Tag Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Starving by Hailee Steinfeld, Grey ft. Zedd (2016, dir. Darren Craig)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I first have to address two things about the title of this post. I guess when they put up collaborations, then they simply insert a comma. That isn’t confusing at all. It is made worse by the fact that this is another one of these songs “featuring” another artist. It would make so much more sense to the viewer if they just put the artists involved in a list separated by ampersands with the primary one listed first. I know it has to do with stuff going on in the background between the record companies, but it doesn’t help the person watching the music video.

This is the third music video I’ve looked at so far from 2016. I’m already sensing a pattern when it comes to recent female artists. It’s nice to know that the influence of Bonnie Tyler’s music videos is still alive 30+ years later even if it has been filtered and diluted through so many other artists. At least it’s her music videos that I think of when I see a female artist singing about sexuality in a video like this one.

I know nothing about any of the three artists involved, but regardless, was it too much to ask to have this be a remake of Faster Than The Speed Of Night? I wanna see the members of Grey in armor on motorcycles while dueling with javelins, Zedd in a speedo whipping a guitar around himself, and cutaways to Steinfeld singing. Just a group of topless male dancers in a warehouse showing up while I wonder if I really should be watching a 19 year-old doing and singing those things just doesn’t cut it. At the very least they could have had supernatural cowboys in black with neon fire-whips come after her till this person she once tasted shows up to rescue her from blending into the background. I miss 80’s music videos already.

I can’t say I am happy that trying to look sexy is being equated with maturity in this and Side By Side by Ariana Grande. I understand that they are both at that age and that it’s nothing really new, but it undercuts the music, which is unfortunate. Then again, there isn’t much music here to undercut. I may not like Grande’s music now, but she seems like she has untapped potential.

I hate to say it, but the Music Video Sins episode on this one pretty much nailed it. I’m glad I watched it. I had no idea those random cutaways to the guys waiting to give Hailee a ride home were the members of Grey. I was also unaware that there were five writers on this song, yet this is what they came up with for Steinfeld to sing. Also, if you didn’t know you were starving till you “tasted” someone, then why are they showing you blending into the background? That kind of clashes with the coming-of-age message.

At the end of the day, this is harmless and instantly forgettable. If you told me this was a number done on Dancing With The Stars that was adapted into a music video shot on a shoestring budget, then I would believe you.

Darren Craig appears to be a relatively new director whereas Director X and Hannah Lux Davis have been doing this for awhile.

I have three more to go. I hope they get better.

6 from 2016:

  1. Music Video of the Day: Work From Home by Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign (2016, dir. Director X)
  2. Music Video of the Day: Side To Side by Ariana Grande ft. Nicki Minaj (2016, dir. Hannah Lux Davis)

Music Video of the Day: Side To Side by Ariana Grande ft. Nicki Minaj (2016, dir. Hannah Lux Davis)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Let’s see what things I have already talked about in the area of sex when it comes to music videos:

-Laura Branigan brought us an orgy and being seduced with Self Control.
-Cyndi Lauper brought us masturbation with She Bop.
-Fiona Apple brought us the uncomfortably erotic Criminal that looks like it was shot on the set of a 70’s porno.
-Fifth Harmony loaded Work From Home with sexual references.

I think that’s it.

I didn’t think I would get to a music video in the area of anal sex, or rough sex, depending on how you interpret “getting railed”, till I did Dog Police.

I love that this music video about anal/rough sex is sponsored by Guess. It even premiered on their website.

There isn’t much to say if you’re my age–I thought. I take one look at this and think: Let’s get physical! Physical! I wanna get physical! Except can we do it in a way that comes across as somebody trying to be shocking instead of making something clever?

Director Hannah Lux Davis clearly had that music video in mind when she made this. The look of this gym is based on the one from Physical.

