CONVENTIONS Links - points - playlist: videos I've blogged on

NB: Some highly controversial videos are listed, including 'explicit' versions; some descriptions also contain some strong language.

See this post for some quick links on useful videos to consider.

As I've discussed analysed a great many videos, the list below is partial. The initial order reflects the order from the video below, with the 1st 20 selected to highlight some of the very, very many themes when considering not just conventions of but also reception for music videos. Most can be found in a playlist too - a great way to expose yourself to a wider range of videos than you are likely to be familiar with!!!

More details after the list, but the 20 videos featured in the video (several times more in the playlist) are:

1. Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgore (2012) 
2. Sepultura - Ratamahatta (1996) 
3. PIXIES - Velouria (1990) 
4. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares to You (1990) 
5. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Terry Richardson, 2013)
6. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (ChatRoulette, 2013)
7. Baauer - Harlem Shake (2012) [this is a '10 best of' montage] 
8. Depeche Mode - It's No Good (Anton Corbijn, 1997)
9. Weezer - Buddy Holly (Spike Jonze, 1994)
10. Guns n'Roses - November Rain (1992)
11. Bjork - Crystalline (Anton Corbijn, 2013)
12. Sepultura - Refuse, Resist (1994)
13. Megadeth - Wake Up Dead (1986)
14. Pixies - Bagboy (Lamar + Nik, 2013) 
15. Daft Punk - Da Funk (Spike Jonze, 1995)
16. Rihanna - Pour It Up (Vincent Haycock, 2013) (EXPLICIT tag)
17. Fragma - You Are Alive (2001)
18. Guns n'Roses - Welcome to the Jungle (1987)
19. Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines (Diane Martel, 2013) [parody]
20. Lily Allen - Hard Out Here (Christopher Sweeney, 2013) 

Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgore (2012) [post]
You do need to know the conventions ... but there is much more scope to challenge them than with, say, film, as videos like this, and the following Sepultura example, demonstrate. Rammstein and Rage Against the Machine have also produced examples I've blogged on, bringing Snow White and the Beach Boys into the extreme metal genre.


Sepultura - Ratamahatta (1996) [animated] [post]
A great example of turning conventions and expectations on their heads, this is an animated video by the Brazilian hardcore thrashers! You should also take from this that inspiration can come from anywhere, including music genres (and other media, as with Morbid Angel) you may not be a fan of! [Wiki]

Here's a bonus, highly countertypical further example: old-school (these guys were well established pioneers when I was still at school!) death metallers Obituary, who for their latest single have turned to Flash-animation and a Scooby-Doo style cartoon ... be advised though: it is, nonetheless, gory. You can read about it and watch it here.

PIXIES - Velouria (1990) (one-take video) See Wiki and my posts on this.

ARTIST CASE STUDY: THE PIXIES archetypal Indie

Accompanying the lyric 'half asleep with a loaded gun' (Silver Snail) - there are few more inventive, inspiring, and downright stunning videos out there than The Pixies' collection, especially their videos since 2013

there is an embedded YouTube playlist of ALL videos covered at the bottom of this post

Glamourpusses!

IN THIS POST: I embed and briefly discuss the music videos of The Pixies, an archetypal Indie or alternative rock band that date back to the late 80s and are still going strong, with a strikingly different set of videos since 2013. Their antagonism towards playing the promotional game, ironically, made them a key influence on a generation of video-makers. They initially refused to produce any videos then produced some challenging videos that consciously broke many of the most basic conventions of the format. No research into the conventions of music video as a format would be complete without some reference to this lot. The cinematography and use of colour (even the brilliant use of the generally cliched slo-mo tool) in their recent videos is simply STUNNING.

WHO ARE THEY?
The Pixies are a seminal alternative rock (Indie) band who remain a key influence today, both for their music and their highly distinctive music videos. In the UK they're signed to 4AD, part of the Beggars consortium (Indie labels often join forces in co-ops to cut marketing costs and to get better distribution deals, economies of scale etc) - see wiki and this Guardian article on its iconic status. Their music fused Latin influences with rock; a bossa nova, 50s rock sound with a hard edge and dark, literary lyrical themes.

