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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 3, 2009 13:22:05 GMT -5
26. The Art Of Noise—“Close (To The Edit)”
Album: (Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise! Label: ZTT Records Director: Zbigniew Rybczynski
The Art of Noise's 1984 album (Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise! was a brash blend of experimental rock and new wave that was way ahead of its time. The album's biggest hit, "Close (To The Edit)," was a signpost of the era. Three promotional videos were recorded for the single. One features surreal animation, and another is just the band playing in a studio. But, it’s the original directed by Zbigniew Rybczynski that most people remember. This avant garde video, which featured a crimson-haired little girl dressed in punk attire, took the group's deconstruction of traditional forms of music to a literal level as the girl leads three business suit-clad men in the destruction of various musical instruments. According to an interview with the band, "The male members of the band were slightly disturbed that they were made to come off as Huey Lewis and the News," Paul Morley said in an interview at the time, "so one of the reasons we tend to hide behind masks or not appear at all is because it opens up more possibilities how Art of Noise can be presented. Sometimes you had video art directors get excited about how they were going to present Art of Noise, and in that particular case, he interpreted it as a strange young girl with Huey Lewis & The News. Half of it was fun and half of it was slightly sad." Luckily, this video didn’t come off as anything Huey Lewis & The News would put out. In fact, it caused a little controversy. "I thought it was a fun video," Anne Dudley said, "but some people thought it was unnecessarily violent. It was banned in New Zealand as encouraging violence towards children. Nothing could have been further from our minds." Nevertheless, the video is still remembered to this day. Go watch The Venture Bros. episode “What Goes Down Must Come Up,” and you’ll see a little girl and three men who look strikingly similar.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 3, 2009 13:26:09 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 25-21 and a recap of the previous videos. Here are the hints:
Not nightmares, uncaged, a fiendish pastime, an opera in 6 minutes, and it shares the same name as a magazine.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 4, 2009 14:03:51 GMT -5
75 videos down. 25 more to go. So, let's get things going with number 25: 25. Eurythmics—“Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQHrspjw4aAAlbum: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) Label: RCA Director: Dave Stewart Dave Stewart himself directed this classic clip for his band's hit single "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)." Before the Sunderland native signed with Chris Blackwell's Ireland Music label in 1968, he and his cinephille brother were taking in Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Michelangelo Antonioni at the local cinemas. In an article published in Premiere France, Stewart shared with writer Nicolas Schaller his thoughts on the stateside success of the Eurythmics. "At this time, people were making videos where the band would be miming a song, just normal playing. But our videos [were] like little films. That's why, in America for instance, we suddenly became very successful," said Stewart. What with the unexplained cow, Annie Lennox's blazing androgyny, and its rumination on impossible desire, the clip's obvious point of reference is Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's Un Chien Andalou. Though "Sweet Dreams" hasn't aged as well as Buñuel and Dali's silent masterpiece, it remains one of the more daring and experimental music videos of its time. It also made Annie Lennox a star. Lennox's striking androgynous visual image, with close-cropped, orange-colored hair, men's suit, and cane and detached yet soulful vocal delivery immediately made her a household name. Hell, you could probably trace the success of her solo career to this video. It pretty much sums of the Eurythmics: Lennox’s fame overshadowing Stewart’s production.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 4, 2009 14:26:56 GMT -5
24. George Michael—“Freedom 90” www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTugeLRZ6GIAlbum: Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 Label: Epic Records Director: David Fincher If you remember, in my entry for Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing” video, I went on a little diatribe about beautiful people in videos. If you don’t, the reason for my negativity to using pretty faces for videos is that most music videos are treated as marketing tools rather than artistic entertainment. And, nothing sells better than sexy people using their sex appeal. However, that doesn’t mean that all videos featuring sexy people are bad. Here’s an example, and it fittingly comes from a person who got famous for his image. George Michael became a superstar in the 1980s. His success with Wham! helped, but