According to Grande in an interview with Ryan Seacrest, she thinks the album Dangerous Woman will move her away from her Nickelodeon image:

“It still sounds like me, but it feels like a more mature, evolved version. There’s a nice blend of the R&B vibes and a nice blend of pop vibes. The whole body of work is a little darker and sexier and more mature…”

Maybe she pulled that logic from Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball. The difference is that the music video for Wrecking Ball referenced Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O’Connor, True Colors by Cyndi Lauper, and being her real-self instead of an image assigned to her by others via a reference to the wig from Hannah Montana which represented disguising who you are to please others. That was well-done. The song also had meat and punch to it.

This has Grande wearing a hat that says she is an “Icon” as a stand-in for a mostly shaved head. It has her dressed in an allegedly sexy manner that I guess represents maturity and being herself as a sexual being who isn’t ashamed to talk about anal/rough sex. It also has men turned into Ken dolls that I’m assuming are supposed to be a replacement for the newly buff guys pairing off and leaving the gym together in Physical. Otherwise, I’m not sure why they are around at all. It comes across as similar, but it doesn’t have the same impact when I watch it. I don’t feel anything when I hear the song.

I have never watched her Nickelodeon show, so I am not familiar with what her image was there. However, I can speak about Disney, which is along the same lines. This doesn’t break from that image at all. There’s sex all over their shows in one form or another.

That’s really it. It’s a more explicitly sexed-up version of a late-90s pop-princess music video based on Olivia Newton-John’s Physical, trying to do the same kind of thing as what that video and Wrecking Ball did for Newton-John and Cyrus, respectively. I hope that if she wants to move away from her Nickelodeon image, that she doesn’t let herself get trapped in this image. She has plenty of time. She’s only 23.

6 from 2016:

  1. Music Video of the Day: Work From Home by Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign (2016, dir. Director X)

Music Video of the Day: Work From Home by Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign (2016, dir. Director X)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I thought it would be fun to get out of my comfort-zone for a bit. That’s why I have picked out six music videos to feature over the next six days that are from 2016. That’s it. I just went with whatever music video YouTube recommended after picking out this one.

First things first, despite anything else I say about this music video, I am grateful for the beginning that tells me who the director is, along with the song title and artists. I think this “featuring” thing is as stupid as when they used to list people as “guest stars” in a movie.

I basically stopped listening to new music around 2005 or so. I came across this by accident. However, bands like this are nothing new. They go back at least as far as barbershop quartets. Let’s be fair, and compare them to similar 90s bands. Comparing this to Lollipop by Chordettes wouldn’t be right.

Based solely on this music video, do they hold up to a comparison with TLC or En Vogue? No, they most certainly don’t. Those are apt comparisons. I hear this song and My Lovin (You’re Never Gonna Get It) by En Vogue pops into my head. So does No Scrubs by TLC.

As for the music video…*shrugs*. I’m assuming the intended message is that you don’t have to go out there cheating because your woman at home (???) is horny and needs your attention if you intend to stay together. Hence the chorus about you not having to go to work, but still having to work, and letting their bodies do the work. Work away from home being a metaphor for cheating and working from home being about maintaining a relationship. I’m also assuming that Dolla $ign carrying around a sledgehammer is a reference to their song Sledgehammer, and I have no doubt that Director X was also referencing the Peter Gabriel song of the same title.

According to Wikipedia, the music video was well-received by at least two critics who praised it for the usual things having to do with men and them coming into their own with this video.

I can say that the first is superficial, but if it makes any women feel empowered, then great. I don’t see it acting as a gateway to better groups in that area such as Girlschool, The Donnas, Bikini Kill, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

The second I really can’t speak to seeing as this is my first exposure to them. Taking a quick glance at their other music videos doesn’t help. I watch them, and a group like Dream, with their song He Love U Not, comes to mind. Just add more sex and clearly more success.

There isn’t much more unless I want to get snarky about the references to penis size and doggie-style.

Will this go into my collection of pop songs that I like? No. I will remember how the lyrics say the one lady is submissive, but the music video has her pulling out a tape measurer. I will also remember that people are still getting worked up over repetitious lyrics for reasons beyond me.

