stumbles past the "Great Wall of Mexico" and back to America.
My Take: This has actually grown on me to be my favorite White Stripes song. That says a lot because they've not put out a bad album yet. I really appreciate the fact that they utilize the color red so much. It's not over done, but is starting to stand out as a White Stripe's signature. It's a nice narrative of the lyrics and gets the job done. As much as I like the song, it's not my favorite White Stripes video. It's good and all, but not as memorable as the song it's using.
Rating: 7.75
Muse
Video: "Super Massive Black Hole"
Visuals: It's weird hooded figures rocking out with weird digitalized faces appearing under them. Colors and randomness dominates the screen, but it won't give you a seizure of anything like that. There's not so much of a story flow here, but tons of surreal living imagery. It would take an entire column to list all of the imagery in this one.
My Take: It's about time everyone realized how awesome Muse is. I am happy that their latest album has brought them more to the forefront of rock. This song and video rock. The weird faces and motion of it all makes it stand out in a block of your everyday videos. This doesn't come across as a "story video", but more of an art piece. There's tons of surreal and colorful imagery that sorta stands on its own as living artwork.
Rating: 8.5
Queens of the Stone Age
Video: "Sick, Sick, Sick"
Visuals: We don't have a big opening, just a good start of what the entire video is. That's cuts between the band performing on one side of a table and the other side is a sophisticated woman being gluttonous over ill looking food. The woman keeps calling for more food, more repulsive then the last. The entire video has a dark tone to it, which gives the entire video a more sinister tone. Finally the band starts getting reckless with their equipment as the woman falls the table still trying to stuff her mouth with the gross looking food.
My Take: I think I've seen all of Queens of the Stone Age's videos and have always enjoyed the unique look and feel of them. This one appears to be no different when it comes to being unique, but isn't as appealing as the others. It's sorta like watching a car accident on the side of the road. You don't want to look, but you can't help but keep watching it. I think that's what most video directors and bands want, but I'm not sure at the cost of grossing out the viewer. This song is good, but the video is something that I'll probably try to block out.
Rating: 7.5
That's only six videos that are currently on the television airwaves. There's some good ones out there in the midst of the stereotypical nonsense we all get turned off by. You just have to look for them.
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