he got even more famous after he went solo and his video for his single “Faith” came out. Though, that fame came with a price: he was stuck with the leather coat, guitar, and jukebox image from that video. Three years later, Michael became one of the first superstar artists to shun his image-driven fame. Michael refused to appear in any of the videos from his second solo album Listen Without Prejudice. The irony-laced "Freedom 90," directed by David Fincher, featured a bevy of top models (Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford, and male models John Pearson, Mario Sorrenti, and Peter Formby) lip-synching to Michael's pointed words. The video, like the album, was intended to be an artistic rebirth for the former Wham! singer; the jukebox from "Faith" and his trademark leather jacket and guitar were ceremoniously burned and destroyed by video's end. Michael would go on to employ models for his videos many times throughout his career, but "Freedom" was the only one to utilize more than their blank expressions. The video dug beneath surface facades and blurred the lines of gender and image while pushing the music video form as a whole. See, sexy people can be used to make a video of substance and not just style. Though, it helps if you’ve got a good director and musician.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 4, 2009 14:41:53 GMT -5
23. Chris Isaak—“Wicked Game”
Album: Heart Shaped World Label: Warner Bros. Records Director: Herb Ritts
Chris Isaak seems like a good sport, considering he owes his career more to Helena Christensen’s ass cleavage than his own talent. Though he did parlay this exquisite bit of soft-core tease into a guest spot on Friends and his own TV show, so I imagine he’s not complaining. Still the gold standard for sexy video clippage, mostly because it contains elements of mystery and yearning you can’t quite replicate with Jessica Simpson dry-humping the General Lee. Credit goes to the dearly departed director and famed photographer Herb Ritts, who made a miniature cottage industry of tastefully sensual shorts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, additionally shooting Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” and Madonna’s “Cherish” with his gorgeously intimate lens. If Isaak's sex appeal is a force stronger than a tropical monsoon, his decision to enlist Ritts to direct his video for "Wicked Game" was a match made in the most powerful erogenous zone imaginable. And, those clips made by Ritts for Madonna and Janet Jackson pale in comparison to this libidinal ode to Isaak's stinging sense of loss for Christensen's sand princess. Curiously, it's the sensitive clash of Isaak's conservative masculinity and Ritt's signature homoerotic gaze that makes "Wicked Game" more akin to a Bruce Weber creation. As for “Wicked Game,” it’s currently enjoying an unexpected second life thanks to, of all people, Paris Hilton; her new video “Stars are Blind” is a blatant rip-off of Ritts’s masterstroke. But, it doesn’t how many people rip-off this video; it’s still the definitive picture-perfect postcard of a sexy paradise lost.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 4, 2009 15:07:19 GMT -5
22. Queen—“Bohemian Rhapsody”
Album: A Night At The Opera Label: EMI, Elektra, Parlophone, Hollywood Director: Bruce Growers
Just as much as I’ve ragged on sexy people in videos, I’ve ragged on performance videos the same. But, as I said the entry for The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” with the right band, a performance video can be entertaining. Here is another case: Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Now, Queen definitely is the right band. They sound amazing, and they were fronted by one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock history, Freddie Mercury. They always put on amazing live shows, so watching them perform their song “Bohemian Rhapsody” can be a lot more entertaining than a lot of the videos on this list. Though, they’re not just performing in this video. The video opens with a shot of the four band members in near darkness as they sing the a cappella part, a composition of the shot that is the same as Mick Rock's cover photograph for their previous album Queen II. Then, the lights fade up, and the shots cross-fade into close-ups of Freddie. It also features some cool special effects, all of which were achieved during the recording. The effect of the face zooming away was accomplished by pointing the camera at a monitor, giving visual feedback, a visual glare, analogous to audio feedback. The honeycomb effect was achieved by using a shaped lens. Then it fades into them playing their instruments. In the opera section of the video, it goes back to them just standing there, then performing on the stage in the heavy metal part, and in the closing seconds of the video Roger Taylor is depicted stripped to the waist, striking the tam tam in the manner of the trademark of the Rank Organization’s Gongman, familiar in the UK as the opening of all Rank film productions. In the end, Queen ended up creating a cool video that fits the song perfectly; but the video is more than just that. Though some