Tag Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Out of Control by The Chemical Brothers (1999, dir by W.I.Z.)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The revolution, as they used to say, will be televised.

Of course, those who used to say that were being rather short-sighted.  Today, we know that the revolution will be streamed, live tweeted, and it will probably trend until Beyonce knocks it off the list.  Revolution, itself, is a term that gets tossed around a lot.  Everyone tends to claim that their revolution is the one “true” revolution.  It takes a little bit of concentration to keep track of which revolution we’re supposed to support and which one we’re supposed to find horrifying.

With all that in mind, revolution has always been good for sales.  The commercialization of rebellion has been around forever.  The music video above was released in 1999 but it feels like it could have been released yesterday.  When Pepsi thought it would be a good idea to have Kendall Jenner change the world with a can of soda, did they realize they were essentially copying this music video?

Of course, that’s Rosario Dawson, playing the spokesrebel.  Rumor has it that Rosario Dawson is currently dating Sen. Cory Booker, who might be our next President.  Senator Booker got some attention for himself last year when he announced that he was having an “I am Spartacus” moment, a reminder that even sitting U.S. senators like to fancy themselves as being revolutionaries.  Being a rebel pays.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: America The Beautiful, performed by Ray Charles (1972, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy National Freedom Day!

Now, you may think that I’m making up a holiday but I’m not.  National Freedom Day has been observed annually on February 1st ever since 1949.  That’s because February 1st is also the anniversary of the day, in 1865, that Abraham Lincoln signed the joint Senate and House resolution calling for a 13th amendment, one that would abolish slavery.  Lincoln did not live to see that amendment ratified on December 6th and officially adopted to the Constitution on December 18th of the same year.

So, in honor of National Freedom Day, here’s Ray Charles singing America The Beautiful on a 1972 episode of the Dick Cavett Show.  Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Wake Up by Hilary Duff (2005, dir by Marc Webb)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

When I think back to 2005, it sometimes seems as if every single song released that year was about how difficult it was to be a rich former Disney star.  I know that, technically, that’s just a trick of my memory and there was a wide variety of songs released that year.  But, if you mention 2005 to me, my automatic reaction is going to be to start singing, “People talking …. talking about me …. they think they know me …. they don’t know me….”  Again, that’s not from any specific song.  It just seems that 2005 was the year when everyone was singing about people talking about them.

Then again, I might just be thinking about Hilary Duff’s Wake Up.  Wake Up was promoted as showcasing a totally new sound for the former Lizzie McGuire.  Of course, it really didn’t but I still like the song.  It’s almost a guilty pleasure, to be honest.  I know it’s not exactly a great song but it certainly gets stuck in your head and the lyrics are shallow enough that it’s easy to relate to them.

The video features Hilary going to parties around the world and having a good time.  Basically, the video is shouting, “She’s not just Lizzie McGuire anymore!”  The video was directed by Marc Webb, who later went on to direct the two Spider-Man films that nobody remembers.  He also directed Gifted, which is a film that left me cold but which is loved by a lot of other people.

One fun thing to do with this video is to turn down Hilary’s vocals and replace them with Rebecca Black singing Friday.  Seriously, it works!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Chlorine by twenty one pilots (2019, dir by Reel Bear Media)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I like this video.

When it starts you think it’s just going to be another suburban sprawl video, with the ennui-stricken kids and the empty swimming pools and the workaholic father and the pill-popping moms.  And I’ve got nothing against existential dread but, when the video started, I wasn’t expecting this to be anything that I hadn’t seen before.

And then Ned showed up.

Ned is the little alien thing who is watching Tyler and Josh while they’re cleaning the pool.  It’s really impossible not to love Ned.  I mean, Ned is adorable!  And the way that Ned comes out of hiding and then quickly ducks back into hiding reminds me of the way Doc acts whenever he’s playing with me or Erin.  Of course, Doc doesn’t like water so he probably wouldn’t be near a pool.  Doc’s thing is to get underneath the couch and then try to grab you whenever you walk by.  I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep on the floor, just to wake up with Doc trying to pull my hair out of my head.

Anyway, Ned is obviously pretty picky about what type of water it’ll dive into and that’s probably a good thing.  A friend of mine once swam in a pool that hadn’t been properly cleaned and her eyes were so bloodshot afterward that I basically had to stop being her friend until they cleared up.  They were like seriously freaking me out.

I love the closing shot of this video.  Ned and Tyler, hanging out in the swimming pool.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Love Me Back by Ritual feat. Tove Styrke (2019, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is another of those videos that I like specifically because it’s totally surreal and how you interpret it will probably depend on what type of mood you’re in when you view it.

Is this video about being trapped?

Is this video about breaking free?

Is this video about the sad face starting at you from the wall?

Is it about longing or is it about being owned?

That’s up to you to decide.  I just like the idea of everyone being stuck in a mentally-projected maze.  Whenever I see a video that featured an overhead shot of a maze, I’m reminded of one of my favorite scenes from The Shining, the one where Jack stares down at a model of the Overlook’s famous hedge maze while Danny and Wendy wander through the real maze.  Briefly, it appears as if Wendy and Danny are actually in the model.  Who knows, maybe they are?

Mazes are a great metaphor for …. well, just about everything!  There’s very little in life that can’t be represented by a maze.  Of course, in The Shining, the maze represented not only Jack’s twisted mind but also the way that time inside the Overlook twists back in on itself.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Please by Saro (2019, dir by Alex Cook)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s a strange world, isn’t it?

