Videos - Idolator

Posts Tagged “Videos”

Is Duran Duran's "Rio" Really The Greatest Video Of All Time?

Probably not, but that hasn't stopped the viewers of MTV UK to crown it as such, ahead of promotional reels by the likes of Michael Jackson, Madonna, and OK Go. Sure, it's all the result of an online poll, and one could argue that the clip is probably one of the most important videos of the (seemingly waning) music-video era, with its quick-for-its-time cuts and glossy preening, but the best ever? Really? This result is kind of making me wonder just how bloody an online battle royale between Durannies and fans of the Jonas Brothers would get. Anyway, for those of you who want to see what "Rio" beat out in the minds of MTV UK's visitors, the full top 10 (with embeds! because I care!) after the jump. More »

1:00 PM on Mon Sep 29 2008
By Maura Johnston
550 views, 21 comments

Latest by Nicolars: @NeverEnough: OTM. There is nothing better than this video, I am still as rabidly fanatical as a 12 year old JoBro fan when it comes to this point. more »

how was your weekend

Eight Things I Learned From Intermittently Watching VH1 Classic's "80 Hours Of The '80s"

Before we get into the news of the day, some notes on VH1 Classic's weekend programming, which consisted of the channel showing a chunk of its vault's videos from the '80s in alphabetical order (by artist, then by song). Why the evil geniuses at Viacom wanted to encourage shut-in-ism among the part of its demographic that probably needs sunshine and air more than most is beyond me, but that's probably because I was too busy getting sucked in to give it much thought.

1. Paul McCartney's "Spies Like Us" was, perhaps surprisingly, not a terrible "movie tie-in track" like so many other songs I had the pleasure of catching over the course of the weekend. (Although the ending to the video, which has Macca, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase "humorously" crossing Abbey Road, is wrong on too many levels.) But I'm still a total sucker for "No More Lonely Nights."

2. People—including someone in VH1 Classic's graphics department—still have a problem with the whole "where to put the apostrophe when you're abbreviating a decade" thing. Just think of it this way: The apostrophe goes where the numbers are missing. In this case, when you say "'80s," that apostrophe is actually a teeny, tiny knife that lops off a "1" and a "9"!

8:53 AM on Tue Sep 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
660 views, 11 comments

Latest by the rich girls are weeping: I missed Bryan Ferry, Madonna and Queen, which bummed me out big time. But otherwise, was happy to see long-forgotten things too, especially things I only knew the chorus of! Also, I'd forgotten that the video for Ultravox's "Vienna" was probably more »

everybody bloats... sometimes

Five Videos That Are More Bloated Than A Belly After A Beer-And-Fries Binge

Today's completely dubious claim about why an arm of the music industry might be hurting comes from Wired's Scott Thill, who wrote in response to R.E.M.'s new, ad-agency-created video for "Man-Sized Wreath": "Music videos aren't dead, they're just dying, and they're dying because of bloated videos like 'Everybody Hurts.' When fans can use their favorite songs to make their amateur films without fear of losing their comparatively miniscule cookie jars, then the new age of promotional video will be here at last." Say what? More »

11:00 AM on Thu Jun 26 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,208 views, 21 comments

Latest by TheMojoPin: @StuntKockSteeev: Wow, "Victory" is epic fail on a massive scale. These other videos might be "bloated," but they're at least remembered. People know what they are as soon you mention them...but "Victory?" I probably saw that a hundred times when it more »

big questions

What Purpose Do Music Videos Serve In 2008?

"Let's Get Really Meta About Everything Because It's Hot Out Week" continues on Idolator, with the attention paid to music in the present day and the willingness of people to experience concerts without obsessively documenting every second giving way to the meaning of music videos in 2008 via a thinky piece by James at Shots Ring Out. He points out that the medium has effectively been exiled from most programming hours, garnered the dubious currency of "Internet-attention money" for YouTube hits, and become a "loss leader for a loss leader" in the minds of record executives—in other words, their previous status as a promotional tool for albums is hurting them, since physical product once made money on its own but is now seen by many people (at least, the people who think about music instead of bilssfully ignoring it) as promotional material for touring, merchandise, and other unpirateable things. More »

5:30 PM on Mon Jun 9 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,742 views, 12 comments

Latest by the sieve: My enjoyment of music seems to have improved greatly since I've stopped watching music videos. (Who has time?) I find that when your perception isn't coloured by the aesthetic choices of the band/label/director, you enjoy the music more for what it more »

"Kanye West stopped the action at the EW party to give guests a sneak peek of the video for his single, 'Flashing Lights.' The clip, co-directed by West and Spike Jonze, has a lingerie-clad woman driving to the desert and opening the trunk of her car, revealing a bound and gagged Kanye. She batters him with a shovel. 'Everybody was in shock,' says a guest. 'They were saying, 'What was that about?'" Um, his persecution complex and penchant for half-dressed ladies? Just a guess. [Rush & Molloy / Photo: AP]

