[onlyafterdark]

Has anyone seen the new Jessica Simpson video? I can help but feel there is a hidden message throughout the video. Anyone else pick up on it?

I mean really now, it seems as though they have stopped trying all together when making these videos. I remember a time when she was all about having "normal" videos that left everything to your imagination. Now its like stripping classes are the norm for pop stars.

Dont get me wrong, I dont mind a good striptease every now and then, but I thought music videos were supposed to have a little more substance than this.

It makes you wonder what they are going to be like ten years from now.

[Kickaha]

Like Cinemax, ca. 1980.

[_Ω_]

Originally Posted by onlyafterdark Dont get me wrong, I dont mind a good striptease every now and then, but I thought music videos were supposed to have a little more substance than this.

Substance?

Music video for the masses is nothing more than soft porn these days. Give it 10 years we may have penetration!

[FFL]

when looking for substance in a music video, one might consider the substance (or lack thereof) in the music itself.

[onlyafterdark]

Ya, I still remember the line from The Simpsons about how Fox turned into a porn channel so gradually that no one noticed.

I think that applies to the way most mainstream things on tv are going.

I would still be surprised to see penetration though. But on second thought, didnt the Fly Away music video by Lenny Kravitz have two people doing it?

[autodata]

The simpson video has far more substance than the original nancy sinatra video.

original video

[ghoti]

ROTFL, this is really funny. And sexy, too!

I don't think that this is about substance, but about variety. If every music video is showing pretty, scantily clad girls, this is just getting boring. It's like all those videos that simply show the band play on a stage. You want to see different styles, new ideas (like those brilliant Chemical Brothers videos), etc.

[Unch]

Been done.

Prodigy's video for "Smack My Bitch Up" had sex scenes, violence, drug abuse, grand theft auto, and graphic vomiting.

[pscates2.0]

See, to me, that Nancy Sinatra video is 10x "sexier" than bubblehead Simpson's. Perhaps because it's a bit slinkier and, considering when it was made, showing so much leg, crotch, tummy, wiggling butts, thigh and "come give it to me hard" looks weren't as commonplace as now?

I've always dug that video.



Ms. Sinatra did a layout in Playboy about 10-12 years ago, I recall. She still looks great (of course, you know me and my "older woman" leanings...).



All this piled-on, gratuitous, "show everything because we can!" mentality in today's video is just empty softcore porn. Christina, Britney, Jessica, Lisa Marie, all those "country divas" who wouldn't know a true country song if it bit them on the knee, etc.



"Sexy" is often what ISN'T show or rammed into your face (so to speak). It's that hint, that sense of "what if...", etc. Probably the reason it's sometimes a bigger turn-on to flip through a Victoria's Secret catalog rather than a Playboy or whatever?







...and perhaps I'm saying too much here...

[onlyafterdark]

Ya you're right scates, there is very little left to the imagination in todays mainstream media.

But Im going to have to agree with autodata with regards to the Nancy Sinatra video. There is absolutely nothing going on there but legs and ass shaking (mmmmmmm....... legs).

I dont know, maybe Ive just finally grown past music videos. Give me the good ol' days with interesting videos like the old Jackson ones. Radiohead and Tool also come to mind.

Now they had some good vids.

[autodata]

Personally, I just don't get the whole music video thing. It's so corny.

My biggest gripe isn't the sexuality, it's the fact that someone actually sits in a room and says, "what this scene really needs is a choreographed group routine," without everyone bursting out in laughter.

[pscates2.0]

Well that's just it...it's such a cliché now.

I've often griped (even recently) about Michael Jackson being stuck in that same mindset, 20 years later: the big set-piece video, with 40-65 choreographed dancers and all.

It's so played-out and silly. It was cool and fresh 20 years ago ("Thriller", "Beat It", etc.), but when I see it now, all I think is "holy cow, I'm seeing that Lionel Richie video again...".



It all comes and goes. Back in the day, Duran Duran flew to Antigua and made those wild, expensive videos that looked like three-minute movies. Then it went the other way for a few years, then back, then forth, etc.

Personally (and maybe it's because I'm a musician and have various guitar fetishes), I always dig the videos that show the band playing. There can be other stuff going on, but I generally like seeing the performers perform, guitars played, drums hit, etc. I don't want to see Andy Summers or Elliott Easton "acting", but I'd sure love to see them play their guitar for 2-3 minutes!



Right now, videos just seem to be all over the place. All kinds of styles, approaches. Some are pretty neat. Most, however, simply suck.

The problem is, oddly enough, FINDING the silly things. MTV seems to play pretty much everything BUT music videos, and VH-1 seems completely stuck in a rut of endless "The 500 Hottest 70's Sitcom Stars With Big Titties and Drug Addictions" retrospectives, hosted by smarmy stand-up comedians and royal has-beens (why would I give a flying wang what Mrs. Garrett, Loni Anderson or Lou Ferrigno has to say about anything?).



You have to get digital cable or satellite to find a music video channel that actually *gasp* plays music videos!

