The Problem With Music Today Part II: The Music Video

Welcome to the second installment of "The Problem With Music Today".

Today's post will focus on music videos and how generally, they are pretty fucking lame for the most part. This applies to the music videos of both the mainstream and underground.

It is all too often a band I enjoy releases a music video and over time I have learned to associate this event with a dismissive skepticism. Most of the time I purposely avoid watching a video for a band I like, how sad. The reason behind this is simple. I firmly believe that a band should not, should NOT, appear in the video unless the circumstance calls for it, we'll get to that exception in a minute. As soon as the band rears it's head I'm done.

I love music videos, I really do, in fact sometimes a video comes a long and I can't even listen to the song without thinking of the video, and if I can help it, I'll just watch the music video for the song instead. People like Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Adam Jones, Spike Jonze, and Ben Deka, amongst others, understand the relationship between song and video by taking the art form to another level visually while staying true to the vision of the artist.

The idea of a music video works both ways. Listening to music creates images and scenery one affiliates with the emotion and feeling of the song as it translates into a visual display created by your brain. Unfortunately, not everyone has the money and resources to make music videos for our favorite bands. Due to that impairing fact, we are at the mercy of many idiots who we hope will do our bands justice but often fall flat.

Below are some contributing factors to shitty videos:

The warehouse video:

In terms of location, this has been done a million times over and yet I still see videos of bands in a goddamn warehouse! The new video for a Suffocation track off their latest release "Blood Oath" is the latest victim of this scouting location cop out.

For some reason the warehouse has become a staple for heavy music videos. Even Dillinger Escape Plan filmed their first video for the album Miss Machine in a warehouse. I guess gutted out warehouse = very heavy and extreme. How this mentality ever came about must have been from too many viewings of Metallica's "One" video. "Hey! How do I film this metal band?"

"Metallica shot a video in a warehouse, those dudes play heavy metal right?"

What point is being made by putting a band in an abandoned structure? I understand the concept of the environment playing a role in the tone the video is attempting to project but that environment rarely has anything to do with the concept of the video.

As a band, you need to stand up and say "NO! I will not go into that warehouse!"

Focusing on one member:

This trait, like the next, is leading up to my main point so keep your damn mouth shut for a minute before you start shouting shit at the screen about how I'm being redundant.

Now for a solo artist, the focus on the artist for the music video is obviously going to happen. When a whole band is involved and the focus is merely on the singer, well, what is that saying? I believe we all remember No Doubt's video for "Don't Speak" Hm? Remember what happened in that video? Now look where they are, doing reunion tours, fuck.

One of the most egotistical things I have ever witnessed in a music video is the following of the lead singer throughout the video while the rest of the band is just completely irrelevant. (See: Thursday "Circuits of Fever") The fact the member is not uncomfortable with this and actually goes through with it, brings up some serious questions...

Then there's the short film scenario where the singer is the protagonist and the rest of the band members are the supporting role. And while some good videos have been created from such an idea, in the end it's still an image push sponsored by the label.(See Foo Fighters "Everlong")

The "live" video

Even worse than a band playing in a warehouse is a band playing a live show and that is the video!

Hey everyone, want a music video? Just provide me recordings of your band playing live and I'll work my movie magic using my operating system's pre-installed software to do a mash up of all those shots where you guys look so cool! And maybe it will actually sync up with the song! That will cost extra.

A clear sign a video will blow is when a band posts "Hey all you nutty fucks out there! We need you for our music video! This will be a crazy video, it will be so much fun and you're going to love the results!"

Cue lame video...

The fact that a label pays for this kind of work is truly funny.


And finally: The band SHOULD NOT APPEAR IN THE VIDEO

I am a firm believer in this. And I'm directly attacking underground acts on this one because we all know the mainstream output of music videos are made with the strict formula of the artist doing their 'thang' and then much coordinated dancing ensues. Or, the rap video where it's bouncing vehicles and men swimming in their shirts telling me how much money they have. These are easy examples to ridicule.

Is if the band being in the video is bad enough, some star the band in the events of the storyline while the band is also shown playing elsewhere. (See Mastodon "Divinations").

It should be one or the other and that's where my exception comes into play. Some videos do well to take the concepts of the video and enact them correctly giving the song the visual life it deserves. While being successful in this service to the band and to the music, the director manages to integrate the band into the video in a way that convinces you that this group of amateur actors can at least perform for their own music video, and they do! (see Sick of it All "Potential For A Fall" and Weezer "Buddy Holly") These are clever approaches to the music video involving the band, and it's a rarity.

Let the video do the talking.

We all know what the band looks like, and even if you don't that's not exactly a bad thing. I didn't know what the members of Tool looked like for years, turns out they are human, who knew.

The music is the art created by the artist, the music video is the bringing to life of that piece of art. We all know the band or artist created the damn song and so their appearance is pointless. Get the hell out of the way and let your art speak for itself.