Since today is Mel C’s birthday, I decided to go with a Spice Girls video for the video of the day.
Wannabe was the Spice Girls’s first video and, when it was released, it took only two hours for it to become the number one selected video on The Box, a British cable network. It stayed at number one for 13 weeks and it only fell from that spot because the Spice Girls released another video.
This video was directed by commercial director Jhoan Camitz. According to Wikipedia, this was his first music video. According to the imvdb, it was his third. Reportedly, he originally wanted to film the video at a hotel in Barcelona but, when he was denied permission, he instead filmed at the Midland Grand Hotel in St. Pancras, London.
The video was banned in some parts of Asia, because it was considered to be too provocative.
I’ve taking turns trying to convince nearly everyone here at the Shattered Lens to, at some point in the future, review Spice World. So far, everyone’s refused so I may to do it someday myself.
This trippy video came out five days ago and it’s already a favorite of mine. To be honest, I have a weakness for anything that involves a robot band breaking free and beating up a bunch of drunks.
(Originally, I was going to list my picks for the best in SyFy today. However, I need one more day to work on that so look for that tomorrow! For now, here are my favorite songs of 2017!)
Every January, I list my favorite songs of the previous year and, every January, I include the same disclaimer. My favorite songs are not necessarily the favorite songs of any of the other writers here at the Shattered Lens. We are a large and diverse group of people and, as such, we all have our own individual tastes.
If you ever visited the TSL Bunker, you would be shocked by the different music coming out of each office. You would hear everything from opera to death metal to the best of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And then, of course, you would reach my office and you would discover that my taste in music pretty much runs the gamut from EDM to More EDM.
Now, usually, I do try to listen to a variety of music. You can go to my Song of the Day site — Lisa Marie’s Song of the Day — and see that I do occasionally listen to other types of music. But, I have to be honest. 2017 was not a year that inspired me to really leave me comfort zone. If anything, music provided me with some much needed consistency in an otherwise chaotic year. 2017 was a year that made me want to dance until it was all over and, for the most part, my favorite songs of the year reflect that fact.
Before I list my songs, I should make something else very clear. These are my favorite songs of 2017. I’m not saying that they’re necessarily the best songs of 2017. I’ll leave that debate for others. Instead, there are the songs that I found myself listening to over and over again. These are the songs made me dance. These are the songs that made me sing. A few of these songs relaxed me when I needed to be relaxed. These are songs that I liked.
You might like them.
Or you might not.
That’s the beautiful thing about art. Everyone experiences it in their own individual way.
Here are my favorite songs of 2017:
14. Shutdown by Joywave
13. Love So Soft by Kelly Clarkson
12. Rainmaker by Sleigh Bells
11. I feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
(Technically, this is a 2016 song but I listened to it a lot in 2017 and this is my list so fuck it, I’m including it.)
10. Alone by Alan Walker
9. Byte by Martin Garrix & Brooks
8. You Could Be by R3HAB featuring Khrebto
7. Mirage by Lindey Stirling featuring Raja Kumari
6. Rich Boy by Galantis
5. What About Us by P!nk
4. First Time by Kygo & Ellie Goulding
3. Escape Reality Tonight by Paul van Dyk & Emanuele Braveri ft. Rebecca Louise Burch
2. Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift
It Ain’t Me by Kygo, featuring Selena Gomez
For tomorrow’s look back at 2017, I will (finally) share my picks for the best of the SyFy Network!
Today’s music video of the day is the video for Son Lux’s Slowly, which was released yesterday.
Your guess about what’s going on in this moody, black-and-white video is probably as good as mine. Myself, I like the atmosphere and the feeling of death creeping around every corner. At the very least, that’s what I see. Others will undoubtedly disagree.
This video was directed by Alex Cook, who also directed the video of Son Lux’s Dangerous.
The site suggests that the best way to celebrate I’m Not Going To Take It Day is to go to the mall and buy yourself an expensive gift. Well, I’m all about that! Another suggested way to celebrate the day is to book yourself a vacation to some place warm. I already live some place warm so I think I’ll book a vacation in Minnesota for September…
ANYWAY, in honor of this holiday, today’s music video of the day is the German band, Donots, performing their version of Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Going To Take It. The video is basically them performing the song, mixed in with footage of people refusing to take it.
Burn, baby, burn! as my old Colorado dance teacher used to put it…
I don’t have much to say about this video. I just like the song and the imagery. Sometimes, this video inspires me to go outside and look up at the clouds and appreciate the beauty all around me. Other times, I watch this video and I ask myself if maybe it’s actually about the end of the world. To a certain extent, some of the imagery in the final half of the video reminds me of the 1998 Canadian apocalypse film, Last Night. The clouds may look beautiful but from the way the video abruptly ends, you do have to wonder if maybe all that beauty was a prelude to everything simply ceasing to exist.
Well, no matter! I like the song. I like the video. In the end, that’s what really matters.
Scottish singer/songwriter Gerry Rafferty passed away seven years ago on this date. With that in mind, it seems only right that today’s music video of the day is the video for his 1978 song, Baker Street.
Baker Street, of course, is widely known as “the song with the sax solo.” That’s actually what I always used to call it until I learned the name a few years ago. Playing that saxophone was a session musician named Raphael Ravenscroft. There’s an urban legend, which I’ve seen stated as fact on several web sites, that Ravenscroft was either never paid for his work or the check he received from Rafferty bounced. However, Ravenscroft himself stated several times that this was not the case and he was paid for his work. Ravenscroft also once said that he found it difficult to listen to sax solo because the saxophone was out of tune.
As for Baker Street itself, it was reportedly written at a time that Rafferty was involved in a lawsuit involving his former band, Stealers Wheel. (Stealers Wheel performed Stuck In The Middle With You, a song that will be forever associated with lost ears.) Apparently, whenever Rafferty had to go to London to meet with his lawyers, he would stay with a friend who lived on Baker Street.
Through the Shattered Lens