Fresh Question #48: Favorite Music Video(s)

[Nightwing]

Nothing new to report, so let's get right to the new question:

What's your favorite music video or video direction? I've been pretty content with the recent videos of Gorillaz and Fatboy Slim myself. How about you? (and you and you and you...)

[Eraserhead]

#1-Da Funk-Daft Punk (Directed by Spike Jonze)
#2-Night of the Living Bassheads-Public Enemy
#3-Thriller-Michael Jackson
#4-Do the Evolution-Pearl Jam
#5-Take on Me-Aha
#6-Losing my Religion-REM
#7-Daytona 500-Ghostface Killer (Has anybody seen this one?)
#8-Land of Confusion-Genesis
#8-One-Metallica
#9-Do 4 Love-2pac (Great animation in this one)
#10-Just a gigalo-David Lee Roth
#11-Drop-The Pharcyde
#12-Bark at the Moon-Ozzy Osbourne
#12-Been caught Stealing-Jane's Addiction
#13-Clint Eastwood-Gorillaz
#14-Hungry Like the Wolf-Duran Duran
#15-Pump up the Volume-M/A/R/S
#16-Sledghammer-Peter Gabriel
#17-Mr. Krinkle-Primus
#18-Come to Daddy-Aphex Twin
#19-The Symphony Part II-EPMD,Method Man,Redman,and Hurricane
#20-Tonight Tonight-Smashing Pumpkins

[RoboHobo]

yeah DAYTONA 500 is tight ! Isn't the video like Speed racer?Any video by the Chemical brothers is awesome.

[Eraserhead]

Originally posted by RoboHobo
yeah DAYTONA 500 is tight ! Isn't the video like Speed racer?

Yup! Even though I got it on tape, I gotta see if It's downloadable out here..

[RoboHobo]

just downloaded it and it's not as tight as I remembered it to be(the song not the video)

[Trent Lane]

Tom Petty- You Don't Know How it Feels
Don't Come Around Here
Mary Jane's Last Dance
Walls
Jamiroquai- Virtual Insanity
Cardigans- My Favourite Game (all versions)
Erase Rewind
Lovefool
Linkin Park-Crawling
Offspring-Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
No Doubt-Sunday Morning
Simple Kind of Life
Just A Girl
Don't Speak
a-Ha-Take On Me
Pearl Jam-Do the Evolution
Korn-Freak on a Leash
Got the Life
Orgy-Blue Monday

That's all I can think of right now, but I know there's gotta be some more...

[Bird Boy]

Hmm

Metallica-Enter Sandman
Godsmack- Greed
Metallica-King Nothing
Michael Jackson-Thriller
Dave Matthews Band-Ants Marching
Ozzy Osbourne-No More Tears
Mephisto Oddessy (Featuring a colaboration with Static X)-Crash

-BB

[James]

Originally posted by Bird_Boy
Hmm

Metallica-Enter Sandman

-BB

That's interesting, as Enter Sandman's video was the first to strike me as one of the worst videos - way to literal and rather poorly composited in my opinion, but then that is all I offer, my opinion!

Hey, come on dudes! You could at least put down WHY you like these videos or give a rough description! I haven't seen or heard of many of them!!


Anyway, For me.... hmm..

Good videos for me, fit into two types of catagory. Those which lit an average song, and those which don't consume an excellent song. Too many videos go against these two lines of thinking. An extremely catchy tune given a compeling video will mean the listen is distracted from listening to the catchy song. Likewise, a poor song given a rather dull - and often egotistical - video is just as poor. Watching the frontman croon a dull piece of rubbish is not an incentive to warm you to the song (or video!)

Lecture over, we may begin!

Faith No More - Last Cup Of Sorrow - Hitchcock Parody - and probably a parody of several other directors I am unaware of. Certainly their best video as it helps life a rather mediocre song.

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist - Wonderful blend of samples that are represented by small character actions in the video. When the samples repeat, so do the actions in the video which not only makes this video rather entertaining, it makes it easier for the dumb listener to locate the hooks in the song.

Robbie Williams/Kylie Minogue - Kids - I like this song, harmonies are cool and I think Mr Williams is an excellent performer. Which is exactly what this video allows him to do. NO complicated story lines or spinny graphics, just a straight glitzy video with Robbie dominating. This doesn't distract from the song.

Die Krupp - To The Hilt - Fantastic and bizzare song accompanied by a bizzare video set in a toilet. As with the Avalanches, there are old men in the video 'rocking out'. Perhaps an old man in a video is akin to a monkey in a film (see the American Pie DVD commentary!). Well recommended if you can find it.

Pavement - Carrot Rope - Cool song again, very cheap, entertaining - but not suffocating video. The six of them up against a blue sheet with them all wearing rain macks. They then entertain. Cool.

DREADFUL videos.

The Pixies - Velouria - This is an amazing song which takes video exploration a little too far. The group run towards the camera in a quarry. This 20 second footage is slowed down to cover the 3 and a half minutes of song. According to the frontman, MTV band it. I don't know if that was true. The director was British. Bad boy!

And no mention of Gorillaz!

[BWDK]

Britney Spears - Oops!...I did it again
Britney Spears - Stronger
Destiny's Child - Survivor (Yummie! :P )

[Failure]

Hmm, personally I'm a huge fan of Tool's music videos. They're always so interesting, to say the least. So all of Tool's videos.
I also like Radiohead's video for Just and Paranoid Android.
Matthew Good Band's Strange Days
Blur's Coffee and TV
and probably a whole bunch of others which I'm forgetting right now.
The Gorillaz video is pretty cool as well.

