Music Video of the Day: Money, Money, Money by ABBA (1976, dir. ???)

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I normally wouldn’t count this. However, not only does mvdbase say it is a music video, but so does Wikipedia and apparently the book ABBA: The Name of the Game since it is the source cited on Wikipedia. You can see that this was done for the German TV Show called Disco because of the show’s name in the background.

So, here it is. This is the Flapper Dress version of Money, Money, Money. It’s really just them performing. According to IMDb, the acts performing on the show would sometimes perform live, and other times mime to the song. My money is on them performing live since according to the description of the video, it says “Audio-CD-Sound”. I have no reason to doubt that since I played the studio version at the same time as this one, and they were identical. I could be wrong though. It could be that the studio version playing during the video sounded bad enough that the person who posted the video replaced it with the studio track seeing as it perfectly syncs–even down to Björn’s little guitar bits–with the studio version. That would mean they were miming. It doesn’t really matter.

Like I said before, it is just them performing. They wear Flapper Dresses to evoke images of that rich period in history, and foreshadow The Great Depression. The other music video is far more interesting and ties it in more to the lyrics. Still, it is fun to look at since it has what I think may be the most unenthusiastic audience I’ve ever seen. Some even appear to be confused as to what they are doing there.

Enjoy!

Update:

I screwed up. I found the actual Flapper Dress version. Here it is:

That happens. Me and YouTube searches aren’t perfect. Sorry.

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Tiger by ABBA (1976, dir. Per Falkman)

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Well, this is different for ABBA. Mvdbase says that this was released in 1976. The album it is from–Arrival–did come out that year. However, I’m not 100% sure. The reason I say that is because this and the video for Night Fever by the Bee Gees are pretty much the same video. I’m going with 1976 since you can see that Frida is wearing a T-Shirt that says 1776 on it.

While the video is similar to Night Fever, there are some key differences. They both share footage of the nightlife in common, but the Bee Gees aren’t actually part of it in their video. They are just superimposed over the footage. In this video, you actually get to see band driving around the city at night.

The other thing to notice is how little lip-syncing there is in the video. It’s almost non-existent. There’s a little at the beginning, and that one shot where Frida and Agnetha seem to have switched seats to sing to the camera. Otherwise, it’s just Agnetha driving the band around at night while the song plays. There’s plenty of shots where Agnetha and Frida could be lip-syncing. But instead, we are treated to Agnetha looking very serious, and Frida giving us a quick smirk at one point. Night Fever has them lip-syncing throughout. I like the lack of lip-syncing. It makes it feel gritty. It helps the visuals fit this song.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: When I Kissed The Teacher by ABBA (1976, dir. Per Falkman)

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

This video never gets any less weird to sit through. I love the song, but are they supposed to be in college or high school? It sure looks like high school. Considering Agnetha sings about being taught the laws of geometry, I think it is meant to be high school. It’s also a sexual reference of course. Watch Benny on the right during the video decked out in his Miami Dolphins shirt. It’s so ridiculous that it looks like Björn–on the left–can barely keep himself from laughing.

I originally thought that the teacher was Lasse Hallström himself. However, it turns out that it is actor Magnus Härenstam. He seems to have been best-known as the host of a Swedish version of Jeopardy.

According to author Gene Provenzo, in his book called The Teacher in American Society: A Critical Anthology, this song is an example of “how teachers are viewed by [students] as sexual objects.” I only have that quote from the Wikipedia article on this song, so I have to assume that there’s some context that goes along with it.

School uniforms mean one thing these days, and that is sex. Yet, schools harass students if they dress in a sexual manner, and then will come along to institute school uniforms. In other words, they replace the student’s choice whether they want to dress in a sexual way with making it mandatory for all students. That doesn’t normalize it or anything. It institutionalizes it for the students.

Let’s not forget cheerleaders. Apparently it’s perfectly okay for them to go around wearing their uniforms during school, but spaghetti straps are forbidden. There are male equivalents to this too, such as Letterman Jackets–I know that women wear them too. How are those any different from other sexualized clothing?

