Now this is what I'm talking about!
Not only is this an absolute CLASSIC song, it has a hilarious video to boot! I mean, its so awesome I can't decide wether I find the video better than the song itself! Yes, it's THAT good!
The brains behind it is music video genius Spike Jonze. The Jewish-American director was also responsible for other memorable greats such as the videos to Fatboy Slims "Weapon of choice" and "Praise you", Weezers "Buddy Holly" and "Undone" and "100%" by Sonic youth. So its no surprise this video ranks among the top clips to ever be shot. Even Sofia Coppola must've been impressed, she married the guy for crying out loud!
Focusing on the video - it is a near perfect replica (actually a near perfect parody) of a lot of old school cop shows. Think "Starsky and Hutch" and "The Streets of San Francisco", tough cops, shortsleeved shirts with whacky ties, lots of car and on foot chases, pistol whipping, questionable interrogation tactics and, of course, aviator sunglasses!
And as no amount of hype will come even close to representing the overall awesomeness which "Sabotage" encompases, lets just move on to the video!
If I have to be frank, I personally rank this song and video as Number 1 in the countdown and am only posting it as number 7 as this is the order in which the actual MTV countdown was listed. So "boo" MTV!
Friday, March 12, 2010
MTV Video countdown - Number 8 - Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love
If someone told me they were making a music video featuring 5 high fashion models rocking out to a song sung by Robert Palmer and I hadn't previously watched this video, I would've had just 1 word to say...AWESOME!
However, as it usually turns out in life, it sounds better than it looks.
The music video for Addicted to Love does indeed feature 5 model chicks playing as the rock legends' backing band, playing the drums, synthesizer, bass and lead and rhythm guitars. However, here's the kick...They're all in very heavy pale makeup and contrasting dark clothes, sport expressionless faces and do a VERY sloppy job of even PRETENDING to play! :)
Oh well...At least the song's great!
Here's some info from wiki -
"Addicted to Love" is a song by Robert Palmer first released in 1986. The song has now become known as his signature song, thanks in part to a highly popular video featuring high fashion models. Other artists have released versions since.
This is the third song on the Riptide album. The most commonly heard version runs around four minutes, but the full album version runs a little over six minutes.
The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as spending two weeks atop the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart, and it peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Originally intended to be a duet with Chaka Khan, her record company at the time wouldn't grant her a release to work on Palmer's label, Island Records. Chaka Khan is still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album liner notes.
The guitar part on the song is played by Eddie Martinez, then a member of Palmer's band, and keyboards by Wally Badarou. The song is also notable for the unaccompanied drum opening, which plays at 7/4. The rest of the song is in common 4/4 time.
However, as it usually turns out in life, it sounds better than it looks.
The music video for Addicted to Love does indeed feature 5 model chicks playing as the rock legends' backing band, playing the drums, synthesizer, bass and lead and rhythm guitars. However, here's the kick...They're all in very heavy pale makeup and contrasting dark clothes, sport expressionless faces and do a VERY sloppy job of even PRETENDING to play! :)
Oh well...At least the song's great!
Here's some info from wiki -
"Addicted to Love" is a song by Robert Palmer first released in 1986. The song has now become known as his signature song, thanks in part to a highly popular video featuring high fashion models. Other artists have released versions since.
This is the third song on the Riptide album. The most commonly heard version runs around four minutes, but the full album version runs a little over six minutes.
The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as spending two weeks atop the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart, and it peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Originally intended to be a duet with Chaka Khan, her record company at the time wouldn't grant her a release to work on Palmer's label, Island Records. Chaka Khan is still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album liner notes.
The guitar part on the song is played by Eddie Martinez, then a member of Palmer's band, and keyboards by Wally Badarou. The song is also notable for the unaccompanied drum opening, which plays at 7/4. The rest of the song is in common 4/4 time.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
MTV Video countdown - Number 9 - 2Pac - California Love
THE definitive West Coast artist, Tupac Amaru Shakur, commonly known by his stage-name of 2Pac, is up next with maybe his best known (or at least most commercially successful) 1995 megahit "California Love".
The song features Mr. NWA - Dr. Dre and funk legend Roger Troutman (of Zapp fame).
