It's not the sexiest beach stroll you've ever seen, but it is more fun than most. And a nice reminder to keep your bottom's properly adjusted and be careful of tanlines...
Alex Topaller of video directing/creative team Aggressive answers a lot music video questions you may have been afraid to ask... and has answers that you may not want to hear (or agree with)... PS: the views expressed here are are solely those of his own bad self.
So you want to be a music video director? That’s a terrible idea. No, really. Don’t do it.
Stop right now and choose something else while you can, before we find ourselves discussing this very moment in two years when I can pompously say, “See! I was right! Now you understand that it’s more of a complicated love affair than a career!”
Are you still here, dear reader?
You are? Huge mistake, but oh well. Since I can’t change your mind, I can at least fulfill my civic duty by arming you with a few pointers before sending you into the reverberating tunnels of the music video world in search of non-existent treasure.
This is one of those videos that remind me of the early days of alternative — a homespun, analog and within six degrees of R.E.M. — but what makes it particularly resonant is the last three minutes, when we look out the window and the visuals take on a spark and color as the guitars crescendo and wash reality away under a sound wave. Consider it an acid test: Is it noise, or blissed-out catharsis?
Action Bronson gets his motor running and channels his inner Wyatt (or is that Billy?) in this new telling of the counter-culture classic Easy Rider. When it comes to rappers unafraid to show their bare chest, AB can do whatever he wants. Rick Ross, the ball's in your court.
Is it the apex of female empowerment for Nicki Minaj to take a term Sir Mix-A-Lot used to refer to his manhood and coil it into a reference to her own powerful assets? Or, are we just looking at an excuse to watch booty shake like rattlesnake tails?
Welcome to the insane territory of no-holds-barred postmodern music video, where you don't need to just stop at putting em on the glass; Now you can shatter that glass with ferocious ass-rattling power. In a set-up similar to Katy Perry "Roar" — think of "Anaconda" as the Hard R version — MInaj unleashes the booty and likely renders you speechless (or in the case of lap dance recipient, Drake, painfully immobile).
Director Alex Amoling delivers a stately and disturbing video that would befit the darkest "done me wrong" murder ballad where everyone winds up a victim.
Kimbra's neighborhood looks amazing in this nice spiritual descendant of the Spike/Bjork classic "It's Oh So Quiet" video. In this case we are in an amazingly ideal place — spotless, happy, and very dancey — even with all the mimes.
Perhaps we're in the midst of a wide-screen HD backlash... or everyone who came of age in the '80s is having 4x3 flashbacks. Either way, former My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way gets in the on the nostalgia, but with a typically unique slant via bizarro sci-fi rock show Pink Station Zero.
Therapy? Mediation? Hell no. If you want to work out serious issues, there's no better place than an '80s trash TV talk show. SNL's Vanessa Bayer puts on her biggest smile as host, letting the girls of Haim and special guest A$AP Ferg work out isses that range from (cotton) ball phobia to mime festishism.
Taylor Swift might be going much more pop than you'd have expected — and maybe the thought of seeing her as a B-Girl, or a ballerina, or a hyper-stylized Gagaesque artist makes you very nervous, but no need to worry. It's all in fun with a "just be yourself" message, with an '80s golden age of pop video that directly references "Mickey" by one-hit-wonder Toni Basil.
You'd be forgiven if you saw the original version of "Am I Wrong" and had no idea that you were witnessing the biggest Scandinavian pop duo since Roxette. That's not to say this new "Official U.S. Music Video" — made in conjunction with Complex Media and Pepsi Pulse — reaks of anything to do with the land of semi-disposable furniture.
Ever wonder who watches creepy religious programming like The Black Keys "Fever" video? The answer is almost assuredly not the partly naked cult of supermodels from this NSFW video, but it makes for a much better fantasy.
