Hi, everyone! Lisa here, with today’s music video of the day!
This video was released yesterday. As I sit here typing this, it currently has 68 views on YouTube and only one comment has been left. That comment: “How are you not famous yet?”
I have to agree. This artist definitely deserves to be famous so I’m going to do my part by sharing this video. I love both this hauntingly beautiful song and the simple but atmospheric video that goes along with it. Sad to say, I don’t have any technical credits for this video but I will say that I love the moody black-and-white cinematography. This is one of those videos that invites you to watch and draw your own conclusions.
Hi, everyone! Lisa here with today’s music video of the day!
So, I’ll be honest with you. The main reason that I picked today’s video is because Dallas is my hometown. I love it and I love the fact that this song is not only about Dallas but it was actually filmed here as well.
One thing you’ll notice about any video, movie, or TV show shot in Dallas. There’s always going to be at least a few shots of the Bank of America Plaza in the background. That’s the building that non-Dallasites tend to refer to as being “that big green building.” There have been so many nights where I looked over my shoulder, saw that building behind me, and I somehow knew everything would be okay.
That’s right! Today is Dazzling Erin’s birthday! One of the reasons why I love working on this site is because I get to work with my sister. Not only has she always been there for me (which is not as easy as you might think) but she’s always willing to listen to my ideas, no matter how crazy they are, and I know I can always depend on her to either help me make those dreams come true or to patiently explain to me why it might not be a great idea to try to schedule a new film review to post every minute over a 24 hour time period. (That was originally my plan for Halloween until I was gently reminded that would amount to 1440 posts in one day.)
I picked today’s music video because it’s for a song that’s prominently featured in a film that Erin and I absolutely love, 2002’s Bend it Like Beckham. The video for Inner Smile features Sharleen Spiteri, the lead singer of Texas, doing her best Elvis Presley impersonation. The video itself is disguised to look like one of those Elvis documentaries that occasionally pop up on PBS but, if you watch it carefully, there are hints that we’re not actually seeing Elvis. (Keep an eye on the belt that Sharleen holds up at one point.)
This video was directed by Vaughan Arnell, who has been directing videos since 1984! (On the imvdb, he’s credited with 49 videos in total.)
As is noted at the end of the video, this video was actually filmed in front of a live audience with Sharleen in full Elvis costume.
Also, I know someone’s going to say that the main reason that I like this song is because the group is named Texas. Well, sure, that’s definitely not a bad thing. However, the band itself is Scottish.
Apparently, the most difficult thing in the world is to try to find a good music video for Thanksgiving!
Seriously.
First off, there really aren’t that many Thanksgiving songs and those that do exist don’t have music videos. If there had been an official music video for Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant (which Gary wrote about yesterday), I would have shared it. But, as far as I can tell, there isn’t.
I nearly went with Alanis Morrisette’s Thank U but then I realized how much that song annoys me so I decided not to. If Natalie Merchant’s song, Kind and Generous, had been called Thank You, I would have used it but, unfortunately, it’s not.
I eventually went with God Only Knows because it’s the type of song that can bring tears to your eyes and I recently rewatched Boogie Nights and I love how the song is used in the film. And, to be honest, it’s a song that captures the feeling of Thanksgiving, even if it’s not really a Thanksgiving song.
So, I used it. I can’t really tell you much about this video, other than music videos in the 60s and 70s were considerably more straight-forward and less flashy than what we’re used to today. It’s a simple video but it works for the song, I think.
Hi, everyone! Lisa here with today’s music video of the day!
Today’s video is Calvin Harris’s Acceptable In The 80s. This song, which appeared on I Created Disco, was Calvin’s first hit, reaching the number 10 position on the UK Singles Chart. I like the song and I like the video, which features big hair, bright colors, and some memorably weird imagery that I’m not even going to try to interpret.
“It was acceptable at the time…”
Hmmm, that’s something we’ve all been hearing a lot this year.
What happens when you take a pill in Ibiza? Well, to start with, you get a big head and you start to resemble papier-mâché…
There’s actually two videos of this song. There’s a video for the original version, which is largely acoustic and kind of boring, as acoustic songs often are. And then there’s this video, which is for SeeB’s remix of the song. The remix is definitely the superior version, though many people refuse to admit it.