artists, including Queen themselves, had made video clips to accompany songs, it wasn't until after the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that it became regular practice for record companies to produce promo videos for artists' single releases. These could then be shown on television shows, such as the BBC's Top of the Pops, without the need for the artist to appear in person. A promo video also allowed the artist to have their music broadcast and accompanied by their own choice of visuals, rather than dancers such as Pan's People. This pretty much changed the industry and eventually led to the creation of MTV. According to Brian May, the video was produced so that the band could avoid miming on Top of the Pops, since it did not fit their style. He says "it was a reaction to having to go on the normal programmes and do the normal mime, so we sold our story" with the video. May explains that they would have looked off miming to such a complex song. Also, the band knew that they would be touring and unable to appear on the programme anyway. So, the video was created pretty much because Queen didn’t want to lip-synch. Amazingly, they not only created an entertaining clip but also created the video that has been hailed as launching the MTV age.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 4, 2009 15:23:09 GMT -5
21. Madonna—“Vogue”
Album: I’m Breathless (Music From And Inspired By The Film “Dick Tracy”) Label: Sire, Warner Bros. Records Director: David Fincher
Ah, dance crazes. They come, everyone does them, they go, and then we see a clip of these old dances on TV or YouTube and wonder why anyone would do such a stupid dance. And, then we go on to do the latest dumb dance and keep the cycle going. The Twist. The Macarena. River Dance. They all came and went with collective “Ugh!” In 1990, voguing enjoyed its fifteen minutes of fame with the release of Jennie Livingston's riveting anthropological exposé “Paris is Burning” and David Fincher's ferocious clip for Madonna's "Vogue." In the late 1980s, "voguing balls" became rituals of empowerment for Harlem's black and Latino transsexual communities. The city's bitch queens created "houses" to promote solidarity in the ranks and hosted competitions to prove their ability to seamlessly blend in with the rest of the world. Their weapon was attitude, though Madonna would go on to refer to it as "giving face." At first glance, the purposefully sanitized look of "Vogue" seemed to negate the down-and-dirty politics of voguing itself, but the people at Harlem's vogue balls had a way of quickly forgetting the power of their dance in the heat of competition. Madonna appropriated both voguing and the ghosts of classic Hollywood to create a song and video that extolled the power of attitude. Though she was criticized by some for commodifying a subculture's movement (the main gripe was that Livingston and Madonna, both white women, were explaining "other" behavior), Madonna truly understood the politics of voguing and used her postmodern power to expose this movement to white America. This was the House of Madonna. It had a white voice, but the black, Latino and female faces that decorate the video follow Madonna not as slaves but as empowered disciples.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 4, 2009 15:28:47 GMT -5
Okay, here's a recap of videos 100-21:
100. Beastie Boys—“Fight For Your Right (To Party)” 99. ZZ Top—“Legs” 98. Daft Punk—“Around The World” 97. Godley And Creme—“Cry” 96. Lenny Kravitz—“Are You Gonna Go My Way” 95. OutKast—“Hey Ya” 94. Wyclef Jean—“Gone Till November” 93. Janet Jackson—“Rhythm Nation” 92. Fatboy Slim—“Praise You” 91. Guns N’ Roses—“November Rain” 90. Yeah Yeah Yeahs—“Maps” 89. New Order—“True Faith” 88. Robert Palmer—“Addicted To Love” 87. Peter Gabriel—“Shock The Monkey” 86. The Killers—“All These Things That I’ve Done” 85. Bonnie Tyler—“Total Eclipse Of The Heart” 84. Toni Basil—“Mickey” 83. Red Hot Chili Peppers—“Give It Away” 82. Human League—“Don’t You Want Me?” 81. U2—“Where The Streets Have No Name” 80. The Buggles—“Video Killed The Radio Star” 79. The Killers—“Mr. Brightside” 78. Faith No More—“Epic” 77. Queen And David Bowie—“Under Pressure” 76. Talking Heads—“Once In A Lifetime” 75. The Cars—“You Might Think” 74. Olivia Newton John—“Physical” 73. The Cardigans—“My Favorite Game” 72. The Cranberries—“Linger” 71. Radiohead—“Fake Plastic Trees” 70. Smashing Pumpkins—“1979” 69. Eminem—“My Name Is” 68. Soundgarden—“Black Hole Sun” 67. Depeche Mode – “Enjoy the Silence” 66. The White Stripes—“Fell In Love With A Girl” 65. Billy Joel—“We Didn’t Start The Fire” 64. Pat Benatar—“Love Is A Battlefield” 63. Blur—“Coffee And TV” 62. Sinead O’Connor—“Nothing Compares 2 U” 61. R.E.M.—“Everybody Hurts” 60. Smashing Pumpkins—“Tonight, Tonight” 59. Live—“Lightning Crashes” 58. Talking Heads—“Burning Down The House” 57. Fatboy Slim—“Weapon Of Choice” 56. Metallica—“One” 55. Annie Lennox—“Why” 54. Nine Inch Nails—“The Perfect Drug” 53. David Bowie—“Ashes To Ashes” 52. Madonna—“Material Girl” 51. Michael Jackson—“Black Or White” 50. Björk—“It’s Oh So Quiet” 49. R.E.M.—“Imitation Of Life” 48. Dire Straits—“Money For Nothing” 47. Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson—“Scream” 46. Red Hot Chili Peppers—“Californication” 45. Radiohead—“Karma Police” 44. Wax—“California” 43. Til Tuesday—“Voices Carry” 42. Nirvana—“Heart Shaped Box” 41. Foo Fighters—“Everlong” 40. Aphex Twin—“Come To Daddy” 39. Jane’s Addiction—“Been Caught Stealing” 38. The Police—“Every Breath You Take” 37. Aerosmith—“Janie’s Got A Gun” 36. Jamiroquai—“Virtual Insanity” 35. Don Henley—“Boys Of Summer” 34. Foo Fighters—“Learn To Fly” 33. Madonna—“Frozen” 32. U2—“One” 31. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers—“Don’t Come Around Here No More” 30. Weezer—“Buddy Holly” 29. Busta Rhymes—“Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See Them” 28. Jay-Z—“99 Problems” 27. R.E.M.—“Drive” 26. The Art Of Noise—“Close (To The Edit)” 25. Eurythmics—“Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” 24. George Michael—“Freedom 90” 23. Chris Isaak—“Wicked Game” 22. Queen—“Bohemian Rhapsody” 21. Madonna—“Vogue”
Tomorrow, we enter the top 20, with 20-16. Here are the hints:
A furry little animal in front of a car, an act of treason, coming together, a tied-up weirdo, and a single woman.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 5, 2009 15:20:20 GMT -5
Here we go. The home stretch. The Top 20. So, without further adieu, here's number 20: 20. U.N.K.L.E. featuring Thom Yorke—“Rabbit In Your Headlight” Warning: this can be hard to watch www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqkawrslzJAAlbum: Psyence Fiction Label: Mo’Wax Director: Jonathan Glazer Much like The Cardigans' "My Favorite Game," U.N.K.L.E.'s "Rabbit In Your Headlight" perfectly captures the pre-millennium tension of the late 1990s. Similarly themed to “My Favorite Game” but in a much darker vein, "Rabbit In Your Headlight" by U.N.K.L.E. (James Lavelle and DJ Shadow featuring Thom Yorke) features a mumbling, incoherent man (Beau Travail's Denis Lavant) stumbling through a traffic tunnel while cars dodge and occasionally hit him. Seemingly empowered by the cruel motorists that repeatedly crash into him, the man fabulously and instantaneously allows his body to transform itself into a powerful machine that subsequently lashes back at his enemy. It is a sad, powerful, and strangely damning video. Like Philip K. Dick's invented religion of Mercerism, it's hard to escape the impression that the muttering man is suffering for our catharsis. And, the ending is utterly cryptic and undeniably powerful, stretching towards transcendence in a beautifully shot shower of broken glass and metal like some kind of weird apotheosis. It's almost impossible to say what it means, but it's equally hard to find someone who can watch it, really watch it, and remain unmoved.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 5, 2009 16:07:25 GMT -5
19. Beastie Boys—“Sabotage”
Album: Ill Communication Label: Capitol Records Director: Spike Jonze
I’m sure you people are wondering which artist appears on the list the most. Well, the answer is Madonna and Michael Jackson. They’re tied with 5. However, even though the artist is the one who is usually credited with the quality of a music video, the director deserves just as much credit. Sometimes they come up with the idea. Other times, the artist comes up with the idea, and the director has to put in onto film and be true to the artist’s vision. That’s why good directors get so much work. So, with that in mind, the most appearances by a director on this list is…well, it’s also another tie: Mark Romanek and Spike Jonze. I’ll get to Romanek in a little bit. So, for now, let’s focus on Spike Jonze. He’s a talented director who’s made some quirky videos (and later on, some quirky movies). His talent for restaging the pop-culture crap of his childhood found its best expression in this video, in which the Beastie Boys make like Starsky and Hutch. As an homage to (and parody of) 1970s crime drama television series like Hawaii Five-0, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., Baretta, and, of course, Starsky and Hutch, the video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1970s-style police show called Sabotage, with the band members appearing as the show characters. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters are also given. In case you’re wondering: MCA plays Sir Stewart Wallace guest-starring as himself and Nathan Wind as Cochese; Ad-Rock plays Vic Colfari as Bobby, "The Rookie"; Mike D plays Alasondro Alegré as "The Chief"; and DJ Hurricane plays Fred Kelly as Bunny. Their Method seriousness would give Owen Wilson pause. Their hairpieces would be the envy of Robert Blake. And, their “show”…well, it actually looks like it would be a fun show to watch. Jonze’s frantic editing (you didn’t find that on “Beretta”) mistakenly creates the impression that “Sabotage” has a monster groove. In actuality, it’s closer to the Average White Band than Bad Brains, and I doubt the Beasties would get offended by that. Yes, “Sabotage” can come off as superfluous and smug. But, to take a video that’s so much fun so seriously would a crime against the Beastie Boys. And, you don’t wanna break the law with Cochese around!!!!
