This is a strange one, albeit from a band whose brand is centred on their difference to the mainstream, one who've had battles with both the censors and their own record label over album covers, and who haven't been afraid to play up gay or bisexual connotations despite having a rock/metal following.
I've never heard of 'lyric videos' before, but
this Loudwire article uses the term to denote the curious vid for JA's latest.
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| Tracking over an underground map from The Warriors |
The vid features the lyrics set out as an underground map (rendered through Flash by the looks of it; the 'paper' has accurate folds but looks artificial), with occasional crosscutting to a tracking shot in an underground rail tunnel, plus stills of the band's energetic and triumphant live performance, and ends with a straightforward print ad for the new album, making the commercial logic of music vids more explicit than usual. The camera (as least as rendered through software) tracks across the map, including back and forth to chorus lyrics.
Perhaps an influence here from The Warriors, Walter Hill's 1979 cult classic which has also become a hit PlayStation game [
trailer;
opening sequence - go to 4:10 in to see map tracking]?
Here's the JA vid:
The canny commercialism doesn't end there; the viral release of the vid is accompanied by a competition to win a guitar signed by all 4 band members.
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