Music Videos...An Art Form?

Walter Stettner · From: Vienna, Austria

I watched a documentary on TV about music videos and heard several people (producers as well as label managers and reviewers) being totally enthusiastic about the music video as THE art form of the new millenium, the importance going far beyond the simple old-fashioned record, so many more ways for the artists to express themselves, new ways to reach the people and all that blabla. Personally I don't need disturbing colors, fast cuts and special effects to explain a song to me, but probably today's average listener does?

The big companies already spend a fortune to produce these videos (like sending a complete crew to some exotice place for a five second sequence), they hire famous movie directors and special effects people. The cost of recording in the studio is minimal compared to the money record companies spend on video clips today!

I am sorry - did I miss something? For me, music videos (with a few exceptions) are totally worthless, as a musician I am not interested to see somebody standing on a cliff, singing into the sunset, or even worse, see all those dramatic special effects with that certain song in the background. In this case I'd rather put the CD in the player, close my eyes and listen to the song. Even those videos that show musicians or concerts all have those strange colors and effects that make it impossible to SEE and WATCH. And to make things worse, they use those fast cuts (max. 2-3 seconds). All these things make it almost impossible for me to watch those clips without getting a headache and burning eyes after a few minutes

I imagine all those young kids watching MTV and other channels for hours, what a horrible thought!

For country videos, there have been some nice ones in the "early" days of video clips, but the ones I saw lately followed the same pattern, even if they are taken from live concerts.

Am I already too old to keep up with the "modern" times (I am 42) or just to stupid to understand this new art form? Or is it just business and a new way of selling a lifestyle rather than the music itself?

Walter
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf

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Martin Abend · From: Berlin, Germany

Well,

most of the videos are just boring, I agree. But there are some directors who definetely turned this into art like Chris Cunningham. I don't know every video he did (I don't watch televison at all for more than a year now) but there are two that I find simply amazing -one for Björk (forgot the title - the one with the kissing roboters) and one for the song "windowlicker" by Aphex Twin, where every person in that video turned into that guy, whatshisnameagain, anyway, mind-boggling stuff and definetely art in my book.

MArtin

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martin abend Pedal-Steel in Germany
s-10 sierra crown gearless 3 x4 | Regal RD45 | fender hotrod deluxe

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

David Cobb · From: Chanute, Kansas, USA

I've seen maybe one video in 5000 that could be called art and even that is subjective.
Country videos are among the most cliched of the lot.
How many times has the "take a guy, a girl, a classic car, and an old blacktop road" theme been used?
You know it's bad when you spend time checking out the girl or trying to figure out the make and model of the car, but can't remember the song or what it was about.
One positive side of video is the opportunity to get a look at an up and coming artist, something that you couldn't do in the old days when they were just a voice on the radio or a piece of black vinyl.
In my book, the best ones are the ones that are a mini concert, like Dwight Yoakum's "Fast As You".
Not much imagery, just the band playing against a backdrop, banging out a tune.

[This message was edited by David Cobb on 19 January 2004 at 03:59 PM.]

[This message was edited by David Cobb on 19 January 2004 at 04:00 PM.]

[This message was edited by David Cobb on 20 January 2004 at 06:48 PM.]

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Movies are the artform. Most music videos are just amateur movies, or they're commercials. The exceptions are few and far between.

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
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Franklin · Posted 20 Jan 2004 5:41 am

b0b....although I have seen alot of paintings, I would consider very few great art. Same is true with songs, music videos, and movies.

Johnny Cash's last video was as strong emotionally as the most heartfelt movie. Only 3 minutes captured what movie producers dream of capturing in two hours.

Paul

Franklin · Posted 20 Jan 2004 5:48 am

"Anywhere creative freedom is allowed,
works of art are found."

Franklin · Posted 20 Jan 2004 5:53 am

I forget where I read it, so I can't credit the author. I love that definition....Paul

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

That reminds me of Time magazine's article on the pop music business. The glossary defined "Artist: Any performer, regardless of ability."

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I tend to draw an imaginary, fuzzy line between "art" and "craft". The line consists of the creator's intent. If the primary intent is to communicate the creator's thoughts and feelings, I call it "art". If the intent is simply to sell a product, I call it "craft".

Movies, of course, are made to be profitable, but many moviemakers and actors aspire to a higher calling. They want to genuinely move the viewer, to communicate feelings that they have experienced.

I see very little of that aspiration in music videos. The Johnny Cash video is an exception, of course, but most music videos are simply ads to hold viewers to sell more ads. That is "craft", not "art", in my opinion.

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Theresa Galbraith · From: Goodlettsville,Tn. USA

"Hurt" was so deserving of best Video.
It was an art form done so well!

Theresa

Johan Jansen · From: Europe

where money talks, shit walks.
I've noticed the opposite also very true. Creativity born out of the worst conditions. Think about van Gogh, Rembrandt, Bach.

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Bach was not poor. He lived well for his time (1685..1750).

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Bach was indeed not poor, but the scenario mentioned is "worst conditions". If you look at the conditions in which he created his masterpieces you have to just shake your head at how his genius came to grips with the musical surroundings he was in. His compositions were driven by his religious ferver.

His "condition" is outlined in his many letters that speak of endless battles with the petty authorities over him, 99% of the music he wrote at Liepzig being sung by unruly boys at the school in the church he worked at, almost never having a sufficient orchestra to play his compositions. He never even performed the B minor mass in it's original form because of what he had to work with.

