What Makes Music Videos Rock?

[MatJimMood]

Most of the music videos today are bullshit

nothing more than extravagent commercials

the closest anyone has come to music video perfection is chris cunningham - pure genius

Jonze and Gondry are good as well but less consistent and in a completely different way

they're the only music video directors who seem to have done anything truely interesting with the format

i was very happy when the director series dvds came out

[untamed_aggression]

You people don't know what a music video is till you've seen Move Your Dead Bones on the R1 Beyond Re-Animator DVD.

Now THAT'S a music video.

[EP]

What about "The Wall"? [img]wink.gif[/img]

[miker]

some interesing insight here:

http://www.creativemac.com/articles/...jsp?id=26893-0

[EP]

Do you know what are grea music videos...?
Not the ones now, but the old promo vids from the 60's, look at the beatles ones... either they are running around and having a good time goofing off (I am The Walrus, Strwberry Fields, and Somehting), or its them playing their guitars or pretending to record the song (Revolution, Lady Madonna).......

Thats how videos should be made now...

[sn-films]

My personal favorite video is "Shame" by Stabbing Westward. If you haven't seen it, see if you can track down a copy on the net. The video is a short story about a guy who escapes from an institution and is returning home to see his girlfriend/wife. Even without the band performance piece, which is very amusing, its an entertaining short story.

That's one thing I wish more videos actually had... a coherent story that goes along with the song. Most videos are random images and special effects. Well, either that or a competition to see who can shake-what-their-mamma-gave-them-the-fastest or show the most bling-bling per minute.

Don't know if anyone heard about this one, but a few years ago, Korn and MTV had a contest. People would write in their ideas for "Alone I Break", and the winner would get to direct the video. When I saw the making-of special, I busted out in laughter. The guy who won had an idea for a story, and the first thing the MTV people did was toss his idea and put together a yet another unmemorable video.

[miker]

i think one of my all-time favourite vids is Godley & Creme's cry.

very memorable, especially gonzo at the end!

they directed a bunch of vids, most were innovative in some way IIRC .... i'm not entirely sure if they're still in the biz, last i heard they were getting a feature "Howling at the Moon" off the ground ... which presumably never happened.

[andyblaa]

If we're going for favourites, Mike Mills' video for All I Need by Air is my mine by a long way. Every time I watch it it nearly makes me cry because of how beautiful and real it is. In my eyes it is perfect documentary filmmaking. Beware though, only those naive enough to still believe in falling in love need bother to watch it.

You can see it on his production company website:
The Director's Bureau

The video for Out of Time by Blur is also pretty amazing.

Andy

[eidde]

Call me an old retro git if you like but I think
the Madness Videos, of the early days of music
videos havent really been much surpassed.

Thinking especially of It Must be love and Wings of a dove.
Basically ultra cheap videos that showed the band larking around and doing things.
Unpretentious and ground breaking all the same.

The Music should make the video Rock.

Some of the cheapo Mercury Rev Vids are fabulous.
(super 8 I think mostly)

[emjen]

Most of the songs are rubbish anyway. The only way some of the video's can keep my attention is by throwing some naked chicks on screen.

Recently our music channel adopted 'sms-on-tv' which takes in the lower part of your screen. There goes the potential of seeing some nice booties.

Best video clip? Can't beat dancing zombies with Michael Jackson in front.