Is it drilled in your skull yet? Buzz. Okay, now it is. Mister Decade is losing his energy. Let's kick him in the gut once more. He's knocked out. Now we must urinate on his corpse with end-of-the-year nonsense. Today we'll focus on 2009 music videos. Truly, the format hardly altered in this decade. In an explanation of Kanye West's brilliant "Flashing Lights" video, a writer from clapclap.org summarized the music video's evolution (or lack thereof). We could come up with a real comprehensive decade list, but I'd rather stick with 2009's offerings because those are fresh in our noggins.
Top Fifteen Music Videos of 2009
- "Surf Solar" ~ Fuck Buttons
- "Losing Feeling" ~ No Age
- "Pon De Floor" ~ Major Lazer
- "On the Water" ~ The Walkmen
- "Evident Utensil" ~ Chairlift
- "Die Slow" ~ HEALTH
- "Heaven Can Wait ~ Charlotte Gainsbourg feat. Beck
- "Printer Jam" ~ Mistabishi
- "Change of Heart" ~ El Perro Del Mar
- "Life in Technicolor II" ~ Coldplay
- "Taller Children" ~ Elizabeth & The Catapult
- "4, 3, 2, 1" ~ k-os
- "She Loves Everybody" ~ Chester French
- "Green Eyed Love" ~ Mayer Hawthorne
- "Piano Lessons" ~ Colin Munroe feat. Joell Ortiz
We're hardly done, skimmers! There's a lot to be said about unpredictable music videos. Sure you'll say, "Wow, that didn't make sense," after seeing some atrocious Sean Kingston video. But have you ever said, "That's weird," after one of those fairs? No. Because, along with television and films, formulas develop. We're not surprised anymore to view something, that, from an outsider's perspective, is entirely ridiculous!
Here's where terrific music videos come in: they don't necessarily need the music. All fifteen I mentioned, though, work with the music better than "Fireflies" -- what a train wreck! It's just been standard for videos to be commissioned for popular tracks. Every top ten hit has an accompanying music video. You see where I'm going -- instead of standing alone as pieces of art, modern videos may as well be advertisements for the song. Think about Michael Jackson's "Thriller" -- it's remembered for its video because its video is unique. The song aided the video, rather than the current vice-versa hole we've been in.
Hope has swam to the surface. Today, few folks care about music videos, and although the top acts still release them for every track they cough up, music videos are peering into an age of relativity not seen since the eighties! 2009 gave us way too much greatness.
Independent bands delivered with their simple, ingenious ideas, and some pop artists came through with big-budget treats. Alas, there's many honorable mentions to dish out. The sweetest of the large scale vids was probably Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." Fashion frenzy. I thought Ke$ha came through with "TiK ToK."
Dirty Projectors succeeded with the llama-fueled "Stillness is the Move," while Grizzly Bear's fastidious "Two Weeks" freaked us to scrunched faces. Oh, and electro-creep Dan Deacon found his way onto invisible position number sixteen on my list. "Paddling Ghost," sirs and madams.
The breezy "Feel It All Around," Washed Out's nostalgic piece, deserves some awe. Wavves is a dick, but "No Hope Kids" is fine. What else. Uh, Perez Hilton recommended this ultra-queer video from Frenchman Sliimy. I'm a stop-motion fanatic so I'll let the incomparable gayety of the clip slide. Russian papercraft "Dinner at a Sunrise," by Ilya Dolinin, is a bit weirder . . . somehow. Hand-drawn "Run from the Exit," by Boys First Time (also a pornography website, so exercise discretion if you care to find out more), is cool. Elsewhere in the animation sphere: "House of Flying Daggers" by Raekwon and pals is def t/ sh!t; there's "Gifted" by N.A.S.A. et al.; let's see . . . Miike Snow's "Animal" is acceptable. It's really been a fun year! Just have to dig deep. And, yeah, so we got the primer fifteen and the others. Loaded, much?
Yes! So I guess we may wrap up. I'll leave you with two lovely 2008 music videos: "Brooklyn Girls" and "The Lost Levels." Atmosphere! And not "Your Glass House."
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