Okay I admit. I’m a closet life-style addict. I love Apple’s hardware ads (though I’m a bit dubious about their switch ads). Whether I’ve become that particular kind of consumer because of those ads, or those ads happen to be so well tuned that they hit me I don’t know. But I want to buy all their stuff and hook up my future (scandinavian designed and furnished) penthouse with it.
All this of course I’ve already revealed in the longest post ever.
But I just wanted to talk about another kind of ‘bitsize lifestyle’ that I like, I came to think about it today in the gym when VH1 was throwing a Kylie vs J Lo music video battle. The amount of time and effort that goes into making this two chicks look hot is just crazy. And I don’t mean that in any cruel way, I used to but now I sorta dig it. And while that is certainly a metrialistic dependency sign, I’m okay with that. (defending myself by thinking that it would be much worse if I wasn’t painfully aware of these constant bombardments of lifestyle).
If you can’t beat them (and you can’t), join them. Ignore the shit and absorb the good stuff.
I mean whether or not you subscribe to the pop lifestyle, and I doubt most people would categorize me as subscribing to anything popular (except perhaps the XBox, which makes me unbelievably popular!) you have to acknowledge the style these directors and cinematographers have. In 3minutes 30 seconds flat they make you the most attractive man/woman in the world with whom any one of these pop stars (male or female!) is willing to have sex with you. And even better yet, you live with them in big mansions, drive ferrari’s and own big flat widescreen TV’s.
And as I am often reminded by Bjørn I’m a ‘damn artist’, so it’s no wonder that I’m drawn to these utterly stylistic pop videos where everything is metallic, shiny overbright, white, spartan and clean.
(No wonder as well that electronica appeals to me so much)
To nice thing about music videos is their use and throw away value. You watch them a few times and then forget about them again. Momentary pleasure with no commitment. This of course only works if you’re part of the crowd that understand what these videos are doing to you, if you have no idea you’ll probably end up buying boyband videos. It’s like the force that way, dark side is seductive if you haven’t been trained well :)
You should all have seen these, but let me just point you to Björk’s All is Full of Love and Röyksopp’s Remind Me video’s. Both amazing video’s and both in RealPlayer format. (no connection)
Aaah, stressfree life, fancy cars, hot chicks showing this and that, sunshine and easy streaks. Must surely be the fairytales of the 20th and 21st century if there ever were any.
We now return you to real life, please enjoy, no return guarantee.
Ooooh RealPlayer. Just wait til Brian comes in (he’s got a soft spot for realplayer ;))
Cool videos though. I’ve stopped watching MTV for some time now, but I like being able to see videos “on-demand”. If only multicast would become widely spread on the net, then I could stream MTV while working, and it would be affordable.
What are you talking about? I LOVE RealPlayer!
It’s the software equivalent of being anally raped by a gang of burly sailors. And who doesn’t love that?
That said, I love this post. I am a damn programmer (and a little bit of an artist) but I also love the the sexy pop music videos.
Damn artists!
Chris Cunningham is the (amazing) director of Björk’s video. He started working on Aliens the movie when he was only 17 and has since worked with Kubrick (on AI) and is set to direct Neuromancer, if the rumours are true. He has also done these other ground-breaking videos: – Afrika Shoxx by Leftfield – Windowlicker and Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin (see them or die!) – Only You by Portishead – Frozen by Madonna – some commercials (remember the PS2 ad featuring an odd-faced alien girl speaking scottish(?) – that was CC)
They should be available here, but the site seems to be down now: http://www.director-file.com/cunningham/
I had the privilege of seeing an art installation with Cunningham’s videos in Copenhagen last December – full house, which is rare at these events. They showed one video (not music) I really liked: “Flex”. It is a study of human anatomy – with lots of sex and violence. All to the tunes of Richard D. James himself.
And that reminds me: RDJ has just released another album under the name of Aphex Twin, called “26 mixes for cash”.
The only CC video I was able to find was this commercial for Aphex Twin’s Druqks album, but I’m not 100% certain it actually is CC that produced it.
The whole world of music videos seems to be somewhat anonymous, to the public, which is too bad.
I don’t… :)
Seriously though, the new Realplayer is muuuuch much better than the old ones (installing one of those fuckers was like getting your brain sucked through an anally inserted straw and then fed back to you while listening to Celine Dion).
Jens, what’s this mis-mash of Aphex Twin you left behind for me? You know I deal in albums, not single tracks!
Now I have to dig up the entire albums before I can properly listen to it… eih!