"California Love" was Shakur's only entry on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, ranked #346 and #51 on VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest songs of the 90s.
Lets listen in, shall we?
Here's some info from wiki in the meantime -
Two versions of music video exist. The first video (directed by Hype Williams) was inspired by the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and takes place in a desert in the year 2095. The casting includes singer George Clinton as the evil tribal chief, actor Chris Tucker[2] (then-known only for his role in the film Friday) playing the evil tribal chief's yes-man, Tony Cox as the dwarf soldier and Roger Troutman (formerly with the band Zapp) carrying a talk box. The shooting took place in the Thunderdome set[2] known from the movie. It ends with a cliffhanger cut by a To Be Continued closing. An alternative version, featuring the remix song re-cut, removes the final caption and features 2Pac and Dre naming West Coast towns.
The first video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video in 1996. It achieved #9 of the top 10 on MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made list in 1999. In April, 2005 it reached the Bronze medal spot on MTV2 and XXL's 25 Greatest West Coast Videos. It also achieved #1 on the French MTV's 100 Greatest Rap Music Videos in 2006 (featured from 23 till 30 of July).
The song features Mr. NWA - Dr. Dre and funk legend Roger Troutman (of Zapp fame).
"California Love" was Shakur's only entry on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, ranked #346 and #51 on VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest songs of the 90s.
Lets listen in, shall we?
Here's some info from wiki in the meantime -
Two versions of music video exist. The first video (directed by Hype Williams) was inspired by the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and takes place in a desert in the year 2095. The casting includes singer George Clinton as the evil tribal chief, actor Chris Tucker[2] (then-known only for his role in the film Friday) playing the evil tribal chief's yes-man, Tony Cox as the dwarf soldier and Roger Troutman (formerly with the band Zapp) carrying a talk box. The shooting took place in the Thunderdome set[2] known from the movie. It ends with a cliffhanger cut by a To Be Continued closing. An alternative version, featuring the remix song re-cut, removes the final caption and features 2Pac and Dre naming West Coast towns.
The first video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video in 1996. It achieved #9 of the top 10 on MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made list in 1999. In April, 2005 it reached the Bronze medal spot on MTV2 and XXL's 25 Greatest West Coast Videos. It also achieved #1 on the French MTV's 100 Greatest Rap Music Videos in 2006 (featured from 23 till 30 of July).
MTV Video countdown - Number 10 - Madonna - Express Yourself
I will probably make a whole separate post dedicated solely to the Queen of Pop so for the time being lets have a look at her 6th number 1 hit "- Express yourself". And, as this is music video week, lets check out what the most expensive video (at that time) looks like -
Well...I think 5 million dollars could've been put to better use, but then again, this IS directed by DAVID FINCH! Yes, the same David Finch who directed "Se7en", "Fight Club", "Alien 3" and a personal favorite - "The Game". I'm guessing half of the 5 mil was his commission :)
And yes, $5 million is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a 4 minute video, and, yes, it was the most expensive video at the time, until it got trumped by Madonna herself in 2002 with the video for "Die another day". There is another video which tops the list, but lets keep it a secret for now, as it will make an appearance on the list later on ;)
Well...I think 5 million dollars could've been put to better use, but then again, this IS directed by DAVID FINCH! Yes, the same David Finch who directed "Se7en", "Fight Club", "Alien 3" and a personal favorite - "The Game". I'm guessing half of the 5 mil was his commission :)
And yes, $5 million is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a 4 minute video, and, yes, it was the most expensive video at the time, until it got trumped by Madonna herself in 2002 with the video for "Die another day". There is another video which tops the list, but lets keep it a secret for now, as it will make an appearance on the list later on ;)
Top 10 MTV Music videos countdown
Well, since we managed to steer the blog into the commercial direction already, lets at least make good use of it.
I'm gonna try something new here - a weekly countdown, posting 10 videos in the next week, 2 videos today, 2 tomorrow and ending next Thursday with the number 1 video from the countdown...
And thus began "MTV Music Video week"...
I'm gonna try something new here - a weekly countdown, posting 10 videos in the next week, 2 videos today, 2 tomorrow and ending next Thursday with the number 1 video from the countdown...
And thus began "MTV Music Video week"...
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Speaking of animated music videos...