Director X seems to have been making music videos since the late-90s with around 200 credits to his name.

Since I brought them up, I’ll end this on a song by Girlschool. I don’t like to include other music videos in these posts, so here is just the song Don’t Call It Love by Girlschool.

Music Video of the Day: The Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen (1984, dir. Brian Griffin)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Today in the US, we are supposed to get an incredible Supermoon. I thought I would take the opportunity to spotlight The Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen.

Depending on your age, you might remember this song from different places. Older audiences were there when it was released, but younger audiences remember it from Donnie Darko (2001). Or you could be like me, and be somewhere in the middle. I caught it on the radio at some point between its release and Donnie Darko.

There’s an article over at The Guardian where they had Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant talk about the song.

I don’t have anything really to say. It’s your typical artsy Echo & The Bunnymen music video except with what is arguably their best song. When I watch it I see fate/God personified as someone in black and red standing on what I assume is supposed to be the RMS Titanic. There are what I imagine are baptismal waters. I also see cards that tie back in with fate.

I am sure both the song and the music video have other Biblical references as well, but McCulloch himself told Uncut magazine–about the song–that you don’t need to have read the Bible to “get as much out of it.”

Brian Griffin directed this music video. He’s made a few music videos over the years. He seems to be best known as a photographer, which isn’t much of a surprise. Echo & The Bunnymen were best known for the music videos they made with Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn. This just wasn’t one of them. Corbijn would go on to direct a music video for Depeche Mode, which is funny because that’s the other group that hired Corbijn to direct most of their music videos. It all connects. By that I mean that even God in the song comes round to the director. The director’s name is the same as Brian Griffin from Family Guy, who is a dog, and dog spelled backwards is God. There’s a weird connection I didn’t expect to come across. He appears to still be working in photography today. You can find a short article about his “best shot” over at The Guardian. You can also see pictures/album covers he took with the band on his website.

One last thing to mention is that you might notice the chords are derived from the ones used in David Bowie’s Space Oddity. The lyrics for Europe’s song The Final Countdown were inspired by the same Bowie song. I didn’t think these two music videos I have featured in the past few days would connect to each other, but there you go.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Mexican Radio by Wall Of Voodoo (1983, dir. Francis Delia)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I’d like to commemorate suddenly finding my TV on a Spanish-language station a few days ago that I didn’t know existed where a guy was cutting an apple in his mouth using a chainsaw. That’s a thing that happened when I was simply trying to switch between movies on my DVR.

Ah, good old Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo. This is right up there with songs like Safety Dance and Come On Eileen as the stereotypical 80s one-hit wonder. It’s fun, catchy, and a genuinely good song. There’s one problem though. Just like many SNL sketches, I don’t see how this was supposed to translate into a career. Of course I thought of that, and then I had to look into what happened to them.

After this song, they basically broke up the band. I say basically because some of the members continued under that name even though lead singer Stan Ridgway had left the band and went solo. They would even go on to do at least one other music video for a song called Far Side of Crazy. It’s pretty good. I’ll have to do that one someday. I also found out that Westerns were a theme with them beyond just this one song and the video for it that they shot in Tijuana. You can find them doing a cover of Ring of Fire. However, at the end of the day, it’s not really something I see as sustainable. It’s more of a novelty than anything else. Ridgway on the other hand, is sustainable. I hope the video is still up. Here is Ridgway performing his song Camouflage in 2015.

This stuff works for a solo artist. I get why it flopped for an entire group. I could probably go into more detail about what happened to the group, but I don’t need to do that because there is an interview with Ridgway over on Songfacts where he explains it.

The music video is timeless. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s another one made by Francis Delia. I have done two other music videos of his so far. He has brought us a dead shark in Shooting Shark, a cooked pig for Somebody’s Watching Me, and now an iguana being barbecued. I can’t wait to see more of his music videos to see if this is a recurring thing like rocking chairs are in Anton Corbijn videos.

