Video List

Last night the 2008 Video Music Awards was on MTV. The first VMA aired on MTV at the end of the summer of 1984 to celebrate the top music videos of the year - that’s nearly a quarter century ago. My my how things have changed….well, some things.

R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe recently called into question the relevance of music videos by claiming their “time has passed.” Let’s not bring up how his own band is still investing in video, let’s talk about what he meant. Did he really mean to say that the marriage of music and video is dead? Given the ease to make and distribute video on the Internet, I find it hard to believe that artists and their labels won’t continue to look for fresh ways to engage audiences around music and video. If YouTube is any indication (and I think it is), music videos still top their most viewed charts. Why is this and what’s the future? How important are music videos to a new song release today? Will it make you download and hopefully buy it in a “God, I’ve just got to have that song” sort of way? More importantly, will it make you pay real money to go see the artist perform live? Otherwise, wtf is the reward for a music video, let alone one that gets a VMA?

Five Awards of a Different Kind

So instead of talking about which music videos did or should have received a “moon man” award this year, I thought it’d be far more interesting to look back over all the years of music videos and pick some that deserve a special kind of recognition. Here are five music videos that start with no music. That’s right, they start with dialog by the artist or others. These non-music moments attempted to set the scene for the music video, presumably making it more emotionally connective and entertaining than simply diving right into the song. Not surprisingly, sometimes it worked and other times it worked in a different way - its lameness made it entertaining and memorable.

THE BEST-LAMEST EXPLOITATION OF THE HANDICAP BY SAPPY 80s MUSICIAN

“Hello” by Lionel Richie
Lionel’s an acting teacher. He’s secretly in love with Laura, one of his students who is blind. I can see the brainstorming around this one: “ok, so we’ll put Lionel with a hot art student because the lyrics are ‘…is it me you’re looking for?’ But we’ll make her blind, so her ‘looking’ takes on a deeper, soul searching kind of meaning.” Pure genius man. Actually, Wikipedia cites the video as adapted from a screenplay called “Spaldeen Summers” so I can’t verify the source of such creative madness. It’s worth noting the creepy elements this video conjures in that the school looks more like a high school than a college, which could trigger some legal issues for Mr. Richie if he hooks up with Laura. Watch the whole thing because the ending also has some cheezy closure dialog that’s a must see. Yes, of course it’s lame, the whole video and song are lame. It’s so powerfully lame that it deserves an award…and a good cry.

Best Line: “This is how I ’see’ you…”

MOST GRATUITOUS USE OF A HELICOPTER, RIFF & B-LIST CELEBS

“It’s Tricky” by Run DMC
A stylishly clad chick from the 80s who might also be dressed as a Bell Hop gets hustled on the streets of Brooklyn by Magicians Penn and Teller. This video is from 1986 when Penn and Teller weren’t exactly a household name - if they ever were. But they’re magicians and the video was about being tricky….so do ya get it huh? The hot babe/bell hop calls Run DMC on the landline after getting hustled for her gold chain delivering a powerful line “they took my chain.” Suddenly a helicopter with a furry interior supports Run DMC’s quick and heroic response to this dire situation. To me, what makes this song and video so fun and catchy is its surprising similarity to the beat of Toni Basil’s 1982 hit “Mickey”. And be sure to check out the ending…while it looks like Run DMC teach Penn and Teller a trick or two, they might not have the last laugh.

Best line: “Excuse me sir, you’ve taken all our money, could you teach me and my little friend this remarkable skill…and could you teach us to dance?”

MASTERFUL USE OF DOUGLAS C. NIEDERMEYER IN A MUSIC VIDEO

“We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister
Fade in to a big family eating dinner around a table. Mean old Douglas C. Niedermeyer (a la Animal House) puts the hammer down on his rebellious young son listening to Twisted Sister. Niedermeyer pulls out all stops on his classic drill sergeant routine. This song is a great anthem to 80s rock as well as inspiring many to dress as Dee Snider for Halloween. Hey, now there’s an idea.

Best line: “I carried a M-16 and you…you carry that, that, that….GUITAR!”

MOST INCOHERENT DIALOG FOR A CHEAP VIDEO BUT GREAT SONG

“Driver 8″ by R.E.M.
This YouTube link contains a typical introduction by two teenager MTV VJs - worth including because it captures the golden, if not dorky, MTV period. In R.E.M.’s video, we hear some guy mumbling over grainy 8 mm black and white film footage of trains and presumably a train driver - OMG, maybe it’s Driver 8? I’m unclear as to how much value this dialog has to queuing up the song and the apparently homemade video, but I don’t really care because this is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs. Which brings back Stipe’s recent question: how relevant are music videos? Meaning, I’ll watch this video because I like the song and I even like trains, but the video kind of sucks and definitely doesn’t add any lasting value to me as a fan. It doesn’t increase my desire to pay big bucks to see an R.E.M. show - I already want to - which is where the money is in music today. And sadly, it doesn’t even make me want to download the song. Soooooooo?

Best line: “Well, I can’t buy the batteries any more because they’re kind of expensive so I just leave them on the front porch”

MOLD BREAKER: THEN AND STILL TODAY

“Thriller” by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson makes it official with his girl by giving her a ring, then he comes clean telling her he’s “not like other guys.” Tell me about it. Turns out he’s a frigging werewolf - a description that oddly foreshadowed troubles later in his career. But wait, we realize it’s just a scary movie Michael is watching with his girlfriend at the cinema. They leave. Michael dances and sings. Choreographed zombies enter the picture along with the late Vincent Price’s narration. Anyone old enough to watch T.V. on Thriller’s release date of December 2, 1983 surely remembers where they were when they first saw this video (see memories of Thriller). The take home message is that “Thriller,” even after 25 years, was the biggest, and still best, marriage of video and music for an album promotion. It made Thriller one of the best selling albums of all time.

Best line: “I’m not like the other guys”. (Ummm…yeah)

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Perhaps “album” is the keyword here. It highlights the current dynamics influencing music and video. The reward of music videos was really never about the song, but the album, because that’s how we owned music back in the day. Something like “wow, cool video + I like the song = I’ll go buy the album.” But now that songs are decoupled from the album; now that people buy, or just download individual songs for free, what is the equation for value from music and video?

Can anyone say with a straight face that the costs to produce a major artist’s music video are, on the average, recouped by the sales of their music? Changes to what consumers are willing to pay for music are transforming music and video into straight out commercials that use songs to invoke an emotional experience around a product. The trick is to have us say “wow, what’s that cool song playing in that commercial, video game, TV show or movie?” It’s no longer about monetizing the music, it’s about monetizing that value of the music in being associated with a brand or experience. And it’s about converting the awareness and discovery of new music into fans who will pay to see a live performance by the artist.

Nope, music videos are no longer about selling the music, they are about selling things and experiences around the music. And if you accept this premise as a valid economic shift, then producing an old school music video today - one that sells only the artist, album and song - is arguably more an artistic endeavor than ever before because there’s little if any financial return on the investment.

It’s nearly folly. But don’t get me wrong, music and all art is often best served as a matter of folly. Alas MTV, the place where music videos were bred, born and buried, still manages to award those fighting this new world order. So what’s their reward again?

What are your favorite music videos that use dialog to queue up the song and set the story? And what do you see as the future of music and video?