...how about this fantastic effort by Seattle's' alt rock / grunge band Pearl Jam collaborating with Kevin Altieri (of Batman: The Animated Series fame) and Todd McFarlane (better known for his work with the popular comic book Spawn)!
The video was produced by Joe Pearson and was written and developed by him and Altieri with input from McFarlane and Vedder over the course of 4 months.
The video premiered on August 24, 1998 on MTV's 120 Minutes and received a 1999 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form.
Collage of scenes from the "Do the Evolution" video featuring an archetypal representation of death as a seductive female among other scenes of post-apocalyptic industrialization.
Throughout the video, a black haired woman (similar in appearance to the character Death from the DC comic book series, The Sandman) dances and laughs, representing "Death" as it follows mankind through all of its history. The video is misanthropic in its underlying message. The video begins with the evolution of life, from the smallest cell to the extinction of dinosaurs and reign of homo sapiens. The video then cuts back and forth throughout human history, depicting man's primitive, violent nature as essentially unchanged over the centuries. Such depictions include a knight preparing for the coming slaughter during the Crusades, a ritual dance by America's KKK (the dance is repeated with other groups throughout the video), a rally by Nazi-esque troops (with a symbol reminiscent of the Sig Rune instead of a swastika), Auschwitz-like prisoners with the stripes going vertically instead of horizontally on their uniforms, carnage upon a World War I-era battlefield (apparently a tribute to Peace on Earth, a 1930s MGM anti-war cartoon directed by Hugh Harman), the apparent rape of a woman, and the bombing of a Vietnamese village by an American jet, the pilot of which removes his mask to reveal a skull laughing wildly. Every scene portrayed complements the song's meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. When Vedder sings "Buying stocks on the day of the crash," a scene is shown where businessmen are committing suicide by jumping from buildings, similar to Black Thursday and the resulting suicides from the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Other social and environmental issues such as whaling, Manifest Destiny, vivisection, pollution, genetic modification and techno-progressivism are included. The music video blames humankind's brutality on leadership; with various scenes depicting a cardinal or priest, an American President, and an Asian leader. It is eventually revealed that the world leaders are being controlled as puppets by the hand of Death. The video concludes in what seem to be future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race, including the carpet bombing of a city of clones by futuristic aircraft, computers hijacking the human mind, and finally a nuclear explosion which leaves a city in ruins. During the sequence of flashing images near the end of the video an image of a yield sign being smashed at the corner can be seen, which references the album title and cover art.
Absolutely fenomenal animation work, going along nicely with Mr. Vedders screams of "IT'S EVOLUTIONS, BABY!". And don't you just love the female character acting as "Death" in the video?
Just as eery as she is cute...and vice versa!
The video was produced by Joe Pearson and was written and developed by him and Altieri with input from McFarlane and Vedder over the course of 4 months.
The video premiered on August 24, 1998 on MTV's 120 Minutes and received a 1999 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form.
Collage of scenes from the "Do the Evolution" video featuring an archetypal representation of death as a seductive female among other scenes of post-apocalyptic industrialization.
Throughout the video, a black haired woman (similar in appearance to the character Death from the DC comic book series, The Sandman) dances and laughs, representing "Death" as it follows mankind through all of its history. The video is misanthropic in its underlying message. The video begins with the evolution of life, from the smallest cell to the extinction of dinosaurs and reign of homo sapiens. The video then cuts back and forth throughout human history, depicting man's primitive, violent nature as essentially unchanged over the centuries. Such depictions include a knight preparing for the coming slaughter during the Crusades, a ritual dance by America's KKK (the dance is repeated with other groups throughout the video), a rally by Nazi-esque troops (with a symbol reminiscent of the Sig Rune instead of a swastika), Auschwitz-like prisoners with the stripes going vertically instead of horizontally on their uniforms, carnage upon a World War I-era battlefield (apparently a tribute to Peace on Earth, a 1930s MGM anti-war cartoon directed by Hugh Harman), the apparent rape of a woman, and the bombing of a Vietnamese village by an American jet, the pilot of which removes his mask to reveal a skull laughing wildly. Every scene portrayed complements the song's meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. When Vedder sings "Buying stocks on the day of the crash," a scene is shown where businessmen are committing suicide by jumping from buildings, similar to Black Thursday and the resulting suicides from the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Other social and environmental issues such as whaling, Manifest Destiny, vivisection, pollution, genetic modification and techno-progressivism are included. The music video blames humankind's brutality on leadership; with various scenes depicting a cardinal or priest, an American President, and an Asian leader. It is eventually revealed that the world leaders are being controlled as puppets by the hand of Death. The video concludes in what seem to be future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race, including the carpet bombing of a city of clones by futuristic aircraft, computers hijacking the human mind, and finally a nuclear explosion which leaves a city in ruins. During the sequence of flashing images near the end of the video an image of a yield sign being smashed at the corner can be seen, which references the album title and cover art.
