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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jul 30, 2009 19:27:21 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 45-41, and a recap of all the previous videos. Here are the hints:
Buddhist law enforcement, the golden state, echoes, a container shaped like a vital organ, and neverending.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jul 31, 2009 15:47:03 GMT -5
Countdown time, as if you didn't know. Though, you probably didn't know since I do this at random intervals...like I said yesterday. I have bad memory. Anyway, here's number 45: 45. Radiohead—“Karma Police” www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBH97ma9YiIAlbum: OK Computer Label: Parlophone Director: Jonathan Glazer I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but a lot of the directors of the videos on this list are also film directors. Spike Jonze, David Fincher, and Russell Mulcahy are some of the directors who’ve made the successful transition from music videos to feature films. Jonathan Glazer is another one of those directors who made the transition; he was also directing commercials for Levi's, Volkswagen, and Nike before moving on to music videos, producing some of the more cinematic videos to hit the MTV airwaves. Though his clip for Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" won the 1997 Video Music Award for Video of the Year, it is his work for Radiohead and U.N.K.L.E. that remains his most daring. Glazer claims that his video for Radiohead's "Karma Police" was inspired by a bad dream. In this creepy revenge clip, Glazer shoves us into the driver’s seat for, forcing the viewer to be the merciless antagonist who hunts down a desperate, fleeing man, the metaphoric rabbit in literal headlights, running down a desolate road. Thom Yorke rides along as a willing accomplice, content to lazily mouth the chorus. When the man turns to face his potential killer, the car pulls back only to reveal a gas leakage in its wake. The hunted has turned the tables and seeks revenge on his tormentor, i.e. the viewer, and the ever-wily Yorke manages to escape, leaving us to burn in the flame-engulfed vehicle. The video is gorgeous to look at, too; the car’s luxurious red leather insulates us from the bleak country road outside, and the single shot that lasts for more than half the song drags us into the power struggle and subsequent revenge of the track’s latter half. However, it is Glazer's remarkable use of point of view that implicates the spectator in the clip's action and the spooky way with which he fashions a Möbius strip from karmic irony that makes "Karma Police" one of the more memorable clips of the last few years. It’s a typically warped Radiohead device, gleefully encouraging us to revel in the immorality, savoring the chase even as we recoil at the horror of it.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jul 31, 2009 15:58:41 GMT -5
44. Wax—“California”
Warning: it’s a little graphic.
Album: 13 Unlucky Numbers Label: Interscope Records Director: Spike Jonze
In one mesmerizing long take, Spike Jonze follows a man on fire running through a city street in California. Ignored by pedestrians and motorists alike, the man turns a corner as a bus pulls away from its designated stop. Jonze's use of slow-mo works like a terrifying drawl, so much so that it was banned from daytime play on MTV. Nevertheless, it emphasizes a culture's complete and utter self-involvement, not to mention its shoddy public transit. For anyone new to the Golden State or anyone without a car, the message is clear: keep out! It precedes and compliments the Dayton & Faris clip for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication." Only it’s focuses more on California’s negative parts and doesn’t really mention any of the positives. Can’t really blame Jonze though.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jul 31, 2009 16:22:08 GMT -5
43. Til Tuesday—“Voices Carry” www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz4pTMN3abwAlbum: Voices Carry Label: Epic Records Director: D.J. Webster Wall Street scumbag and East Village chick clash in D.J. Webster's legendary 80s clip for 'Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry." The band's lead singer, a pre-Magnolia Aimee Mann in all her spiked platinum blonde hair with braided rat-tailed glory, appears as a musician dating a violent Reaganite who demands that she change her outré look for his benefit. A stinging indictment of 80s greed culture, "Voices Carry" ends on a literal and figurative high note. At the opera, Mann defies cultured society and shakes off the shackles of her Barbie Doll enslavement with one liberating howl. This anti-yuppie antitheist to “American Psycho” also uses spoken dialogue to interrupt the video's musical groove when Mann's boyfriend demands, "Do something for me!" It’s a pretty progressive clip for its time, coming out at the height of the backlash to feminism. However, the video doesn’t show all the progress; the song was originally written a woman speaking to another woman, but the lyrics were changed due to pressure from the record label. Still, it’s a good video. And, I think it’s about time for a remake going back to the original woman vs woman lyrics. And, I say that from a purely progressive standpoint. It has nothing to do with my libido. Okay, maybe a little.