Oh, and that is Carel Struycken near the end as the director.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: In My Darkest Hour by Megadeth (1988, dir. Penelope Spheeris)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I sound like a broken record every time I say this, but there isn’t much to talk about here beyond it being a good song.

Even if somebody didn’t know anything about Megadeth or director Penelope Spheeris, it would make perfect sense for someone to look at this music video and think it was extracted from a documentary. I haven’t seen The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988) yet. According to Songfacts, the music video was either shot before the documentary, then integrated into it, or it was part of the documentary, then extracted to be released as a music video. Either way, you’d be right to look at this and think it was from a documentary.

I like what Spheeris did here. She made a stripped down concert video that lets the band shine on their own merits rather than her work as a director. It isn’t devoid of her touch though. She clearly tried to capture them as people performing for other people rather than creating a stylish representation of the material like you would see in their music videos for Peace Sells and Sweating Bullets. The thing that subtly jumps out at me when I watch this over and over is that Mustaine is largely invisible due to the limited amount of time he is shown on stage, the sunglasses, and his face being partially darkened during parts of it. I would imagine this was done not only to visually show the darkness of the lyrics, but to keep your focus on the lyrics and how they are resonating with the crowd.

Speaking of the lyrics, this is one of those music videos that was banned from MTV. According to Wikipedia, it was due to alleged references to suicide.

According to mvdbase, the husband and wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris produced this music video. They would go on to do a lot of other famous music videos together as well as the movie Little Miss Sunshine (2006). They were also producers on The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Poison Arrow by ABC (1982, dir. Julien Temple)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I normally don’t talk about the thumbnail used on a video. However, It would be perfectly natural for someone to look at that thumbnail and think they are about to watch a music video remake of Casablanca (1942) with Martin Fry playing Bogart. It’s not too far off. I would add that it also seems to take place in a lost Rainer Werner Fassbinder film.

When I watch this music video I get the distinct feeling that I am missing previous chapters in this story of three different guys that become enraptured with the same woman. This also isn’t too far off. I haven’t listened to the whole album, called The Lexicon of Love, but I know enough to say that I am kind of missing other installments in this tale. Wikipedia tells me that while it is not a concept album, it does have repeated themes that revolve around heartache. This also makes sense seeing as several of the songs off of the album have names like The Look of Love, All of My Heart, and Valentine’s Day. A longform music video was even made called Mantrap. Still, you don’t have to have heard the whole album, or have seen the other music videos that were made for songs on the album in order to enjoy this one.

I mentioned before that there are three different characters who try to get the same woman, but I have to admit that I thought they were the same person till I read the Wikipedia article on the song. It comes across as a guy spotting a woman that he knew while watching a play, disguising himself as a singing telegram to confront her backstage, and then she comes to his nightclub where he confronts her again, only to be literally reduced to a little nothing in her life. I have no doubt that these are supposed to be three different people. I also believe that they had Martin Fry play all of them for a reason. It seems to me that the music video visually hints to the audience that the three different characters come from the same place while the song itself has all three men singing the same song that asks her to shoot the “poison arrow” to their heart. The combination of the two binds them visually and audibly. I’m not sure about the beginning and the end. I could guess, but I’ll just leave that to you. I could be completely wrong about the whole thing.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that much. It is one of the best music videos of the era whether you get exactly what they were going for or not. Director Julien Temple did an excellent job here. It’s no wonder he has done more than a hundred of them. It’s also not a surprise that when ABC decided to make a return recently, they brought Julien Temple back to direct their new music video.