(There’s a tyranny of thought that the acoustic version of a song is going to superior to any other version. It’s simply not true. Acoustic often equals boring. At the height of American Idol, there was a rival singing competition called The One, where the whole gimmick was that every performance was acoustic. Only four episodes aired and every single one of them was painful to watch.)
Anyway, as for the song, it’s very much autobiographical. Yes, Mike Posner actually did take a pill in Ibiza and yes, he actually was trying to impress Avicii. In much the same way that Turkish tour guides still tell people that Midnight Express was not a fair representation of the Turkish legal system, tourism official in Ibiza have repeatedly complained that the song’s popularity has led everyone to assume that Ibiza is some place where you only go to get high.
Personally, I’ve never been to Ibiza but I did once take a pill in Capri and that was quite a night.
Hi everyone! Lisa here, with today’s music video of the day!
Ironically, when Moby first recorded Porcelain, he felt that it was such a weak song that he didn’t even want to release it. According to an interview that he gave to Billboard, the song was inspired by a real-life relationship, one that did not end well. Perhaps the subject matter was too personal for him to hear the song objectively but Moby had to literally be talked into including Porcelain on Play.
Of course, it went on to become one of his signature songs, perhaps the song for which he will always be remembered.
How many movies and advertisements have featured Porcelain? I’ve lost track. Danny Boyle made good use of it in The Beach. I remember I once even heard it playing in the background of a commercial for a local jewelry store.
As for the video, it’s simple but effective. It was directed by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund, who directed his first video in 1988 and is still directing them today.
Yesterday, as soon as I saw the twitter reaction to the passing of Malcolm Young, I knew that there was no way today’s music video of the day wouldn’t come from AC/DC.
As I looked through all of the AC/DC videos that were available on YouTube, the main thing that I noticed was that there was not an ounce of pretension to either the band’s music or their videos. The majority of the videos that I saw were simply made up of footage of the band performing on stage. There was no attempt to pretend that they were anything other than a hard-working band that played fast and loud. How could anyone not respect that?
Highway to Hell was probably an obvious video to pick, as it seems to be the song that everyone knows. Well, that’s okay. Sometimes, the obvious choice is the right choice. Since the video is pretty straight forward, here’s a little background on the song, courtesy of Songfacts:
The title is often attributed as a phrase AC/DC guitarist Angus Young used to describe touring in America. There is a much more literal explanation, however. “Highway to Hell” was the nickname for the Canning Highway in Australia. It runs from where lead singer Bon Scott lived in Fremantle and ends at a pub/bar called The Raffles, which was a big rock ‘n roll drinking hole in the ’70s. As Canning Highway gets close to the pub, it dips down into a steep decline: “No stop signs… speed limits… nobody gonna slow me down.”
So many people where killed by driving fast over that intersection at the top of the hill on the way for a good night out, that it was called the highway to hell, so when Bon was saying “I’m on the highway to hell” it meant that he was doing the nightly or weekly pilgrimage down Canning Highway to The Raffles bar to rock and drink with his mates: “Ain’t nothing I would rather do. Going down, party time, my friends are gonna be there too.”
How about a little Muse for today’s music video of the day?
I’ve always found it ironic that this band is named Muse because I’m usually at my most productive whenever I’ve got them playing in the background. There are just certain groups that help to get me in the mood to write. The Chemicals Brothers is one. So is Jakalope. Sleigh Bells, definitely. And then there’s Muse.
Starlight is a favorite of mine. According to my BFF, I once stayed up for six days straight, listening to this song over and over again. I think she’s exaggerating but it is a song that I listen to frequently.
Starlight was directed by Paul Manor. The band is performing on the deck of the MS Ocean Chie, which Wikipedia describes as being a “handysize bulk carrier.” I have no idea what that description means, beyond the fact that the boat’s deck was big enough for Muse to perform. According to Matt Bellamy, there is a deeper symbolism behind them performing on the boat. The video is about a band that is lost at sea because, at the time, Muse felt they were “outside what’s happening in the music scene.”
Through the Shattered Lens 