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jul 31, 2009 16:39:06 GMT -5
42. Nirvana—“Heart Shaped Box” www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK7Ai9dWrRQAlbum: In Utero Label: DGC Director: Anton Corbijn The final video of Nirvana’s active career and certainly the most affecting, "Heart-Shaped Box" is as ripe with allusions as it is oversaturated with color (the video was shot in black and white and then computer-colorized). Directed by Anton Corbijn, the clip features surrealistic images that brazenly mix the tragic (crucifixes, dead fetuses, and an emaciated Jesus with a Victorian beard and Santa hat climbing onto a cross), comic (Cobain’s pratfall and the mimicking crows), and plainly bizarre (the KKK girl and the fat lady in the In Utero suit). There’s plenty here for art snobs and shrinks alike to chew on, thanks to director Anton Corbijn’s beautifully surrealistic vision, which added heaps of religious imagery to a song already highly charged by sex and gender. While the song makes vague references to cancer, umbilical cords, and meat-eating orchids, the video entangles faith and sickness with the clarity of a man who's damn close to giving up his eternal search. Say what you will about Nirvana’s legend being overvalued by death-obsessed boomer hacks, but how many popular rock bands today would bother to acknowledge high art and the avant-garde even exist? Answer: not many, if any.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jul 31, 2009 17:00:38 GMT -5
41. Foo Fighters—“Everlong” www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H0BMfqFP9cAlbum: The Colour And The Shape Label: Roswell Records/Capitol Records Director: Michel Gondry Hey! We go from Dave Grohl drumming to Dave Grohl singing and playing the guitar. As we all know, Grohl was the drummer for Nirvana and then went on to form Foo Fighters sometime after Kurt Cobain’s suicide. And, it’s fitting that we go from Nirvana’s last video to the video where Grohl burst from Cobain’s shadow and Foo Fighters stopped being a Nirvana spin-off and started being A-listers in their own right. Inside their happy suburban home, a husband (singer/guitarist Dave Grohl) and wife (drummer Taylor Hawkins in drag) communicate via dreams. Grohl is Sid Vicious at a lame costume party with guitarist Pat Smear and bassist Nate Mendel as bouncers hot on his tail. The thugs access the couple's shared consciousness, kidnapping the wife and hiding her inside a remote cabin in the woods in a scene reminiscent to “Evil Dead.” Water imagery and opening doorways heighten Grohl's penetration anxiety. A ringing phone figures prominently in and out of sleep and serves to clue Grohl in to the power of dreams over reality. Or is it the other way around? René Magritte meets David Lynch with a dash of Sam Raimi in this surprisingly intimate paean to lucid dreaming. However, what’s most surprising about “Everlong” is just how much of the video came from Michel Gondry just trying to get the Foo Fighters to stop bitching. Many of the video’s highlights were the results of the Foo Fighters’ expressed desire not to seem sexist or philanderous. But that’s why if you want a problem turned into a solution, Michel Gondry is your man, and he uses the images in the video to craft the persona the Foo Fighters are known by today, which, ironically enough, is that of a playful and extremely easygoing group of fun guys. And, in the end, we get a clip that’s just as much fun as it is surreal.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jul 31, 2009 17:04:01 GMT -5
Okay, here are videos 100 to 41:
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”
Tomorrow, numbers 40-36. Here are the hints:
A father's invitation, a shoplifter in trouble, oxygen going into your lungs, an abused girl with a concealed weapon, and CGI madness.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 1, 2009 14:09:15 GMT -5
Countdown time, people. So, let's do it. I mean, the countdown. Not sex. Here's number 40:
40. Aphex Twin—“Come To Daddy”
Warning: It’s scary as f***!
