Whatever happened to the art of the music video? Romanek, Jonze, Gondry, Corbjin, Cunningham, they've all disappeared in recent times. Now we're stuck with Sam Bayer, who might just be the new Michael Bay (pretty pretty, but boring boring). Yes, there's irony in that statement, since Michael Bay was a music video director.
There was a point, in the mid to late 90's, where the music video was getting close to art status. Where you would eagerly expect the new single to have a new video, because most likely, it was going to captivate you, take you someplace different for a couple of minutes. You'd want to crank the volume up, let the song and the images the band was proud to associate with the song just flow over you like rain.
And then, suddenly, it went to crap. Now music video directors don't even get a credit on the video on FUSE. It just goes (for example)
"MakeDamnSure"
TAKING BACK SUNDAY
Louder Now
And on MTV, it merely adds the record label that released the song. Just three years ago, I would see a video from a certain director, and the knowledge of who that director was would make me interested in other videos he had done, which would in the end, lead me to new music. I'm sure most of the world doesn't work that way, but I still don't want to have to Google a music video to find out who did something brilliant with a song.
Speaking of "MakeDamnSure" -- if people could stop doing the "random stock footage" interpretations of a song, the rest of the world would appreciate it. It's good to see you couldn't think of anything more compelling for the song. It just makes the talented people look more talented. I thought it was annoying with "Best of You", and it hasn't lifted that veil anymore by appearing on more and more videos. It's beginning to look like a YouTube contest when you actually see a music video these days.
Bleh.
It's even odder when you consider that now you can sell a music video. If it's good enough, people will purchase it on iTunes! I mean, honestly, can't that be enough of a reason to try to make something interesting? Record companies once stated that they "can't quantify how much a music video affects sales", but it seems that when a video's now a source of revenue, that thought process goes out the window. So let's bring on something more interesting than what we're seeing now. Let's use the music video as an experimental ground, where you can stretch your ideas farther than you ever could in a feature film. Let's stop handing out crap, people, let's make it a good idea to actually watch MTV2, MTVu, and FUSE.
There was a point, in the mid to late 90's, where the music video was getting close to art status. Where you would eagerly expect the new single to have a new video, because most likely, it was going to captivate you, take you someplace different for a couple of minutes. You'd want to crank the volume up, let the song and the images the band was proud to associate with the song just flow over you like rain.
And then, suddenly, it went to crap. Now music video directors don't even get a credit on the video on FUSE. It just goes (for example)
"MakeDamnSure"
TAKING BACK SUNDAY
Louder Now
And on MTV, it merely adds the record label that released the song. Just three years ago, I would see a video from a certain director, and the knowledge of who that director was would make me interested in other videos he had done, which would in the end, lead me to new music. I'm sure most of the world doesn't work that way, but I still don't want to have to Google a music video to find out who did something brilliant with a song.
Speaking of "MakeDamnSure" -- if people could stop doing the "random stock footage" interpretations of a song, the rest of the world would appreciate it. It's good to see you couldn't think of anything more compelling for the song. It just makes the talented people look more talented. I thought it was annoying with "Best of You", and it hasn't lifted that veil anymore by appearing on more and more videos. It's beginning to look like a YouTube contest when you actually see a music video these days.
Bleh.
It's even odder when you consider that now you can sell a music video. If it's good enough, people will purchase it on iTunes! I mean, honestly, can't that be enough of a reason to try to make something interesting? Record companies once stated that they "can't quantify how much a music video affects sales", but it seems that when a video's now a source of revenue, that thought process goes out the window. So let's bring on something more interesting than what we're seeing now. Let's use the music video as an experimental ground, where you can stretch your ideas farther than you ever could in a feature film. Let's stop handing out crap, people, let's make it a good idea to actually watch MTV2, MTVu, and FUSE.