As is often the case, I come to the end of one of these posts, and just as I am ready to leave, I decide to do one more Google search only to find something else worth mentioning. Since I am stubborn, I often stick it at the end where/when I found out about it anyways. Does the woman look familiar? She didn’t to me, but it’s Lisa Vanderpump who would be in several other music videos–including one for Lady Gaga–and the TV Show, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Message of Love by The Pretenders (1981, dir. Mark Robinson)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

In the late-90s I was very dissatisfied with the state of music. As a result, I turned to older bands whose music I hadn’t explored. Numerous VH1 top-artists’ lists helped me to discover all kinds of bands I had never heard of before. One of those bands was The Pretenders. It was mainly Chrissie Hynde’s voice that I fell in love with, but the songs were excellent as well. I figured it was time to feature one of their music videos. There was no particular reason I chose this one. I am pretty sure that the music video for Brass In Pocket is their most well-known.

There isn’t that much to the music video. There are two interesting parts I noticed. The first is the opening when they all step forward from the darkness to reveal themselves. The other part is when they face each other at the microphone to hum towards each other. It reminded me of that part of the music video for ABBA’s Waterloo when Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad turn to sing towards each other rather than facing the audience. You see this again in ABBA’s Knowing Me, Knowing You music video. Other than those things, it is shot like you are sitting-in on a studio recording of the song. It does make things more intimate, but it also makes it difficult to say much about it other than that it is great song.

According to VH1, this was the 19th music video to air on MTV.

The director of the music video was Mark Robinson. I can find that he at least directed around 20 music videos, including several more for The Pretenders. However, his IMDb page leads me to believe that there are more, and that he may still be working in music videos today.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Warrior by Scandal (1984, dir. David Hahn)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

I first saw this back in the early-2000s when it was played on VH1 Classic. I was hooked instantly. It seemed to take forever to end up on YouTube. It is near the top as one of my favorite bizarre 80s music videos. Patty Smyth on the other hand was not happy with it, saying in the book I Want My MTV:

“When I saw the video, I was crestfallen…I had no idea it would look like an off-Broadway production of Cats.”

I am glad she didn’t realize it would look the way it does. I don’t want to live in a world where I can’t see Patty Smyth in ridiculous hair and make-up, move in to do battle with a guy who has just fought off dancers in post-apocalyptic costumes, including appearing to have snapped a woman’s back in half. Seriously, is that what happened to the lady in pink? The music video sure makes it look like it. Even Smyth reacts like it happened. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing I have noticed while re-watching an 80s music video. If you pay close attention to the one for Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, then you’ll notice there is a split second where two guys appear to be stuffing a corpse into a wicker basket.

There are even crazier music videos featuring dance–*cough* Bonnie Tyler *cough*–but I hope this will do. It was also shot by Daniel Pearl, who others might not know by now, seems to have shot every music video under the sun, as well as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

It was directed by David Hahn who appears to have directed this music video, and nothing else. Did Patty Smyth blackball him? I highly doubt it, but I wouldn’t have put it past her. You might not know this, but before Van Halen went to Sammy Hagar, they asked her to front the band. You can read about that here. I get why she didn’t take the job. Among other things, she said, “If I had done that, I never would have written ‘Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough.'” Still, I can hear her in my head belting out songs like Why Can’t This Be Love? and Humans Being.

Ken Walz produced it, who you might recall producing I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses.

That’s it! I hope you have a great birthday, Lisa.

Music Video of the Day: The Final Countdown by Europe (1986, dir. Nick Morris)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

It’s Election Day! If this song can work for waiting on a burrito, then it can work today.

As for the music video, it’s your standard mid-80s concert video. They do a good job of capturing “the final countdown” itself visually, as well as that come-to-our-concert thing that was prevalent in 80s hair-metal band music videos. The concert footage was shot at two concerts at Solnahallen in Solna, Sweden on the 26th and 27th of May, 1986. They also shot some additional footage during sound checks for those concerts.

Director Nick Morris has done around 40 music videos.

Fiona O’Mahoney produced at least 19 music videos. Sadly, according to a memorial site, she passed away in 2010. It also looks like she and Nick Morris got married.

I hope you enjoy this music video on what is otherwise a very serious day.