7 comments

god help us

Your Favorite DC Talk Videos Have A New Home

Today is the official launch of GodTube, the hardcore Christian alternative to YouTube, and if you've got a strong stomach/high tolerance for amateur rap songs about the apostles, it's an alternative universe worth checking out. Music-related clips, already a big part of the site's draw for potential users (500k a month, according to the Billboard article ) and already a large portion of its uploaded content, range from the mildly entertaining to the outright embarassing, which basically makes it a lot like regular YouTube. But the clips can also be educational: More »

9:16 AM on Thu Aug 9 2007
By jharv
353 views, 4 comments

Latest by brainchild: thank you for pointing that out Nonce! more »

A shot-for-shot remake of Kelly Clarkson's "Never Again" video that allegedly didn't cost a cent to produce. We're sure the accounting department at Sony BMG is forwarding this clip around the office right now. [Pop Music Kingdom]

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videos

White Stripes Make Most Expensive Karaoke Video Of All Time

The sing-along clip for "Icky Thump"—essentially a weird Michael Moore-Eli Roth fever dream—is over at Spinner. Amazingly, this has been up since midnight, and no one's managed to make an easy-to-locate clip on YouTube. Oh, Internet! We're so disappointed in you! More »

9:18 AM on Thu May 24 2007
By Brian Raftery
631 views, 8 comments

videos

Fan-Made Music Videos: The Quasi-Backlash Continues!

Today's Wall Street Journal reports on the potential pitfalls of fan-made videos, those D.I.Y. clips that turn music fans into auteurs, and that, for the most part, drive us crazy. Because the contests are imagined as a way for the artists to connect with their fans, the inevitable grumbling arises when professionals try to horn in on the action: More »

1:05 PM on Tue May 8 2007
By Brian Raftery
683 views, 4 comments

trapped in the closet

Is R. Kelly Heading Back Into The "Closet"?

It seems like it's been ages since the last chapter of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet saga—and that wait's probably been exacerbated by the end of chapter 12, where one friend confessed to another, "That ho was me!" So we got pretty excited when we happened upon this casting call for what may be the next chapter (or five, depending on how Kells' creativity has been flowing lately): More »

9:06 AM on Mon Dec 4 2006
By mjohnston
3,186 views, 5 comments

cliptip

Cliptip Helps You Put Pornographers In Your Pocket

Remember "music videos"? They were this weird combination of music and video, and they were briefly used to help steer traffic toward "record stores." Not ringing a bell? Hello? More »

10:15 AM on Fri Sep 22 2006
By Brian Raftery
49 views, 3 comments

ok go

Is Ok Go Running In Place?

Thanks to their treadmill-hopping video "Here It Goes Again," Chicago's OK Go have had a pretty good summer: As of this posting, the "Again" clip has racked up nearly 3.5 million views on YouTube, leading to appearances on The Early Show and The Colbert Report, as well as a late-addition live slot at next week's VMAs. Considering that this is an above-average power-pop group without a Killers-sized marketing budget, they deserve whatever attention they can get (though if they follow it up with another goofy-dance video, we're going to have their goddamn legs broken). More »

6:19 PM on Thu Aug 24 2006
By Brian Raftery
38 views, Comment

videos

Youtube Attempts to Make MTV Even More Irrelevant

When YouTube went down yesterday, millions of ADD-addled nerds were sent into a tizzy—where else would they find that lost Empire Strikes Back clip of C-3P0 pulling down the Wampa warning? But the site's now back online, and they've used that newfound press attention to announce that they're in talks with labels to archive every single music-video ever made. This has to be of concern to big-vaulted nostalgia factories like Vh1 Classic, which has long lured viewers with the promise of random 3 a.m. airings of old Steve Perry clips. But it's good news for music junkies, who will finally be able to (legally) watch insane, midget-intensive videos like this one. More »

10:05 AM on Wed Aug 16 2006
By Brian Raftery
83 views, Comment

videos

GO-GO MYSTERY: WHO'S KNOCKIN' BOOTS?

Bedazzled! has a link to this fascinating old Scopitone clip, in which an overcoiffed hep-cat performs a song that's very likely titled "High Boots" (we gathered that from the fact that the phrase "high boots" is repeated indefinitely). It's a fun bit of go-go history, but as Bedazzled points out, no one can figure out just who this guy is, meaning he's missing out on his $1-a-year royalty check. Can anyone ID him? More »

1:17 PM on Fri Jun 23 2006
By Brian Raftery
43 views, Comment

"American Idol" Is Playing Ringer Toss Again

Posts Tagged “Videos”