Interactive videos - Dylan, Queens of Stone Age etc

There are screenshots/links below to several egs of interactive vids: QoTSA, Death Grips, Bob Dylan etc

Writing in The Guardian's Music Blog, Harriet Gibsone reports on a new phenomenon, one which takes the postmodern/web 2.0 notion I often raise, the blurring (at least) of the producer/audience divide, on to a new level:

His video for Subterranean Homesick Blues may have unwittingly pre-empted the lyric video by 50 years, but Bob Dylan's telly-hopping interactive video looks like it could be another first of a kind.
With Like a Rolling Stone as its soundbed, the player allows its audience to flick through a range of fake television channels, each of which features different characters lip-synching the words to the 1965 classic. "I'm using the medium of television to look back right at us," director Vania Heymann told Mashable.
While Dylan's new video feels like an inventive way to breathe new life into an old tune, other artists are using the format to make a quick online buzz: in the past week alone we've seen interactive videos from Queens of the Stone Age, who are at the end of their album campaign, and Bombay Bicycle Club, who happen to be at the very start.

Here's a screenshot from the Dylan site, where I've 'switched channels' to a shopping channel:

Lists of Best/Worst Videos Ever Made

Lady Gaga features in both worst + best lists...

If seeking inspiration, why not learn from the best, or apply the lessons from the worst?
Here's a few lists, mainly subjective of course, and reflecting the audience of the site/publication, which may help you identify some useful vids to investigate further - or simply to browse and to come up with a list of what features make for a truly popular/great/awful music video.
If you look closely, you'll find certain directors appear repeatedly: Spike Jonze, Anton Corbijn, Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry prominent amongst these.
If you've any lists you can recommend (or have made your own), add a link as a comment.

VidEG: Pixies "Bagboy" (2013)

Much retweeted: notice of tour, vid + free MP3 download

ACT: The Pixies

TRACK: Bagboy

YEAR: 2013

DIRECTOR: LAMAR+NIK

GENRE: Alt rock

MAIN AUDIENCE: 25-44 (recent/original fans), but clearly targeting new 15-24 + possibly younger teens/tweens; M-oriented vid?

LYRICS

Money is recouped by gathering email addresses

I've blogged on The Pixies before: see this post detailing the band's style, including their quirky take on vids (or 'anti-vids'), or this post detailing their classic single-take vid Velouria (more egs here and here; comparisons to Jesus and Mary Chain here)

THE VIDEO IS EMBEDDED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST

LAMAR+NIK often feature non-CGI sculpture-as-title. Reminds me of films like Napoleon Dynamite

IN BRIEF: TYPICALLY ODDBALL, FILMIC PIXIES VID...

• The use of digital media to promote this is exemplary
• its timed to help promote a tour: the MP3 is available free
• with controversial content rendering it unsuitable for pre-watershed UK screening, its main life will be online
• the media language is odd for a music vid, more cinematic in its approach, especially editing
• the central character is a clear representation of a (younger) fan, tho' there may be veiled criticism in there too
• its hard to judge whether this will succeed in appealing to a young, new Pixies fanbase
• there are some touches of creative genius...

SOME BACKGROUND: EXEMPLARY DIGITAL AGE RELEASE FROM DINOSAURS

Users are encouraged to tweet/FB post

This is a great example of an act originating decades ago (so long ago in fact that your blog author was barely out of primary school) that have firmly grasped the challenge and opportunity presented by digitisation and social media. I stumbled across news of a new release on Facebook ... forgot about it ... decided to log in to a Twitter account I've not looked at since setting it up years ago ... and quickly came across a link again.

News of a tour is all over the blogosphere, twittersphere, FB, e-zines and magazines (depending on what feeds you subscribe to of course). The comeback of this band is newsworthy for many publications/outlets, but the killer hook that's guaranteed the print/screen inches, thumbs up, likes, retweets and whatnots is a new video, plus the opportunity to download the track for free.
That last detail helps show the shift from music sales to ticket/merchandise sales for many acts in the digital age, plus revenue more from streaming (often by sharing in the website's, eg YouTube, advertising revenue) than physical sales.

 "You are proselytizing alone listening to the voice with your ears" (sample lyric)

Screenshot taken 4 days after this was uploaded. Note the FREE DOWNLOAD link, + director's site URL

THE VID: BASIC SUMMARY

HISTORY: MTVs 1st day playlist

With thanks to Rob Shaw for suggesting this, here's the video playlist from MTV's very 1st day: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL12813D74635E9DA0

PoMo+MVid IN TV/FILM CULTURE

Its not just MVids that steal from (or intertextually reference if you prefer!) film/TV; it works the other way round too. One of the early signs of MTV moving away from a daily diet of MVids was the show Beavis and Butt-head, here enjoying the 'cymbalism' in Nirvana's iconic Smells Like Teen Spirit...

If you're unfamiliar with this show, try http://ultimateclassicrock.com/top-beavis-and-butthead-classic-rock-song-commentaries/ for 10 egs!
This rather mean portrayal of the rock fan as empty-headed moron would also find its way into film, with Wayne's World featuring a pair of yokels fronting their own no-budget cable TV review show; here they review Nirvana's gloriously surreal Heart Shaped Box...

