Saw that Myspace had a little survey to name the top ten videos of all time and surprise, surprise, MJ took #1. I created a little poll of my own on FB and MJ won there too. As this blog is about music and art, what better than music videos to showcase the best of both worlds? Adam and I sat around and discussed his and my faves:
Adam's (in no particular order):
Radiohead/House of Cards: Undeniably amazing. Not enough people are aware of this work. As Stereogum said when this first debuted, "Why just talk in maths when you can fully manifest in them?" For non-nerds, this translates into the simple fact that this video did not use camera or light, but instead with 3D plotting.
Metallica/Unforgiven: Sure. Not bad. Not in my top.
Dire Straights/Money for Nothing: As we talked videos, the six year age gap between Adam and me became obvious. There was more color and weird weird weirdness in his choices (even the ones that didn't make this list) than mine. The medium was just so new. Watching this, yep, I wanted my MTV. Bad.
Peter Gabriel/Sledgehammer: For the time (1985--that's 25 years ago, btw), this video was an amazing piece of art. What's now a few hours on a computer was probably weeks and weeks of work for those three minutes on tv. The second image is an example of how it was made. Picture after picture after picture of subtle differences played together really fast. Can you say OCD?
Aha/Take On Me: Obviously. This one's on all polls taken because it deserves to be. Nuff said.
jESiO's pics (no particular order):
Soundgarden/Black Hole Sun: I remember being freaked out by this and in love with the technicolor. Grunge was fun to listen to, but it was a lot of flannel and black and white. This is my absolute favorite grunge video (even better than "Jeremy" imho). Watching the smiles and eyes get bigger and bigger, you couldn't take your eyes off of it.
Weezer/Buddy Holly: The beginning of a wonderful relationship. Weezer creates emo with a sense of great humor. I sing and laugh.
The Cars/You Might Think: I just loved this when I was a kid. The imagery has never left.
Tom Petty/Mary Jane's Last Dance: After much debate this wins over "Don't Come Around Here No More," aka "The Alice in Wonderland" video. My main reason being "DCAHNM" is a break up song, which I find nothing in Wonderland that relates to it. Good song. Good video. No cohesion into its own work of art.
So, instead we get my favorite early 1990's video where the man is obsessed with the dead bride.
The circle of influence and hilarity: I said to Adam, remember that INXS video with the lyrics on poster boards? We youtube'd it. It wasn't all that great, but I remembered it clearly having not seen it since before age 10. I remember when Van Halen came out with "Right Now." It reminded me of the INXS video, in that you were reading the entire time. This video was done much, much better.
We were looking at other Top Ten video lists and Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" made a couple. I youtube'd it, and whatdayaknow...ol' Bobby D had the idea before anyone else. Before music videos, even. This is why he rules...and I'm pretty sure that's Allen Ginsberg in the corner.