[Eraserhead]

Originally posted by SJJ

Hey, come on dudes! You could at least put down WHY you like these videos or give a rough description! I haven't seen or heard of many of them!!

I'll do my best to ellaborate on some of those that you have'nt seen...And I dont know if I can say why I like these, I just have a thing for offbeat videos.

-The Symphony II-Parish Smith as "Michael Myers",Erick Sermon as "Leatherface", Redman as "Jack (The Shining), Method Man as (I think) "Dr. Giggles", and Hurricane protrays "Carrie" and they're all terrorizing this poor girl.

-Mr. Krinkle-Les Claypool dresses up as a pig and performs while a carnival-freakshow revolves behind him. (This video was shot in one take)

-Pump up the Volume-NASA test footage from the 50's and 60's are nicely put together to the music of this early Techno/Dance hit.

-Drop-The whole video is filmed backwards and its kinda funny to see somebody rolling up some steps.The one and only Spike Jonze directed this as well.

-Do 4 Love-Since 2pac was deceased before this video got made, a group of animators got together to help bring him to life in this video..With the help of stop-motion,abrstact pastels,graffix,anime and some rotoscoping.

-One-I could'nt decide on which Metallica video to choose. It was either this or "Unforgiven" ( which I loved due to the Eraserhead-like mystery of it) but it was ONE that got the vote due to its vicious and haunting song, set to the images of the grim and poetic film, Johnny Got his Gun.

-Night of the Living Bassheads-Chuck D's social commentary on crack-cocaine has images (comic and serious) of drug-related casualties. But the song is often interrupted by some "Intentionally Over-The-Top newscasts" and a subplot(?) about a group of guys with bags on their heads called the "BrownBags" who try to shut Chuck & Public Enemy up. Meanwhile, A reporter sneaks into Wall Street and catches a bunch of stock-brokers who are "bassing-up" with crack. Just when the song starts to go into hyperdrive, A SPECIAL REPORT suddenly interrupts the video (and song) and our newscaster "will bring us information after this commercial break"
..And yes, a commerical DOES play! After the "beeper-tie" ad is over, we recieve news that Chuck has been apprehended by the "BrownBags" and its up to the S1Ws to wreak havoc and set him loose. All of this (and the song) is done in about 5 minutes. (Keep in mind that this video came out during the "Hair-Band" years, so to see something like this was truly innovational and mind-blowing)

-DA FUNK-The video begins with shots of a downtown metropolitan area at nightime. "BIG CITY NIGHTS" is written in bold letters on the screen. Then Daft Punk's "DA FUNK" is heard blasting from someone's boombox, that someone would be "Charles". It looks as though Charles had an accident which resulted in a broken leg, but Charles does'nt hesitate to go for a nice stroll through town with his injured leg and "DA FUNK" booming from his box. Along the way, some kids mock him and say "Yo, that's a good song" and jokingly laugh away. Then a street vendor yells at Charles to "turn that thing down please!" but somehow "DA FUNK" just wont shut up and Charles continues to walk downtown. Then he passes by a liquor store and sees someone familiar inside. In he goes (with "DA FUNK" still blasting away) and gets the girl's attention, she does'nt recognize him so he has to remind her. Beatrice, is her name. Apparently its been a long time since these two had seen each other because Charles "grew up next door" to her. Finally she remembers him and excitedly hugs and chit-chats with him. Beatrice then asks Charles if he would like to come over to her place for dinner, he agrees. "DA FUNK" is still blasting. Then they wait at the bus-stop for the bus to arrive, when it does, Charles becomes startled because a sign inside the bus says "no radios". With a panicked look on his face, he quickly gazes at Beatrice, who is already inside the bus, but he has been too hesitant to move and the bus begins to leave. Charles bows down in shame.

Shortly afterwords, Charles decides to walk further downtown. "DA FUNK" finally starts to fade out of his loud radio and it looks as though his night is over, instead he starts to whistle "DA FUNK" as he continues to walk the streets. End of video.


Now you may be saying, "What the hell was that all about"? Well, Two reasons why I love this:

1-The DAFT PUNK song that is featured in this video is presented in such a clever manner. There are no lyrics, but the song constantly plays thoughout the entire video (Including through all of the participants voices and through all the vehicles that are driving by, we still hear it) and there are only two instances *which I posted up above* when the song is noticed! Its a different breed of video that makes you respect the artists' originality. Whether it was their idea or Spike Jonze (the director) I dont know. But just like ...Bassheads, this is one of those rare and unique ones that I truly love.

2- In the 2nd-to-last shot of the video, an unsuspecting man walks by the video shoot (Unaware of the filming) and sees Charles and...Looks around in disbelief. Because "Charles" is a dog. A dog that walks,talks,wears a jacket,and carries crutches and a boombox.

[HellCat]

Originally posted by SJJ


The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist - Wonderful blend of samples that are represented by small character actions in the video. When the samples repeat, so do the actions in the video which not only makes this video rather entertaining, it makes it easier for the dumb listener to locate the hooks in the song.

I agree, this one sticks in your head after watching, especially the haunting music which is played during the bits where no one is singing.

[Lonestarr]

Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty
Thriller - Michael Jackson (Vincent Price's narration is a particular highlight)
The World is Not Enough - Garbage
Stan - Eminem
Duel of the Fates - John Williams & the LSO (I think this counts)
anything by Weird Al Yankovic
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Parents Just Don't Understand - DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
Vogue - Madonna

[Maxie Zeus]

Normally the guy who puts up the thread will unstick it, but I think the top of this board should be uncluttered for the next day or two.

Hope you don't mind, Nightwing.