Absolutely fenomenal animation work, going along nicely with Mr. Vedders screams of "IT'S EVOLUTIONS, BABY!". And don't you just love the female character acting as "Death" in the video?
Just as eery as she is cute...and vice versa!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Dire Straits and MTV Europe
I was informed that my writing should be a bit more neutral, so without bashing MTV again, lets see an interesting video by Dire Straits -
Hear the falsetto "I want my MTV" in the intro? That, my friends, is non other than mr. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, more popularly known as STING!
This was the first video to be shown on MTV Europe and is actually one of my all-time favorite songs!
From wiki -
Money for Nothing" is a song recorded by British group Dire Straits, which first appeared on their 1985 album Brothers in Arms and subsequently became an international hit when released as a single. It peaked at number one for three weeks in the United States, becoming their most successful single, and also peaked at number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the band's native UK, the song peaked at number four. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV". The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on August 1, 1987.
The lyrics did stir up some controversy though -
The observations of the character included references to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a description of a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the makeup", and lamenting that the artists got "money for nothing and chicks for free". These lyrics were widely criticized as sexist, racist and homophobic statements, and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother": "little mother, he's a millionaire".
When the song is included in rotation as part of a music feed played in stores, or restaurants "faggot" is usually turned backwards.
The entire second verse was edited out for content and length for radio and video airplay, and on the 7" single. This edited version is included in the compilation albums Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Money for Nothing.
In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:
I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.
Wonderful, 1 "faggot" in the lyrics and the whole world goes wild and tries to put down a perfectly wonderful song! Way to miss the point of the song itself!
The lead character in "Money for Nothing" is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He's singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real....
Not one mention of homosexuality now, is there? The "guy" simply hates the fact he has to "Install microwave ovens" while the guys on TV get their "money for nothing and chicks for free".
Just about as working class as it gets...
ps.
Oh, by the way, anyone else see Knopflers headband as a wicked awesome pair of futuristic eyegear?! :D
Hear the falsetto "I want my MTV" in the intro? That, my friends, is non other than mr. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, more popularly known as STING!
This was the first video to be shown on MTV Europe and is actually one of my all-time favorite songs!
From wiki -
Money for Nothing" is a song recorded by British group Dire Straits, which first appeared on their 1985 album Brothers in Arms and subsequently became an international hit when released as a single. It peaked at number one for three weeks in the United States, becoming their most successful single, and also peaked at number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the band's native UK, the song peaked at number four. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV". The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on August 1, 1987.
The lyrics did stir up some controversy though -
The observations of the character included references to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a description of a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the makeup", and lamenting that the artists got "money for nothing and chicks for free". These lyrics were widely criticized as sexist, racist and homophobic statements, and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother": "little mother, he's a millionaire".
When the song is included in rotation as part of a music feed played in stores, or restaurants "faggot" is usually turned backwards.
The entire second verse was edited out for content and length for radio and video airplay, and on the 7" single. This edited version is included in the compilation albums Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Money for Nothing.
In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:
I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.
Wonderful, 1 "faggot" in the lyrics and the whole world goes wild and tries to put down a perfectly wonderful song! Way to miss the point of the song itself!
The lead character in "Money for Nothing" is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He's singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real....
Not one mention of homosexuality now, is there? The "guy" simply hates the fact he has to "Install microwave ovens" while the guys on TV get their "money for nothing and chicks for free".
Just about as working class as it gets...
ps.
Oh, by the way, anyone else see Knopflers headband as a wicked awesome pair of futuristic eyegear?! :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)