[onlyafterdark]

Ya our music station here in Canada (Muchmusic) has fallen victim to the MTV virus too. I dont even watch the stupid thing anymore. All my favourite VJs have left and the only time I actually find myself watching the channel for an extended period of time is when Ed the Sock is on (which isnt much). Oh and the Human Serviette is good too.

If I want to listen to new music its usually on internet radio stations. Most universities have good stations that are run by people who actually care. Otherwise its by word of mouth through the music community and magazines.

It seems as though music videos are becoming more like commercials between great television viewing such as "Pimp My Ride" and "Cribs" and it doesnt look like things are going to change any time soon.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

P2.0,

I hear ya. When MTV2 started it was 'all videos, all the time'. Now it's Beavis -n- Butt-head and reruns of old MTV shows. VH1 is like you said, "100 best/worst [fill in the blank]". The only show I ever dug on VH1 was Pop-up video. At least I got to see some music videos then.

I guess I could video myself playin' then add some special fx in FCE or something.

[autodata]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 I always dig the videos that show the band playing.

I totally agree. A particularly poignant example is this Andre Rieu video. Most of it is fantastic, with a concert in the Piazza de la Republic in Cortona and it's absolutely beautiful. However, they cut in these unbearably corny scenes that look like this and it makes me cringe.

[SledgeHammer]

Allow me to quote Lewis Black on the subject:

Music is a wonderful thing; it's like a drug really. It's played, and it goes in our ear, and we get a vision. [Music videos] go where? In your eye. Eye, ear, there's a big fuck difference. And, if you get a vision in your head, after you listen to some music, and you go home and turn on MTV, and the video is the vision you had, kill yourself. You're better off coming back as a lobster.

That's about where I come down on the issue.

EDIT: What the hell...while we're on Jessica Simpson, lewis Black, and MTV:

[MTV's] nonmusic programming is an inane outgrowth. And basically, sex sells. That's what "The Real World" is based on: selling sex, essentially, with these people in these houses. I mean, it's not "The Noam Chomsky Report!" And shows like the Jessica Simpson thing, the [appeal] of that whole thing seems to be, "Hey, isn't this the life you want?" You could blame reality TV and "American Idol" on it, too. All that crap.

(That first quote is from "The End of the Universe" and the second one is from the NY Daily News.)

[sunrain]

The best music video in recent memory for me is Fat Boy Slim's Weapon of Choice video. (sorry, it's in WM and RM formats)

...because it has Christopher Walken dancing in it...and you can't go wrong with a formula like that. The man can do no wrong in my book.

[curiousuburb]

Best music video I've seen in years might be Alex Gopher - The Child.
100% typographically animated representations of NYC remixing Billie Holiday. Very cool.
Not quite Ascii art, but brilliant.



I've got a 20MB quicktime version, but still searching for the higher res 48MB AVI I once P2P'd.

Yahoo has a link to video, but it asks for Netscape 4.72 and dislikes Safari.

Sputnik7 has a decent broadband RealPlayer Version

Also a candidate for coolest video:

White Stripes - Fell in love with a Girl.
100% Lego animation. Cool.

[onlyafterdark]

Yes, the White Stripes video Fell in Love with a Girl was great. I really think it was that video that made people notice them. You couldnt help but watch it when it was on.

Ill have to look for a copy of it on the net.

[Amadeus]

The whole idea is to sell the music video. Sex sells.

[BuonRotto]

Can't leave out the Gorillaz or (though I hate the music) Royksopp. Apparently someone at H5 of the Black Dog group this place did the Royksopp vid as well as the Gopher vid. - nice QT movies!

[autodata]

this video is certainly the best one in recent years.

Oh, that's probably the opposite of what you guys were getting at.

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by autodata this video is certainly the best one in recent years. Oh, that's probably the opposite of what you guys were getting at.

Every time I saw this thread I thought of that video. That is truly a wonderful thing.

[Kickaha]

Mmmmm.... power tools.

[_Ω_]

Don't forget the Beastie Boys with gems like Sabotage.

[groverat]

That "Satisfaction" video is awesome.

This one, however, is awesome for completely different reasons. Directed by Chris Cunningham, Music by Aphex Twin. Beware.

[Unch]

If you like those two videos, this one mixes the best of both together:-

Note: The quicktime version has 3 mins of pointless (yet rather comical) swearing at the beginning, the RealMedia version gets straight to the point :-)

http://www.sputnik7.com/vod/index.js...music&key=wind

The song is Aphex Twin - Windowlicker

[alcimedes]

someone post up that white stripes video, or if you need hosting let me know. i'd be interested in seeing it. haven't watched MTV since they cancelled Beavis and Butthead.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by alcimedes someone post up that white stripes video, or if you need hosting let me know. i'd be interested in seeing it. haven't watched MTV since they cancelled Beavis and Butthead.

Sputnik7 has a WMP version

Found a QT Version

[autodata]

It looks like everyone is gravitating toward the big 3 Michel Gondry , Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham. That's a great DVD set, btw, and accounts for the bulk of the great music videos of the past 10+ years.