I hate music videos. Usually, anytime someone asks me if I've seen such and such video, my mind wanders and I kinda lose interest (apologies if you've witnessed this; it's nothing personal). Here's an attempt at an explanation. In the movie "Lost Highway," Bill Pullman hates video cameras because he likes remembering things his own way or, in other words, "the way [he] remembers them. Not necessarily the way they happened." I think that's a crucial statement for me in my critique of music videos. It's not just me. Our favorite music evokes pretty vivid images, associations, memories and giving a director authority over the expressive capacity of music can be a major infringement on, well, on "the royal we," as it were (wink, wink).
Anyway, that could become an essay in a heartbeat. I just love that quote from "Lost Highway", though. When I first heard it, I wasn't exactly sure of the application but now, I feel like it validates that urge that each of us have to...I don't know...daydream and piece together memories individually.
So, instead of continuing to insist that music videos usually miss the point by light years, I thought I'd share one really excellent video I was introduced to. When I worked at Touch and Go, we invested thousands of dollars in making flashy, ostensibly big-budget music videos that scored low in the imagination department. Whenever we'd get a video in that was the least bit experimental, it was dismissed as "art school" and "pretentious." Only in the past few years have music videos begun to stray from the conventions of the MTV form they've been shackled to for nearly 30 years.
Los Angeles band, The Bird and the Bee, employed Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! to direct their video, "Polite Dance Song," last year. The video isn't particularly new but it's obscure enough that I don't think many people saw it. Most of the characters in it are cameo appearances by Los Angeles public access television figures. It's bizarre and evocative enough that I don't care how I would prefer to remember the song. Hope you enjoy!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
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1 comment:
my, what kicks!
our friend jessica is visiting from prague, and she heard the song start and got excited because it's been in her head all morning and she'd been wondering if i'd ever heard it. i hadn't. and she hadn't seen the video. so we watched it. i think she was less than impressed, and that's fine. i thought it was funny with the public access hero shocking them all with his moves, fog, and colored lights. great job!
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