They would also create parodies of videos, such as this one of REM's classic Everybody Hurts...


When talking about TV/film in 2011, it makes sense to consider the web as part of this picture, and fan-vids are part of this postmodern mash-up process; here's a fan-vid of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit where the audio is a fan's band and the footage is B+B edited as if performing...

Dance, sexism and (postmodern) irony

Two examples here of dance vids (the sub-genre 'house' might be more accurate). On the surface, both are 'blokey' and crudely sexist, framed blatantly around the male gaze.
That seems problematic for the type of music though; intended to be experienced in a club setting as well as on home/personal hi-fi/music player, alienating half an audience would seem boneheaded commercial suicide.
The Danzel vid could be argued to fall between two stools: centred around conventionally galmorous young women BUT with a rather camp chap presenting it all (a judgement well reflected in the comments the vid has attrated on YouTube).
The Alex Gaudino feat. Shena is again a feast of eye candy ... BUT serves this up whilst lampooning the couch potato gamer gents, the very (stereo)type such material conventionally targets. These two are rendered as moronic Beavis and Butthead (returning to our screens after 14 years) facsimiles.
The issue of control is also more subtle, or polysemic, than at first glance. To what extent are our pair of buffoons really in control? Clearly the video employs some of the media language of pornography, but the players are notably skilled, aggressive and competitive; countertypical of the representation we might expect. The referee, far from an alpha male reinforcing any reading of this text as misogynistic or patriarchal, is again made to look foolish, and is a familiar comedy trope (seen often through the career of Bert Kwouk, not least with C4's late-night show Banzai - see the clip below). The whole precept of female players as lads mag 'babes' rather than sportspeople is a further satire of FIFA president Sepp Blatter's notorious suggestion that the women's game should learn from beach volleyball and play in tight hotpants to increase audience interest!
So, are these music videos slices of postmodern irony and satire - with the conventional gaze rendered ridiculous - or just blatant old school sexism with a postmodern fig leaf?
Its notable that there are a good number of 'dislikes' along with the 'likes' on the YouTube pages.

Researching vid conventions - metal eg

Easy enough to find analysis and egs of conventions of most major genres - a google search such as "[genre] music video conventions" (try other variations too) will get relevant results, including several from A2 students elsewhere!

UPDATE: FEB 22ND 2011 - these are some useful egs of the glam metal genre, with many useful additional vids on the sidebar when you click through:
Parody, highlighting the dubious morality of the genre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&v=aDUOC9Xk2wM&annotation_id=annotation_777924
Montage of vid clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z82IqIxC50&feature=related
80s Glam A-Z part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_HzhhFsGKg&feature=related
Quirky 80s+now pics of singers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvp_TUX_LC4&feature=related
Best 80s hair metal bands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qNnDus7yAw&feature=related
Skid Row - typical 'power ballad' - lots of other bands/vids in sidebar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFYVAntpw0&feature=related
Silly, overdone, retrospectively very camp but foregrounding rebellion for their teen aud to relate to - Ratt were US kings of the 80s scene before Motley Crue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo9GsHuJSEA&feature=related
High notes by singers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwQhn429FGM



An example follows: detailed breakdown, with clear egs, of conventions of metal vids, including an historical perspective on their evolution and changes


SOURCE for article below: http://people.virginia.edu/~rlk3p/classes/usem180/bibliography/metalVideo/MTVMetal.htm

Bibliography » MTV and the "Live" Metal Concert Video

These sources were viewed or referenced as part of a discussion about the depiction of "live" concert imagery in music video primarily related to the Heavy Metal genre. Heavy Metal is used loosely here to include the widest number of sources within this genre of music.

The term "live" (used in quotes) denotes a video production that attempts to capture or simulate the visual experience of a rock concert. Most of these sources are studio or sound-stage productions. Some were shot on location in an arena with an invited audience. A few appear to contain footage from actual concerts. Many of these sources mix concept footage with "live" footage in different ways.

No attempt is made her to create a definitive list. Some videos were selected because of specific content, themes, or images presented. Others were selected at random.

This page is under development

[add classification notes]
[add chronology notes]

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Historical Sources

MTV News and Specials. "It Came from the 80's II: Metal Goes Pop" Dir: Abbie Kearse. Writ/Narr: Chris Connelly. MTV Networks 1996.

Produced for MTV this special program is structured around a series of interviews with metal band-members about the transition of metal into the mainstream and it's sudden abandonment by the record labels. There are many short clips of music videos demonstrating the height of ridiculousness of the genre. A couple of those interviewed express anger or resentment about the experience of being launched into the pop-metal genre and then quickly dropped. Most of those interviewed, however, are able to joke about their unlikely short ride into the pop music spotlight.

Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister on the transition of heavy metal into pop music:

There was Twisted, and we were …street urchins, bad boys, ugly, angry--but other bands were starting to smile. And the biggie with that of course was Bon Jovi—you know—the birth of happy metal. Suddenly everybody found out …that some of the bands had teeth… Instead of everybody scowling and being pissed off, they were saying hey, what are we pissed off about, we’re making millions of dollars, we’re playing happy metal now.