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 5, 2009 16:23:57 GMT -5
18. Nine Inch Nails—“Closer”
Album: The Downward Spiral Label: Nothing Records Director: Mark Romanek
Now for Mark Romanek. He is famously known for the gorgeous sheen of videos like Madonna's "Rain" and Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way." However, Romanek took a turn toward the macabre with his 1994 clip for Nine Inch Nails' "Closer." Inspired by the photography of the cadaver-lovin' Joel-Peter Witkin, the video features illusory images of 19th century laboratory daguerreotypes. While there have been plenty of throwbacks to silent film, few have taken the care to bring film back to its origins, namely the grime of the stag film. Rather than creating the nostalgic and sanitized homage to silent film (a la Smashing Pumpkins' Lumiere-driven "Tonight, Tonight") "Closer" oozes out from the underbelly of film history. With a dirty, sepia-tinged film-grain setting the tone for Romanek's series of high-brow sadomasochist art allusions, "Closer" gives Trent Reznor the perfect platform to tell the world he wants to fuck like an animal. The video's controversial content (a nude woman with a crucifix mask, a monkey tied to a cross, a pig's head spinning on some type of machine, a diagram of a vulva, and Reznor wearing an S&M mask while swinging in shackles) led to clever editing, including silent film-style title cards which read "scene missing." Shot with vintage cameras and antiqued film stock, "Closer" brilliantly juxtaposes the dreamlike past with modern-day fears and phobias including, perhaps, censorship itself. I can't think of any better film to be placed in the Museum Of Modern Art's permanent collection (it’s one of two Romanek videos in the collection; Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories” is the other).
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 5, 2009 16:46:56 GMT -5
17. Korn—“Freak On A Leash” www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY_yjPvHQwYAlbum: Follow The Leader Label: Immortal Records/Epic Records Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris (live action), Todd McFarlane (animated) In 1999, something weird happened. Two music videos by nu metal band Korn, “Got The Life” and “Freak On A Leash,” became mainstays on MTV’s TRL, which was usually territory for ‘NSYNC, Britney Spears, and The Backstreet Boys. Hell, the videos were played on the show so much that they got retired. In fact, “Got The Life” holds the distinction of being the show’s first ever retired video. However, it’s “Freak On The Leash” that created the most buzz. The music video was created mostly in animation by Todd McFarlane (Follow the Leader's artwork is taken from these scenes), and mixed with live shots of the band performing, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and CGI shots created by VFX shop Hydraulx. The video features a group of children trespassing to a cliff to play hopscotch; the band members appear as children in the video during a quick shot. A security guard notices this and accidentally trips on his way to the cliff, dropping his gun, which causes it to accidentally fire. The bullet flies toward a little girl and then exits through the wall; it turns out the animated part of the video is in a poster. In the live action part of the video, inspired by an anti-gun PSA, the bullet goes flying around, unstoppably ignoring friction and other forces that should slow it down, destroying everything it tears through, from coffee pots to water coolers to whipped cream cans, yet does not hit or kill anyone. Then, it enters a Korn poster, flies around the band, and goes back the way it came until it reenters the original poster. The video ends with a little girl catching and returning the bullet to the guard, who is shocked. It’s not surprising to see why this video was so popular. It wasn’t like any other video out at the time. You think the Backstreet Boys would make a video as hardcore and suspenseful as this one!? No fucking way! And, yes, it is suspenseful. That damn bullet comes close to hitting several people, and as it keeps going, you keep wondering if it ever will. It doesn’t, which is a little disappointing; but it doesn’t change the fact that an intense and original video became so popular in a teen idol era. And, those teen idols aren't around or as popular as they once were. Sure, Korn isn’t as popular as well, but “Freak On A Leash” will still be remembered.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 5, 2009 17:22:48 GMT -5
16. Björk—“Bachelorette”
Album: Homogenic Label: One Little Indian Director: Michel Gondry