You can go on and on with this. The point is, stop that nonsense first, then we can talk about teenage sex-drives causing teachers to walk on pins and needles around their students via ignorant knee-jerk parents and pushover school boards along with–I hope–the rare student who flat out lies about sexual harassment. Here’s one fix: Don’t require the teachers to dress in such a “professional” manner, aka a uniform, which plays into them being viewed as sexual objects.

I hope there’s context in that book to go with that statement. However, the reviews on his 1991 book called Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo say otherwise. The Teacher in American Society: A Critical Anthology was done in 2010. People change.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Tropical Loveland by ABBA (1976, dir. ???)

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

It’s back to ABBA. I’ll finish this retrospective if it kills me.

Apparently ABBA not only went to Australia, but were hugely successful there. So much so, that they made this music video specially for them. It may or may not have been part of a larger special they did for Australia. There is of course the movie as well that was released in 1977 about a week-long tour they did in Australia that same year. I don’t recall it being very good when I watched it a few years ago.

In the video below, you can see the band trying to handle animals and Björn explaining that you can fit 15 Swedens into Australia. It does get kind of choppy near the end of the video, so it isn’t just your computer.

As you watch this music video, pay special attention to Agnetha’s butt. I’m not kidding. Agnetha’s butt was a big hit in Australia and the UK. There are numerous videos about it on YouTube. Here’s a couple of them.

Otherwise, this is your typical ABBA-goes-on-vacation music video–similar to the sailboat version of Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Movies by Alien Ant Farm (2001, dir. Marc Klasfeld)

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

We’ve reached the end of February, and the last version of Movies by Alien Ant Farm. This is the one most people know. Unfortunately, I sat down late to write this, so let’s keep it simple.

The music video starts off with lead-singer Dryden Mitchell apparently confused by a hotdog jumping around onscreen next to a bun when his just sits in his hand.

It must be because that’s not supposed to happen without John Travolta around to sing about Olivia Newton-John.

Grease (1978, dir. Randal Kleiser)

He decides to jump into the screen in order to work in a reference to Last Action Hero (1993). The rest of the band decides to follow suit, and are instantly replaced by every alt-rock band from the time-period.

Once inside, they notice that the movie magic is now dead.

Now they remind us of how big a fan they are of Michael Jackson–in case we didn’t get that from them covering Smooth Criminal–by referencing Captain EO (1986).

However, their reference to Captain EO also features the Italian evil-eye thing that ignorant people think has something to do with Satan, and it pisses of the local Sammi Curr.

Trick Or Treat (1986, dir. Charles Martin Smith)

It doesn’t matter that he now dresses more like Axl Rose. Sammi thinks that he is the only rocker that has the right to reach into or out of a screen. He did it in Trick Or Treat to kill Ozzy Osbourne.

Trick Or Treat (1986, dir. Charles Martin Smith)

Luckily the band turns into the Ghostbusters in order to deal with Sammi Curr. I’m sure it was also a way of taking a shot at critics of their brand of hard rock/heavy metal.

The band performs as themselves for awhile, and brings more stuff out of the screen to remind us of the early-80s 3D craze before turning into Oompa Loompas.

Veruca Salt is the audience. She is promptly turned into a giant blue M&M.

Now the band goes into Karate Kid mode, but Mitchell is down!

That’s no problem though because Pat Morita shows up to heal him through the power of movie magic.

This causes them to flash to an Asian guy in the audience before moving on.

The video decides it’s time to go into the 90s with Edward Scissorhands (1990) .

Edward spots a guy sporting an afro in the audience and decides to update him for the times by giving him the Coolio.

It also spells out AAF just in case we forgot what band we were watching. At this point, the audience decides it’s time for them all to jump into the screen.

That is except for the usher…

who disappears in the far shot…

but reappears when the camera cuts back to the front of the theater.

The music video was directed by Marc Klasfeld who you might know from any number of places, including:

Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) by Katy Perry

He’s directed over 100 of them. He also shot around 20 of them.

