Flashing Lights

I’ve been arguing that the music video is dead for a long time. I think party of my issue has been the way in which indie artists end up bound into these situations. We grew up on Mtv, huge rock bands, and even the decidedly rebellious acts of our youth (I’m thinking mostly of Fugazi) seemed like gigantic superstars. What’s the first thing you do after you make a record? Choose a single. What next? Make a video for the single. After that? Go on tour. It’s like a 12 sided die with built-in instructions. And since independent record labels don’t give a shit if you have a video or not, most bands pony up the money themselves, or split the cost with the label. Unless you have visionary friends, oodles of cash or a heart-stopping live act that’s been recorded by professionals, your video is probably going to be embarrassingly low budget, include some kind of lame joke or just plain self-indulgent and boring.

Hip hop videos might be self-indulgent, but they are typically fun. They might also be characterized as sexually obscene. That being said, it’s probably the case that I’ve been wrong about music videos, since the more I say that they’re dead, the more regularly I watch one that’s just plain good. Spike Jonze’s co-direction of Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights” is definitely one that is good, and I’d love to write about it, had several others not already taken on the effort, much better than I could. Do watch it.

The first article I read about it was over at clapclap, where Mike B. offered a short essay on the piece, which led me to No Trivia. Mike B.’s take on the “reveal” employed combined with Brandon’s exposition regarding women, body types, sexism, revenge and nightmares made me realize just how wrong I’ve been about video. There’s a lot left to be done in terms of style and design, and perhaps the best part about this video is that it is completely the centerpiece to the experience … the song exists in a plane with it, but isn’t overbearing or dominating. We’re allowed to listen and watch, and then quietly encouraged to watch again — but this time listen harder to understand what we’re being shown. It’s really brilliantly done, and mostly because it recognizes the distinction between the visual and aural, and stops trying to force one into the other, it just lets them breathe.

I dunno. I think we might have a case of a bunch of smart people reading a bit more into it than is really there. But these pieces are fairly compelling, and in a sense it really doesn’t matter whether these things are “real” or the product of overly ambitious analysis. Anyway, it was interesting and I hadn’t seen it yet, so thanks for all the links!

The video from The Last Shadow Puppets was indeed self-indulgent and a bit on the boring side but damn if it didn’t look good! Who wouldn’t want the chance to ride a tank?! Seriously.

Say the music video format isn’t dead - how would you know? There’s no real central spot to even SEE videos anymore.. at least not randomly. You may go to a bands site or see one posted on a music blog somewhere but that’s making an active effort to see videos (to some degree). As a teen I recall just watching videos for many hours on end (passively, in the background) but I don’t even know of anywhere that I can do that anymore. No MTV or VH1 station actually shows NEW videos anymore with the exception of a handful of times during the day but it’s quite sparse. Maybe the format is just hibernating until the web brings about a way to watch these videos again with little effort but still the same amount of appreciation.

great post paige