Album: Come To Daddy Label: Warp Records, Sire/WEA Records Director: Chris Cunningham
Who knew that the world’s collective nightmares involved Richard D. James’ face grafted on to hoards of crazed schoolchildren? The video for “Come To Daddy” opens with an old woman walking a dog in a grimy, industrial setting. The dog urinates on an abandoned television lying on the sidewalk, causing it to sputter unexpectedly into life. This unleashes an evil spirit from the set, accompanied by a gang of small children, all of whom bear the face of Richard D. James, who appear to be the inhabitants of the abandoned buildings. The children go around wreaking havoc, trashing an alley, chasing a man into his car, and fighting with each other. At one point, the monster (played by Al Stokes) is birthed out of the television and screams in the old woman's face. After this, he gathers the children around him in a manner reminiscent of a scene in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” For nearly 6 minutes, the viewer is “treated” (some treat) to images that are scarier than most of the horror movies that come out these days. Just imagine waking up at 3 a.m. after falling asleep on the couch and being confronted by a run-down tenement echoing with the digital shrieks of a fiend emerging from a television set. Terrifying, huh? If Aphex Twin wanted your soul, Chris Cunningham’s video was surely the means of taking it.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 1, 2009 14:28:24 GMT -5
39. Jane’s Addiction—“Been Caught Stealing” www.dailymotion.com/video/x11tjh_janes-addiction-been-caught-stealin_musicAlbum: Ritual De Lo Habitual Label: Warner Bros. Records Director: Casey Niccoli There is a common trait among music videos: a majority of them contain good looking people. Now, I know this isn’t the case with most of the videos on my list. Hell, just look at the last one. But, you gotta remember that music videos are part of the marketing for a band or artist’s album and song. Most executives in the music industry see videos as ads. Let’s face it: sex sells, and good looking people are great spokespeople. That was the case in 1991 (it’s still the case today), but director Casey Niccoli had something different in mind for the video for Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing.” "I personally don't get off on seeing beautiful people in videos. It bores me," said Niccoli about casting the extras that appeared in her now legendary clip for "Been Caught Stealing." The beautiful Niccoli, then-girlfriend of Perry Farrell, was looking for the bizarre and that's exactly what she got. The video extols the strange goings-on at a 50's-style supermarket in Venice, California; but it also strangely feels real, mostly due to use of average looking people. The video's unadulterated fun, celebration of free-floating libidos and general air of mischief makes it a delirious precursor to the then-burgeoning alt-rock movement. Though, videos today don’t celebrate that fun and homeliness of “Been Caught Stealing.” But, that doesn’t matter. Those are just ads. This has some substance to it.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 1, 2009 14:48:06 GMT -5
38. The Police—“Every Breath You Take” www.youtube.com/watch?v=doFKkuzoawMAlbum: Synchronicity Label: A&M Records Directors: Godley & Crème I know I’ve ragged on performance videos as I’ve been writing this list. The thing is, sometimes a band just playing their instruments can be boring; but it doesn’t have to be. It depends on whether or not they’re a good band and how they’re shot. A good example of this would be a previous video on the list, Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” Or well, this one. The Police and some violinists play in a dark, ominous room that appears to not have any walls. The only light comes from a giant window that is also being cleaned. That’s all that happens, but it’s shot in such a beautiful way that the whole clip is just mesmerizing, thanks in large part to the directors Godley & Crème. Their editing tricks and black and white cinematography create a video that you can’t take your eyes off of and leaves the viewers wondering just where is this place and how did The Police get there. The amazing thing about the video is how it has an ominous and dark feel to it that matches the tone of the song, yet at the same time, it’s so beautiful that it actually caused viewers to miss the song’s meaning. The song was written during the collapse of Sting's marriage to Frances Tomelty, and the lyrics are the words of a sinister, controlling character, who is watching "every breath you take / every move you make." Sting has said about the song, “I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realize at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.” However, the video looks so good and melancholy that one can’t help but to see Sting as a man singing to his loved one. Not even Sting’s angry look in the video could make people see it’s dark meaning. Nevertheless, the video just shows that simple performance videos can be classics. All you need is a great band, like The Police, and some great directors, like Godley & Crème.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 1, 2009 15:13:23 GMT -5