DESCRIBE THEIR BRAND
Key to understanding the Pixies is their sense of coming from humble working class backgrounds in Boston; they did not need to see themselves as a glamorous band and this is reflected in their videos. In a word, authenticity is the hallmark of their branding - this is not a band who would indulge in the fakery most bands will accept in order to maximixe their media exposure and record sales. Their everyday clothing, in contrast to the extravagance of bands like KISS and Bon Jovi that dominated much of the 80s, would bring back a vaguely punk aesthetic to the rock world, with the likes of Kurt Cobain reflecting the Pixies' look. They were edgy too - some of their lyrical themes are very dark indeed, though often based in classic literature, and were prepared to play with basic song structure too.

THE WILL TO BE WEIRD: THE ULTRA SLO-MO SINGLE-TAKE VELOURIA

Yes, a shocker in some regards, but an uber risque effort, and commercial suicide in others. Or, simply: inspirational! Why don't you take on such an idea as an extra (not a main) production? There are several mainstream examples of such alternative, additional videos alongside the main production.

Their videos stand almost as anti-videos, an apparent refusal to play the promotional game:

As "Velouria" (their first single from Bossanova) was climbing up the UK Top 40, the band was offered a spot on Top of the Pops. However, a BBC rule stated only singles with videos could be performed on the show. To counter this a cheap video was made, with the band being filmed running down a quarry.^[105]In the video, twenty-three seconds of footage (the time needed for the band members to reach the camera) is slowed in order to last for the duration of the song.^[106] However, the effort in filming the video was in vain; the Pixies did not play "Velouria" on Top of The Pops while the single was in the charts.^[107] [Wiki]

CINEMATIC Depeche Mode etc French New Wave German Expressionism

IN THIS POST:

Examples of music videos with clear cinematic influence: their media language is at least partly taken from cinema.

MORBID ANGEL >>> 6 x DEPECHE MODE egs >>> TRIPTYKON

A filmic or cinematic approach is one means by which you can make your video stand out from the crowd, and there are plenty of examples of that. Who could possibly forget the following, most unlikely, death metal video which takes its cues from 1910s silent movies?!

[Posts on this here]

We discussed the idea of taking such a direct filmic influence (albeit one that can be applied loosely and still be recognisable/readable) as the French New Wave [tag] and applying to music video, looking at some possible examples, and inspiration seemed to flow...
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POLICY OF TRUTH



STRANGELOVE
using the bands' record label as a recurrent motif (leitmotif) is an interesting idea...


PERSONAL JESUS
A little bit like iconic UK Indie filmmaker Alex Cox's Straight to hell, here we have a spaghetti western setup with mixed signifiers of past and present and multiple film stocks used.


NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN (remastered video)
French New Wave influences to the fore ... Road movie, also featuring singer Gahan in a two-shot with an archetypal peasant. The shot where the wind going through the wheat field is timed with the music is a great example of not just cutting to the beat but matching the rhythm of footage to the track. We get not just any car but a mightily unusual car (and one that signifies a 60s setting too).

CLEAN
a decidedly odd video for a major act: we see a band member, Martin Gore, watching a movie with his gal of a couple in bed ... and thats it


A QUESTION OF TIME
A motorbike with sidecar. A baby. More babies (with a series of jump cuts). Sort of a road movie. A baby crawling around a clock face. Using the old-fashioned cop shades. Brilliant.


YOUTUBE SEARCH FOR 'FRENCH NEW WAVE'
Brings up a lot of useful videos.

FINAL CUT PRO X CAMERA EMULATOR PLUGIN
As raised when looking at these, you can emulate super-8 and 16mm (etc) cameras by purchasing FCPX plugins (this one is $50 - you may need to buy it yourself and carry edited clips from your own Mac to a school one).

TRIPTYKON - Aurorae

This + another Triptykon vid + a Celtic Frost (A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh) vid are all excellent examples of more abstract narratives that would have Vernallis spitting with rage at the very use of the term...

BTW...note that there's a REMASTERED DM vid above (Never Let Me Down Again) demonstrating the 'long tail' concept; the value of back catalogue - conversely the Celtic Frost is only 360p - their record label don't think there's enough money to be made from it to bother updating the quality of their upload.

In Aurorae we see a very specific, intertextualised (with Nosferatu - which you can watch on YT as well) simulacra of German expressionism here (338).

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