My definition of "Best Music Video" would be the coolest video ever made! 'Alive' by P.O.D.! I HATE rock, but I couldn't take my eyes off of this video, once that bus hit that teen's car, it was the most beautiful slow motion effects I've ever seen! The car even tumbles through the band & the lead singer reaches out & touches it! AWESOME !!! Then at the end you see the crash in "real time". Beautiful, just beautiful!
"I can't live the buttoned down life like all of you! I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles! Sure, I might offend a few of the blue-noses with my cocky stride and musky odor - oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called 'City Fathers' who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about what's to be done with this Monkey_Boy?!"
Wow, Radiohead has a lot more videos than I was aware. The most recent one I've seen was "Knives Out". Actually, I saw it quite a while ago when I wasn't that into Radiohead but that that song/video was cool. Then I watched The Science Of Sleep a few months ago and by strange coincidence learned "Knives Out" was directed by the same guy, Michel Gondry!
LordSmoogsBottomIII: If you weren't aware, Daft Punk's whole album Discovery has been animated into a film called "Interstella 5555 (The 5tory Of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem)" and since those videos are how I met Daft Punk I thought for a long time they were really a cartoon band :x
Maybe my favorite, Primus - Mr. Krinkle. Kind of follows the creepiness of the 80's videos, but a few years later and more cooly menacing than anything. Pretty awesome IMO.
I really want to come up with a least favorite, but nothing's coming to mind Most of the ones that suck are hilarious and thus slightly redeeming
Ah Mr Krinkle was one of those strange, disturbing videos that i couldn't stop replaying over and over. It introduced me to the wonderful world of primus.
i guess i haven't been into music videos as much as i did at 15 when i would stay up all night, now with the boring adult things like jobs etc i go to bed too early.
Yeah, thanks for the "Mr. Krinkle" link. I loved that song(partially for reasons that are too embarrassing to share in a public forum), and that video was so freaking weird. I hadn't heard(or seen) that in about 10 years though. I'd completely forgotten about it. I'm gonna have to dust off my copy of Pork Soda now.
way b ack before videos as we currently know them the only shots were those of bands standing on stage and playing their music. A couple guys might be swaying to the music and usually the lead guitar player was sweating up a storm and in a world all by himself. Often the whole band would just be standing there. Times sure have changed. These videos were the best and the worst. It was wonderful to see the band members, their faces, bodies, musical instruments. But, jeez didn't they have a choreographer so something?
My friend showed me the video for "Velouria" (Pixies) of which he had a strong hatred (he loves the band though.) Basically it's the band jumping around on big rocks in very slow motion. For like three minutes.
Originally posted by Nhazghaal: My friend showed me the video for "Velouria" (Pixies) of which he had a strong hatred (he loves the band though.) Basically it's the band jumping around on big rocks in very slow motion. For like three minutes.
Originally posted by Nhazghaal: My friend showed me the video for "Velouria" (Pixies) of which he had a strong hatred (he loves the band though.) Basically it's the band jumping around on big rocks in very slow motion. For like three minutes.
Yea haha. I think they had to make a video in order to appear on Top of the Pops in the UK and they resented this. So they decided to make a cheap video of them running down a quarry in slow motion. I don't think it's supposed to be any good, except for being funny in an ironic way.
I used to try to avoid music videos since most of the artists that get airplay on mainstream tv (mtv2,vh1, even fuse now) are ones I despise. Then in college I watched a little more in order to procrastinate - especially stuff on mtv2's Subterranean and mtvu (university only mtv station). BTW I would recommend never watching subterranean because it is 90% ads but to watch the videos the next day online.
Anyways, my list of some of my more recent favorites:
11. "The Distance" by Cake *(though it's all but impossible to find the real version anymore)
10. "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" by Death Cab for Cutie
9. "Sixteen Military Wives" by The Decemberists
8. "Keep Fishin'" by Weezer
7. "Last Stop: This Town" by Eels
6. "Sing Me Spanish Techno" by The New Pornographers
5. "The Crystal Lake" by Grandaddy
4. "Gold Soundz" by Pavement
3. "Pillar of Salt" by The Thermals
2. "Knives Out" by Radiohead
1. "Sugarcube" by Yo La Tengo - apparently a lot of other peoples favorite too. Though, I would've checked yes on the note given to James.
I don't know about the best, but I think the worst is Michael Jackson's Thriller, because its debut seemed to be coincide with the moment MTV began to transform from an exciting place to see new music into the largely unwatchable mess it is today.
Before Thriller, MTV played Rock, but of a cooler, hipper, more innovative variety than what most people were used to hearing. Some of the most beloved and iconic songs of the '80's owe their popularity to MTV--Come on Eileen, Tainted Love, White Wedding, Relax, We're Not Gonna Take It, Our Lips are Sealed, Sweet Dreams. The tracks MTV had on heavy rotation were listed in Billboard. The "Modern Music" or "Rock of the '80's" radio format that eventually morphed into "Alternative" would never have come about if MTV hadn't created a market for it.
Then along came Rick James claiming MTV was racist because they didn't play his video for "Super Freak." In Mr. James's defense, "Super Freak" was a good song that wouldn't have been a radical departure from MTV's format, but MTV did not turn the song down because they were racist.
The fact was, though, that MTV did not play much from black artists aside from Herbie Hancock, the Pointer Sisters, and 1/3 of the Thompson Twins. So MTV, being eager to shut Mr. James up, made a massive promotion out of showing "Thriller," including a countdown to its debut and then devoting 25% of their airtime to this one song for several weeks.
The "Thriller" promotion was a success for MTV, but afterwards the channel didn't champion quality and innovation as much, and the "event" content began to increase. MTV's playlist slowly turned into a reflection of what people were already listening to, and the the non-musical content began to take over the network completely. The non-musical content began to showcase more and more outrageous behavior by publicity-seeking folks, and the channel ended up where it is today--a showcase for Jerry-Springer-watching dropouts.
There are worse videos than "Thriller," but no other had such a negative impact on American pop music.
It was "Thriller", directed by John Landis, that really made the music video an art form of it's own. Prior to "Thriller" most music videos were really low budget, and most of them sucked. When "Thriller" premiered in it's original form, as a 14 minute short film/music video, there wasn't anything like it on MTV.
What ruined MTV was The Real World. MTV realized they could cheaply produce inane reality shows with attractive, yet vapid college students and increase both viewership and ad revenue.
----- We were wasps with new wings, now we're bugs in the jar.
!!! Then at the end you see the crash in "real time". Beautiful, just beautiful!
Most of the ones that suck are hilarious and thus slightly redeeming 