37. Aerosmith—“Janie’s Got A Gun” www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVKdLQnfSJsAlbum: Pump Label: Geffen Records Director: David Fincher There are some filmmakers who can seemingly do no wrong. Guys like Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfred Hitchcock etc. Directors who’ve had a few misses but the bulk of their work is top notch. Their filmography is just basically a list of some of the best movies ever made. Today, there is one director working who is poised to be like these guys: David Fincher. Sure, his first film, “Alien 3,” was bad; but look at the films he made afterwards: “Se7en,” “The Game,” “Fight Club,” “Panic Room,” “Zodiac,” and “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.” All great films. If Fincher can consistently keep up the good work he’ll be among that high pedigree of directors I mention earlier. But, what does all this have to do with this Aerosmith video. Well, before he was a film director, Fincher made music videos; and this was one of his. And, much like “Fight Club” and “Se7en,” it shows how good of a director he is. The pitch for “Janie’s Got A Gun” must have read something like a Lifetime movie of the week: father rapes daughter, mother finds out, daughter shoots father in the head. However, in Fincher's hands, though, the noirish clip for "Janie's Got A Gun" became a groundbreaking video at the time, featuring gruesome, realistic scenes that would be utilized in subsequent videos of the 1990s. The video is a gorgeous amalgam of bopping police lights and dramatic overheads, inviting comparisons to “Se7en,” and made even more explicit the abovementioned references to incest than the song does (early in the video, the actor playing the father is shown exiting his daughter's room, and cuts to a shot of the girl crying). A moving corpse and a series of out-of-focus close-ups suggest Janie's got more than a gun; camp goddess Leslie Anne Warren keeps things together as shocked mother hen and possible accomplice. Extra points for Steve Tyler keeping his clothes on. But, it’s Fincher’s capable hands that makes the video spectacular.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 1, 2009 15:32:23 GMT -5
36. Jamiroquai—“Virtual Insanity”
Album: Traveling Without Moving Label: Sony Soho Square Director: Jonathan Glazer
There are basically three types of videos: ones with plot and story, like a short film; ones without plot but still have a deep meaning to it; and ones without any. Now, the short films can be entertaining. And, the ones with meaning and symbolism can be works of art. But, it’s usually the ones without a story or meaning that are the most fun and pleasing to look at. Sometimes you’ve just got to decide, “The video for this song is just going to make me look cool, OK? We’ll throw in some weird cockroaches and bleeding couches to create the illusion of meaning, but mostly the point is to jack my awesome-meter up through the roof.” Mission accomplished, Jay Kay. With a simple parlor trick, Jonathan Glazer improved Jay Kay’s already funky-smooth dance moves tenfold while sparking countless adolescent arguments over exactly how it was done. In case you’re wondering (and I know that you are), the floor isn’t moving but rather the wall is with the camera, the couches were bolted to the wall and released at certain parts, and the only digital manipulations were the crow and the cockroaches. And, if you didn’t care to know, then sorry; but that’s cool too. This video just shows that a cool special effect and one charismatic lead singer is enough to create a video just as entertaining as “Thriller” or “Losing My Religion.” And, it definitely tops my list of “Man, I’d Love to Try That Sometime!” music videos.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 1, 2009 15:34:24 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 35-31. Here are the hints:
Hot weather guys, pilots in training, cold as ice, this video shares the same name as a previous one, and what a restraining order says.