Next time your "musical condition" bothers you think about what "old Bach" accomplished in his.

David Doggett · Posted 21 Jan 2004 9:20 am

Well, yeah, lots of music videos are so fast and choppy they are irritating. And they are slick, commercial and exploitive. But just because we don't like it doesn't mean it's not art. A major theme, perhaps THE major theme, of artists throughout the 20th century was that there are no bounds for art. No one can say what is art and what is not. Art is what humans do. It can be categorized as great art, trivial art, high art, low art, fine art, primitive art, commercial art, inspired art, uninspired art, found art, political art, message art, protest art, good art, bad art, art we like, and art we don't like, etc., etc. But it's all art. People once use to try to separate art from design, the way b0b wants to separate art from craft. But now many designs of the past are considered art. It's fine to have opinions and to debate those opinions, and to define and categorize types of art. It's also fair game to criticize art you don't like. But I think any attempt to close off discussion of some human creations as "not art" is unfair, ultimately futile, and potentially dangerous. It ignores a major theme of 20th century art, and is a throwback to the repressive past, when rich patrons, monarchs and dictators tried to control art. Democracy and free enterprise have allowed the rise of popular art. We can criticize it and be selective in what we buy. But humans made it and it is therefore all art.

quote:
Anywhere creative freedom is allowed,
works of art are found.

- great quote.

[This message was edited by David Doggett on 21 January 2004 at 09:21 AM.]

John Parker · From: Golden Valley, Az. USA

To me the best music videos are the ones that visually tell the story that the singer is singing about. Some videos that I believe successfully achieve that goal are:
"Tougher than Leather" by Willie Nelson
"Anymore" by Travis Tritt
"Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde" by Travis
Tritt
"Fancy" by Reba McIntire
"The Thunder Rolls" by Garth Brooks

These are but a few examples of well done videos and how they tell the story visually. Anything that would catch somebody's attention and get their interest in a song or performer has got to be a good thing.

John Parker
Zumsteel SD10 3x5
Peavey Session 400

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Most video clips are done on a budget that would be less than a 30 second commercial you guys would see while watching the superbowl or one of those other cultural events.

Creative clips go back to the late 1960s, but really took off in the MTV era, you know, the early 1980s onwards.
Country music film clips, at least up to 1999 when I stopped watching the cable feed at a buddy's house, consisted of pathetic half-assed videos that were passe by rock standards. Country music has long suffered from intolerably generic artwork and imagery.
Sure, someone will pipe up and say "oh those 1960s LP covers were classics," and sure they were, so were the rock and jazz ones.
A lot of country imagery is stuck around 1987, I think one of the worst offenders is my beloved bluegrass labels like Sugar Hill and Rounder, although the latter has produced some nice covers in the last few years.
Generally they consist of really square, forced poses. For the inner sleeve they'll have a shot of the band with a horrid stonewash style dropsheet.
Even the gaudy Shania Twain videos look like old Spice Girl clips, horrid.

John McGann · From: Boston, Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.

I find a large percentage of various things is crap, but the good stuff can be really good...the videos I enjoyed back in the day were the Peter Gabriel "Sledgehammer", I think it won an animation award, cool and funny- and the beginning to David Lee Roth's Yankee Rose was hilarious.

I've enjoyed every steel video I've seen, from Jeff Newman to Buddy and Hal, Tommy and Lloyd...oh, do you mean BROADCASTED video?

I have never seen a country music video (made for the current market, not vintage stuff) that didn't make me squirm...

I guess SOMEONE watches that dreck, just like so much popular music that finds the audience it deserves and vice versa...

Dickey Betts from the Allman Brothers was asked about the fact that they, grizzy longhaired veterans, were competing in a market with young glamourous body builder-types. His reply was "Hell, the sight of a guy playing his ass off looks pretty good to me!"

Amen, Dickey!

Fred Glave · From: McHenry, Illinois, USA

Change is naturally hard for people to accept. When sound was added to movies, some people claim that an art form was lost. Or when television replaced radio shows, many people missed having to use their imaginations and envision what was happening. But then again, people thought the radio would put book publishers out of business. Some of these art forms in their orignal form do get lost. There is good and bad, happy and sad in all change. I think that music video can be art, and it can also be crap, just like some books, radio, television, movies etc.
I personally miss listening to a song on the radio and creating something visual in my mind just for myself. The video now tells me how to interpret the music.

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Further, yes indeed "Hurt" the Johnny Cash Nine Inch Nail vid was a masterpiece.

Brad Paisleys recent ones, Celebrity, among them are Great.

I also liked Billy Joel's "Pressure".

Then there's those WILD Junior Brown ones about the "Snake Lady", and his "Prison breaking girlfriend" and Possum driving his lawn mower.. Sheesh...

Not being jammed into ANY one type of music, Craig Mack's "Flavor In Your Ear" and Recently Eminem's "Mom" were very heavy. Almost hard to watch, and I'm for sure it's not because they were "poorly produced". They made me a little uncomfortable.

They, like the Songs, are Supposed to shake you up a little.

Bob Dylan anyone? Pete Seeger? Woody Guthrie?

My recent favorite is "Booty Poppin", for the "social content"...

EJL