MTV and the music video

The Rise of a New Art Form

Jul 3, 2007

With the arrival of MTV in 1981, so began the rise of the now ubiquitous music video.

A musical act cannot expect to get anywhere in the fickle music industry today without an appropriately flashy video to accompany their song. This obsession with surface has heralded the triumph of image over substance where a pretty face is all that is needed to sell plenty of records. But within the vacuous wasteland that is the modern music video exists a number of directors and bands whose efforts demonstrate the artistic merit of the medium. These are the clips that are more than an extended commercial for the latest mobile phone or the new oversized, compensating SUV. Just as a good film score can add to the impact of a film scene immeasurably (just think of the ominous music that heralds the presence of Darth Vader in Star Wars), so too can an effective video take a song from mildly hummable to frustratingly unforgettable. The wide variety of personal taste makes compiling best of lists a contentious and ultimately futile business. So rather than risking the ire of the opinionated youth, below is presented a number of excellent music videos, both old and new, that are more than an ample demonstration to the uninitiated of the magic that is the music video.

Directed by stuntman/director Nash Edgerton (a member of the famous Directors Bureau) for Australian band Eskimo Joe, this unsettling music video warns us all not to break the heart of a girl who counts murderous country boys as friends.

This music video imagines that inside every hard working blue collar Joe, there is a little Rudolf Nureyev waiting to burst out. Only a stone hearted cur would fail to be moved by this clip.

Michel Gondry is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the music video but his remarkable visual style can sometimes overwhelm a song. In this effort however, Gondry has constructed his visuals around the steady beat of the song, creating a clip that complements rather than overshadows. And any clip that is referenced in an episode of the Simpsons has to be good.

The clip is every bit as hedonistic and controversial as the song. You can not turn your eyes away as the hero of the piece goes on a wild, one man party of booze, drugs, fighting and cheap girls.

The band, decked out in all white, plays in a bare concrete room as it fills up with oil. There is no better way to describe this video. It does not make any sense, it is weird and it is great.

As the band belts out a tune of modern alienation, a montage of drunken geezers, downtrodden office workers and sad, trampy girls parade momentarily across the screen. The viewer is left tapping his feet and feeling depressed at the same time.

This clip will have all those graphic design heads out there twitching in paroxysms of delight.

Referencing the work of music video auteur Spike Jonze, this is the rap version of Being John Malkovich. If only John Cusack made a guest rapping appearance, this clip would enter the heady realms of unadulterated genius.

The Arctic Monkeys are a group that can be relied upon to deliver excellent music videos. In saying that however, many of them, such as Leave Before the Lights Come On and Fluorescent Adolescent, suffer for being totally unrelated to the songs they accompany. Brianstorm avoids this pitfall and delivers dancing rap video girls with big booties, cheesy 80’s studs and creepy visuals from old stock footage. Put it all together and you have music video gold.

Avoiding the money obsessed approach of so many US rappers, British MC Dizzee Rascal presents a music video that is dark, disturbing and political.

The copyright of the article MTV and the music video in Indie Music is owned by Justin Biggar. Permission to republish MTV and the music video in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.