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Post by Shovelman on Aug 1, 2009 15:52:36 GMT -5
The Game was a s***ty movie.
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Post by The Raven on Aug 1, 2009 16:08:03 GMT -5
The Game was a crapty movie. You're a s***ty movie.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 2, 2009 15:21:07 GMT -5
Time to make the donuts. No wait, it's countdown time. You'll have to go get your own donuts. Anyway, here's number 35:
35. Don Henley—“The Boys Of Summer”
Album: Building The Perfect Beast Label: Geffen Records Director: Jean-Baptiste Mondino
You wouldn’t think that one of The Eagles would make a French New Wave-influenced music video, but it did happen. Don Henley hired Jean-Baptiste Mondino to director the video for his melancholy nostalgia song “The Boys Of Summer,” and he obviously chose the cinema of his homeland for inspiration. Shot in black-and-white, it shows the main character of the song at three different stages of life: as a young boy, a young adult, and a middle-aged yuppie, in each case reminiscing about the past relationship. This is shown during the line "A little voice inside my head said don't look back, you can never look back" at which point, each of the three people look back in turn. The young boy in the video (played by a seven year old Josh Paul) resembles Henley to the extent that he also is a left-handed drummer. The cutaways of the "boys" jumping in the air appear to have been influenced by the 1938 film “Olympia.” Interspersed with these scenes are segments of Henley miming the words of the song while driving in a convertible. There are also shots of a teenage girl in her room and a woman sitting by the pool. And, pretty much every scene has a young couple running around on a beach, which is obviously the memory the main character is reminiscing about. At its conclusion, the video uses the post-modern conceit of exposing its own workings, as with a wry expression Henley drives the car away from a rear projection screen. In the end, Mondino has created a hauntingly beautiful video that fully encapsulates the theme of Henley’s song: people growing old and feeling nostalgic for a time in their lives that seemed innocent.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 2, 2009 15:39:54 GMT -5
34. Foo Fighters—“Learn To Fly” www.youtube.com/watch?v=BieVgyrfglQAlbum: There Is Nothing Left To Lose Label: Roswell/RCA Records Director: Jesse Peretz Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl makes for an unlikely master of disguise in this clip for the band's hit "Learn To Fly." Tenacious D smuggles what looks like heroin (in an Entertainment Weekly interview, Grohl called it "erotic world-domination sleeping powder or something") onto a domestic flight via the airplane's kitchen coffeepot (while a Muzac version of “Everlong” is playing”). Each member of the band takes on multiple roles. Grohl appears as himself, the pilot, a flamboyant flight attendant, a teenage girl who is a big fan of the band (Alanis Morissette anyone?), one of the overweight ladies, and an FBI agent. Taylor Hawkins plays himself, a female flight attendant, one of the co-pilots of the plane, and one of the overweight ladies. And, Nate Mendal portrays himself, one of the co-pilots of the plane, a nerd-like man sitting between the two obese women portrayed by Grohl and Hawkins, a flight attendant who accidentally mixes the drugs with the coffee, and a baby. When the drugs kick in, so do the libidos. Like the good boys that they are, the Foo Fighters skip the caffeine and their sobriety (well, near sobriety; they chose alcohol instead of coffee) positions them as the clip's unlikely heroes. All in all, this is just one funny music video. Dave Grohl is let loose, and we see a side of him that we never would have thought we would see from the drummer of Nirvana. Though, it’s also quite disturbing, what with Grohl's facial ticks, him as a pilot flirting with himself as a flight attendant, and Taylor Hawkins's sexy stewardess (What!?). Nevertheless, this ode to self-love is easily the funniest music video ever made. Well, outside of anything Weird Al has done. Seriously, I can’t be the only one who thinks Taylor Hawkins makes one hot woman!