By this point, everyone should know that I have a weakness for surreal music videos, especially when they’re in black-and-white and they involve an overhead shot of a maze.  So, my selection of this video for music video of the day should come as a shock to no one.

I like this one.  The eyes remind of Salvador Dali’s famed work on Hitchcock’s Spellbound.  For that matter, they also remind me of Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet.  One of the plot points of Four Flies is that the identity of the killer has been preserved on the victim’s retina.

(Though that’s scientifically impossible, you might be surprised to learn that there’s quite a few people who believe that can actually happen.  In fact, I was recently reading about a police interrogation in which the cops got a guy to confess by telling him that they had found his image preserved in his victim’s eyes.)

Of course, you really can’t talk about eyes in cinema without mentioning Lucio Fulci.  One of Fulci’s trademarks was that almost every film featured either an eye getting popped out of a head or otherwise split in half.  I have to admit that, after seeing Zombi 2, I am now incredibly protective of my eyes.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Terrified by Terror Jr (2019, dir by Millicent Hailes)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s music video of the day is one of those video’s that I think works best if you imagine that everyone in it is dead and that the video itself is taking place in Purgatory.

It’s seriously not that outlandish an idea.  There has to be some sort of entertainment in Purgatory and the bartender certainly appears to have seen his share of singers and drinkers.

Another possible option is that this video is taking place at the Overlook Hotel.  Again, the ghostly atmosphere would seem to suggest that we’re in another world, one that probably running parallel to ours.  It’s very easy to imagine Jack Torrance sitting at the bar, watching the singers and wondering why Grady keeps denying having been the caretaker.

And, of course, there’s always the chance that we’re visiting a section of the Black Lodge.  Or maybe we’re at the Roadhouse again….

Well, regardless of where this atmospheric video is taking place, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Swan Song by Dua Lipa (2019, dir by Floria Sigismondi)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

We’ve seen the future and wow, there’s a lot of trash.

Seriously, that’s the main thing that I’ve noticed about movies set in the future.  No one ever picks up after themselves.  You would think that we’d have robots cleaning and polishing every inch of the Earth but apparently, WALL-E was a lie.

Even with that in mind, though, I still cry every time that I watch WALL-E.  Damn, that’s a good movie.  It totally should have been nominated for Best Picture.  Between that and not nominating Three Identical Strangers for Best Documentary, I don’t know what’s wrong with the Academy….

Anyway, this song appears on the soundtrack of a movie and no, it’s not WALL-E.  Instead, it’s from Alita: Battle Angel, which was written and produced by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodriguez.  The movie’s coming out this February and maybe it will replace the Valentine-shaped hole that’s been in our soul ever since the Fifty Shades trilogy came to an end.

Or maybe not.  I just hope it’s good!

Anyway, the video is a party in a futuristic rubbish heap.  I don’t suggest trying this in your own neighborhood landfill.  Party clean, everyone.

Enjoy!

Music Video Review: Affection by JaydenART Music (2017, dir by Jayden Yoon ZK)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Who doesn’t occasionally love a good cry?

The 4 and a half minute video below is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes.  It certainly did to mine.  It’s the story of a dancer and it’s also the story of a father’s love for his daughter and the way that we can all live on through music, art, and memory.  It starts with a dancer — according to the video’s YouTube description, her name is Fiona — dancing and then takes us into the past, showing us how her pianist father supported her dreams until he eventually fell victim to his own mortality.  The film ends with her achieving her dream, along with her younger self, and the sound of her father’s composition playing in the background.

And it’s really nicely done.  The scenes of Fiona dancing are flawlessly combined with the flashbacks to her father, creating a true sense of a dancer living in the moment while still surrounded by her memories and how she came to be the person who is now on stage.  It’s a tribute to not just her father but also to everyone who has ever supported us in our dreams, whether those dreams were artistic or something else.  It’s a heart-felt and sentimental tribute and you can check it out below:

Music Video of the Day: 4 In The Morning by Gwen Stefani (2007, dir by Sophie Muller)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This may not be one of Gwen’s more popular videos but I like it because, like her in this video, I’m usually up at 4 in the morning.

Of course, in the video, Gwen’s up at four in the morning and looking totally put together because she’s waiting for her lover to return.  They’ve had a fight.  He’s left her.  And now, she can’t sleep.  Not even going for a drive through the early morning darkness helps.

Myself, when I’m up at 4 in the morning, it’s mostly because I got wrapped up either reading or watching something and, for whatever reason, I lost track of time.  Usually, around two, I always say, “I really should get some sleep …. but let’s see what’s on TCM!”  If it turns out to be a classic film noir or an old horror movie, there’s no way I’m going to sleep.

Even worse is when I’m trying to turn off my TV but I accidentally click the button for Netflix instead and, before you know it, I’m watching old episodes of Degrassi: The Next Class.  Then suddenly, I’ll realize that it’s not five in the morning and I’ve spent an hour yelling, “No, Maya!  Zig’s no good for you!” at the TV.  That’s happened more times than I want to admit.

Much like Gwen, I usually react to discovering that I’ve stayed up too late by walking around the house.  Usually, I end up accidentally kicking a wall while barefoot or tripping over a stair.  Once I wandered out in the backyard and somehow managed to lock myself out of the house.  Of course, I was only wearing my beloved Pirates t-shirt and it was like 21 degrees outside so I quickly came to regret not getting to bed at two.

So, my point is, I like this video because I can relate to it.  In fact, I’ll probably think about it a few hours from now, when I realize that it’s 4 a.m. and I’m still awake.

Enjoy!