Collaborations are common part of the entertainment business. When you find someone you click with on a creative level, then you find it hard not to work with that person. It’s why Johnny Depp seemingly stars in every single Tim Burton movie. It’s why Martin Scorsese casts Robert De Niro in a lot of his movies. It’s why Brian Eno has frequently collaborated with Harold Budd, John Cale, Cluster, Robert Fripp, David Byrne, and U2. And, it’s why Michel Gondry has directed seven of Björk’s music videos. The concept for “Bachelorette” was based on an original idea by Björk, who saw the video as a continuation of the character portrayed in "Isobel" and "Human Behaviour." As Gondry describes it, "this character is leaving the forest and she decides to go to the city to have a normal life. She tries her best and it doesn't work out and she comes back to the forest and she is happier there." Destiny plucks Björk from the obscurity of her forest home when she finds a book that begins to write itself, describing basically what the Icelandic singer is doing. She goes to the city and gets the book published. It becomes a huge success, leading to her dating her publishing and getting a stage show made based on her story. However, her success story is exploited and re-exploited to where reality is no longer discernible from its aesthetic representation. With each staged adaptation of Björk's bestselling book, My Story, we move further and further away from the truth of the forest nymph's origins, so much so that it becomes someone else's story. These reproductions turn on themselves, falling into an existential vortex that ushers in Björk's return to nature. Björk cries, "I'm a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl!" Destiny rewrites itself and words disintegrate, as does the flesh. And, once the video ends, us viewers at home are left wondering, “What the hell did we just watch?” However, it isn’t too weird. It’s like a previous video on the list, Talking Heads’ “Burning Down The House”: it’s surreal but doesn’t go overboard with the surreal. In fact, you sort of get caught up in the story and start feeling sorry for Björk as she keeps getting further trapped in the stage show. And, in the end, we not only have a nice little video, but also a perfect example of a good collaboration.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 5, 2009 17:25:06 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 11-15. Here are the hints:
What a pimp does to a ho, a spaceship, precipitation, becoming an atheist, and a song that was inadvertantly about deodorant.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 6, 2009 17:11:00 GMT -5
Countdown time. No witty intro today. Unless, you count that as witty. Or this. And this. And...oh, screw it. Let's get on with it. Here's number 15: 15. Prodigy—“Smack My Bitch Up” Yeah, I broke the link up because…well, if you’ve seen the video, then you know why. www.dailymotion.com/ video/x25uxm_prodigy-smack-my-bitch-up_music Album: The Fat Of The Land Label: XL Recordings, Maverick Records Director: Jonas Åkerlund Ah, the twist ending. If done right, it can make an entire movie good. A classic example: M. Night Shyamalan’s “The 6th Sense.” If done wrong, it just leaves a bad taste in the audience’s mouth. From what I’ve heard, the new movie “Orphan” falls into this category. However, twist endings aren’t just for movies. Look at Prodigy's controversial 1997 video “Smack My Bitch Up.” It follows its protagonist, or antagonist judging by your sensibilities, on a path of destruction as the character boozes, snorts, shoves, molests, vomits, and fucks all the way through the night. At the end, it is revealed that all that rude, crude, and unexpected behavior comes from some buxom beauty. Yes, it was a woman all along. The clip challenges stereotypes and audience expectation with a twist ending worthy of Shyamalan. I mean, just look at the video. Everything that happens is so misogynistic that it’s hard to believe a woman could these things. Hell, the video drew fierce criticism for misogyny despite its ending, particularly from feminist group such as The National Organization for Women, accusing it of encouraging violence against women. Others however, praised the video because of the way it subverted politically correct stereotypes of domestic violence. Despite that praise, it’s still one of the most universally banned videos in television history. And, yes, the twist does come off as gimmicky, but "Smack My Bitch Up" offers enough social substance to excuse its gimmick.
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