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 2, 2009 15:55:14 GMT -5
33. Madonna—“Frozen”
Album: Ray Of Light Label: Maverick, Warner Bros. Records Director: Chris Cunningham
She definitely doesn’t look like the Material Girl in this video. As a witch lost in an unidentified desert landscape, Madonna turns into a scary-as-s*** Doberman and a flock of crows in a matter of minutes. She also gets to float in the air, dance with herself in triplicate, and summon a cosmic storm with the twirl of her Henna-covered hand. On the surface, it just looks like time capsule for one of Madonna’s many phases (this one is her “Yoga/Eastern Philosophy” period), but there is a little more to it. For one, it just looks cool. And, it’s dark tone makes the viewer feel, well, frozen. The overriding theme of “Frozen” is isolation, but, as directed by Chris Cunningham (you may remember him as the director of Aphex Twin's creepy "Come To Daddy"), the effect is not unlike stepping into the ravishing, apocalyptic hellfire of Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" and "The Ground Beneath Her Feet."
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 2, 2009 16:30:12 GMT -5
32. U2—“One” www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnXQS6oetQkAlbum: Achtung Baby Label: Island Records Director: Anton Corbijn There are actually three versions of this video. The one most people know, directed by Philip Joanou, who also director the band’s movie “Rattle And Hum,” shows concert footage of the band intercut with Bono in a bar smoking a cheroot and drinking. Another one, directed by Mark Pellington, shows buffaloes running in slow motion and shots of flowers interspersed with numerous black title cards featuring the word "one" in white lettering, depicted in numerous languages. But, the best version is this one. Directed by Anton Corbijn, it depicts the band playing in Berlin, driving around in Trabant cars, and dressed in drag. There are also shots of an old man, Bono’s father. So, what makes this best version? Well, like how their other video on this list, “Where The Streets Have No Name,” fully captured the band at the height of their 1980s popularity, this one fully captures the band trying to transition from that period. When asked what the sound of their new record, which would be Achtung Baby, would be, the band famously said, “It’s the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree.” However, it took them a long while to come up with that sound. It got so bad that U2 was afraid that it might be the end of the band; they felt creatively spent. However, one improvised session produced “One,” which saved the band. Ironically, the song is about splitting up; it speaks about how everyone has to share this planet, but no one is the same. Basically, it says that we got to be one planet because we got no choice. And, you can see that in the video. All the band members look like they would be somewhere else. But, they are there because they have no choice. The video also shows the frustration of the band trying to come up with a sound different from what made them popular. In the end, the video is just a beautiful clip that has led to some misinterpretations about the song: the most popular misinterpretation is that the song is about everyone coming together in peace, love, and harmony; while some say that the song is about a gay man confessing to his father that he has HIV because the video shows Bono’s father and the band in drag. Nevertheless, the video fully captures U2 as they were shedding their Joshua Tree sound. Hell, the only way it could have done a better job is if it actually showed U2 chopping down a Joshua tree.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Aug 2, 2009 16:48:22 GMT -5
31. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers—“Don’t Come Around Here No More” www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5H0wUo37RYAlbum: Southern Accents Label: MCA Director: Jeff Stein Only in a Tom Petty video can Alice trip her way through Wonderland. Seriously, this video looks like Alice In Wonderland on LSD. Or…well…just Alice In Wonderland. No matter which way you cut it, that is one trippy tale. Anyway, in the video, a naïve Alice downs some psychedelic shrooms courtesy of a hookah-smoking caterpillar, played by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics (who also co-wrote the song; it was based on a night he spent with Stevie Nicks after she broke up with Joe Walsh). As the crazed Mad Hatter, Petty f***s with her high, with oversized sunglasses, a baby that turns into a pig, chicks in weird outfits and hairdos playing cellos with flamingos, and the rest of the Heartbreakers stealing her food and eating coffee cups. The clip itself hasn't aged too well, but its stunning art direction was remarkably ahead of its time. Here, it's a virtual threat to Alice's confused sense of perspective. When the munchies kick in, Alice herself is downright edible.
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