Emilie Sennebogen produced the video. I can only find two music video credits for Sennebogen.

Scott Free was the stylist on the video. He appears to have done around 10 music videos.

Jeff Judd worked on make-up. I can only find two music video credits for him.

Ben Oswald was the production manager. He’s worked as a producer, production manager, and as an associate producer on music videos.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Movies by Alien Ant Farm (2001, dir. Marcos Siega)

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

That sure is another version of Movies. It probably looks familiar even if you’ve never seen it before. That’s because a lot of videos by bands like Alien Ant Farm had essentially the same music video at the time.

Used For Glue by Rival Schools

Waffle by Sevendust

Moment of Weakness by Bif Naked

Promise by Eve 6

Last Resort by Papa Roach

Crawling In The Dark by Hoobastank

Chop Suey! by System Of A Down

Satellite by P.O.D.

Fat Lip by Sum 41

If you’re thinking all those music video were directed by Marcos Siega, then you’d actually be wrong. Fat Lip was directed by Marc Klasfeld who directed the jumping-into-the-theater-screen version of Movies. All the rest of those were directed by Marcos Siega.

I’m of course not bad-mouthing Marcos Siega. Siega also did other tropes of these kinds of videos such as fetishizing the bass player, close-ups of each of the members of the band, cutaways to what people would say are lost youth, and showing the music these bands were raised on. He also did some different stuff like Murder by The Crystal Method and Thorn In My Side by Quicksand. But it’s telling that I could lump Fat Lip in there, and it’s easy to believe that it was done by Siega. I could have also thrown My Friends Over You by New Found Glory in, and it would have fit in as well despite having been directed by the Malloys. Even Kevin Kerslake of Nirvana and Sonic Youth fame would get in on this with the video for Come Original by 311. Point is, I get why they shot another video that while still using a lot of the familiar tropes, such as the big audience, is much more interesting and memorable.

Something tells me that Siega was more than happy to do different things, but was told he had to follow this formula because all late-90s/early-2000s Nu-Metal and Punk-ish music must be shot this way. We’ll get to Klasfeld tomorrow.

Siega has since gone on to direct TV shows, such as Dexter and The Vampire Diaries. However, his main thing now seems to be producing. In particular, all 45 episodes of The Following.

Ramsey Nickell shot this music video. He seems to have shot around 20 music videos. He’s also shot some TV movies, among other things.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Movies by Alien Ant Farm (2001, dir. Tamra Davis)

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

But I thought that the music video for Movies by Alien Ant Farm had the band jumping into a theater screen? They did. It just took them three videos to get there. Yes, there are three versions of this music video. Why? I know that the third one was shot after the success of Smooth Criminal. That makes sense. Why was this one was replaced? Maybe because it looks like it is in bad taste, cheap, and generic. Just a guess. It could also have had something to do with this part:

Sure, we get that the point is supposed to be that, like the other girls, there’s something monsterish about her. In her case, she grows male muscles when she is turned on. Still, if mvdbase is to be believed, they shot another one that aired in March of 2001, which would coincide with the release of the album the song is on. Maybe that bit bothered people, so they made a new one. Maybe they wanted a more modern look. I don’t know.

Obviously I’m doing this music video today because of the Oscars. I honestly didn’t know that there were three versions of this video. I guess this will finish out February.

Now I have to sort out a little conflicting information. There seems to be no disagreement between IMVDb, mvdbase, and Wikipedia when it comes to the version we all know where they jump into a theater screen. That one was directed Marc Klasfeld who also did Smooth Criminal, and a few other videos for the band. The disagreement is over whether this version, or the next version, was done by Tamra Davis rather than Marcos Siega.

That’s from the second version. M. Siega is director Marcos Siega and R. Nickell is cinematographer Ramsey Nickell. You can see the date as well.

Another way I’m sure this is the first version is that this video fits with the origin of the name of the band. According to guitarist Terry Corso in a Reddit AMA:

“Oh that was just my daydream about planet seeding by entities from other dimensions. bored at work stuff”

The women are the aliens who have come to where they are performing and each member of the band daydreams about each of them turning out to be an alien that tries to have sex with them. It makes sense to me that this was the first version unless someone comes along with additional information.

According to mvdbase, this was Tamra Davis’ last music video. It’s funny to note that while Davis didn’t do the jumping-into-the-theater-screen version, that one does feature the character of Veruca Salt, and she did direct a video for the band Veruca Salt.

Jeff Selis edited this music video. He also did Dragula for Rob Zombie. He’s edited well over 100 music videos, so we’ll see plenty more of his work in the future.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Romancing The Stone by Eddy Grant (1984, dir. ???)

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Here’s the second version. They shot some footage of a woman who is working as a photographer in order to get money in order to go to St. Lucia where Eddy Grant is singing the song. They filmed new footage to splice it into footage that was shot to splice into the movie footage. Interesting. That’s it!

It’s still a good song. Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Romancing The Stone by Eddy Grant (1984, dir. ???)

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Yes, that Romancing The Stone (1984). Apparently, they went all out here. They got an artist who was born in South America. They made this video, which incorporated footage from the film. They even did a short behind-the-scenes thing below where we find out that the mountain in this video was specially constructed, and that Eddy is drinking a non-alcoholic beverage. I doubt it was constructed for Grant, but I could be wrong. It’s not unheard of for countries to bend over backwards to help a film get made in their country such as Jordan did for Sinbad: The Battle of the Dark Knights (1998).

Regardless, they cut the song from the movie. I guess they realized their mistake after the movie did so well, and not only had Billy Ocean do a song for the sequel, but even got Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, and Michael Douglas to be backup singers in the music video.

Update: I made a mistake. Grant’s song isn’t completely cut from the film. When Joan and Jack are taken in by a big fan of hers, you can hear Grant’s guitar solo playing while they are in the courtyard. He’s also given credit for the song in the ending credits.

I love when Kathleen Turner’s suitcase is thrown, hits the ground in front of Grant, and then he looks up to see his machete come back down to him having changed into a guitar. Also, for some reason I like seeing Grant casually walking along carrying a machete. I think it’s a fun video that did a good job of incorporating Grant into footage from the movie.

This one also comes with, what I assume was a TV performance that had set pieces.

Maybe it was the same show that Adam Ant performed Goody Two Shoes on. It looks like it.

Oh, and yes, there are two versions of this music video…and of the Billy Ocean one as well.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: No More Lies by Michel’le (1989, dir. Jane Simpson)

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Full confession, I have not seen Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le (2016). I did watch that movie called Britney Ever After (2017) a few days ago. I think it was about Britney Spears, but it was tough to tell. I’m pretty sure that Oops!…I Did It Again didn’t have anything to do with falling out of a car while perving on Brad Pitt.

Anyways, I did hear enough about Surviving Compton to know that this video is more than just a visual representation of an R&B/Soul song about leaving someone who is lying to you. From what I’ve read, this is rather close to what reality was for her at the time this video was made.

There really isn’t much to the video other than it being close to reality, and the song having a nice mix of Michel’le talking over her larynx, and singing from her diaphragm–that’s what creates the difference in her singing and speaking voice. I just thought some people might be curious to see one of her music videos if they haven’t already.

I’m positive there are some cameos in here that I should recognize. The only one that jumped out at me was Eazy-E, but that was because of the sunglasses and the “Compton” hat. I have no doubt that Dre is in here. I am just not familiar enough with how he looked at this time to say where he is in here. It makes sense that they would both be in here. They are both in her video for the song Nicety.

Jane Simpson directed this music video. She seems to have done around 50 of them. A fair number of them for Concrete Blonde. She has done some other work, including Number One Fan (1995) and Little Witches (1996).

Spoiler alert! Little Witches isn’t very good. However, it is kind of fun going into it knowing that it was done by a director who started off in music videos. You can tell at times. In much the same way that you can when you watch Leslie Libman’s Britney Ever After, who also started in music videos.

Enjoy!