selected by Cleopatra Parnell & Gabriel Valdez
We’re launching a new feature, highlighting the best music videos of the past month. With the help of our writers, we’ll sift through so, so many bad music videos just to bring you the very best we find. In fact, I think Vanessa Tottle’s still watching K-Pop videos. Tell us what you think of the new feature. With no further ado, our Top 10 for August 2014.
10. Ahhh Sh*t – G-Unit
dir. Timo Albert
Composed almost entirely from real-world footage of police brutality, it mirrors G-Unit’s straightforward lyrics:
“Now why the f*ck did you call them cops?
Put your hands up, you still getting shot.”
It’s not any more complicated than that, and after these last few months of brutality, watching a militarized police force roll out to fire on civilians, treat cameras like loaded weapons, close air space and arrest press in violation of the First Amendment…it’s shocking.
As a site mainly covering film and music videos, Vanessa and I have discussed writing articles on Ferguson, but it’s frankly neither of our areas of expertise, and we don’t want our own voices to distract from those more appropriate to the discussion. I’ve also been waging my own crusade as of late, which you’ll see spark some notable changes to the site soon.
Suffice to say, the equipping of police forces with needless military gear, combined with a complete lack of training to use it, has exacerbated the already difficult relationship our minority communities have with an historically “separate but equal” brand of law and justice.
“Ahhh Shit” may not be the greatest artistic monument to what I hope is a true turning point, but it is on spot, angry as it has the right to be, and it’s the first time phrases like “f*ck the police” have held real weight and meaning for me. Suddenly, I don’t dismiss that phrase. I listen to what comes next.
9. Time Machine – Jason Chen
dir. Paolo Ongkeko
prod. Don Le
This is how you use a low-budget wisely. “Time Machine” isn’t groundbreaking or superbly polished, but it is effective in telling a story and adding design touches that make it feel unique and worth rewatching. To me, that counts for more than a perfected set or the best editing techniques. Sometimes, effort and care show through the work more than the production budget does, and this is one of those times. It’s cute without being cloying, and the charm of its two leads (Chen and Red Hong Yi) goes far in making it such a watchable MV.
8. Go – Grimes feat. Blood Diamonds
dir. Claire & Mac Boucher
prod. Lana Kim, Jett Steiger, Rachel Nederveld, Summer McCloskey
Grimes has always felt like Sia meets World of Warcraft, and the MV for “Go” alternates between club dancing and some pretty hardcore LARPing. That’s when she’s not playing in water or being fondled by mimes. This vid’s weird, but there’s something about it that really works. It’s eminently watchable, it’s suggestive (of what, I have no clue), and it complements its music perfectly.
7. Happy Little Pill – Troye Sivan
dir. Jeremy Koren (Grey Ghost)
Owing more than a little of its imagery and visual composition to Nine Inch Nails’ “The Perfect Drug,” Koren cleverly evolves Mark Romanek’s 90s music video. Koren’s is less Edward Gorey, more Bret Easton Ellis – instead of reflecting Trent Reznor’s wild, self-medicated mood swings from depression to mania, Koren conveys a muted, professionally-medicated world of emotional dispossession. It’s a deceptively brilliant audio-visual tone poem.
6. Shake it Off – Taylor Swift
dir. Mark Romanek
Speaking of Mark Romanek, this guy’s really branched out from his 90s, Goth S&M days. I’m not much of a Taylor Swift fan, but even I have to admit this is a truly positive celebration of imperfections and receiving criticism. It features some good dancing (particularly from one of my favorite poppers, Fik-Shun Stegall), some bad dancing, and a lot of great visual comedy on the part of Swift and choreographer Tyce Diorio. Best yet, it’s the ultimate YouTube comment-defeating song.
5. My Copycat – Orange Caramel
dir. and prod. Digipedi Studio
For this exercise, Vanessa sent me a whole lot of J-Pop and K-Pop (Japanese and Korean pop music). At one point, I had to put my foot down, and the word “intervention” may have been mentioned.
Some of it is pretty good, though. We continue to see a lot of clever music videos coming from South Korea. Whoever came up with the concept for “My Copycat” needs a raise and a promotion and possibly some sort of medal. You remember those side-by-side pictures where you have to circle the differences from one to the next? This is that, except the difficulty ramps up over three-plus minutes, and there are certifiably nutty “Where’s Waldo” interludes. In fact, this whole thing feels like some weird peek into an alternate “Where’s Waldo” universe.
4. Don’t – Ed Sheeran
dir. Emil Nava
prod. Lanette Phillips, Luga Podesta, Brandon Bonfiglio, Danyi Deats-Barrett
Note to self: if I ever make an autobiographical music video about my rise from rags to riches, cast a popping, bone-breaking hip-hop ingenue like Philiph Chbeeb who can dance across fencetops to play me. Also, make riches.
I’m a huge fan of the dancing in this video and how it’s filmed. There’s not too much full-body cinematography, the camera instead focusing on isolations and building out a character. It’s a wise choice in connecting the visuals and lyrics to tell a story, relying on Chbeeb and the choreography by NappyTabs (Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo) to bring out the dance.
If director Emil Nava’s name sounds familiar, we named his emotionally compelling dance video “Wrong or Right” by Kwabs as the #6 video from the first half of 2014.
3. #Cake – Shabazz Palaces
dir. Hiro Murai
prod. Danielle Hinde, Kimberly Stuckwisch, Jason Colon
I’ve never been so terrified of the repeated suggestion to “eat some cake.” What is this video, a strange, midnight run of iconic mystical imagery tilted on its side, of 100-foot arms reaching from the rooftops, and the repeated insistence to “eat some cake.” It’s narcissistic, it’s creepy, it has a nude goddess figure (I’m assuming) as tall as a skyscraper, it’s all about how Gaza is like Seattle and Neptune, and it really wants you to “eat some cake.” This is a crazy video that fits right in with Shabazz Palaces’ breathtakingly poignant weirdness.
I’m fond of saying I really like David Lynch movies, except for the ones David Lynch is involved in. Meaning I tend to like modern surrealism, just not Lynch’s brand. Well, “Crow” out-Lynches Lynch himself.
Surrealism often relies on the subconscious to make visual choices – images may seem random, especially when juxtaposed against other, seemingly random images. In “Crow,” these images together don’t necessarily create a narrative so much as they build an overpowering tone. By the end, the whole video holds a deep, quiet, and slightly creepy power over me. Waves crash upon a shore on a screen that cuts right down the middle of some weirdly exploitative anime. The feeling evoked is inexplicable, but Cleopatra and I (and Vanessa), all agreed that it’s present and palpable.
Fittingly, no one knows quite who directed this, and 18+ have remained a rarity in this day and age – a mysterious and unidentified musical duo. Who knows, this really could be a David Lynch side project. If it is, I guess I’ll be eating crow.
1. Jazz – Mick Jenkins
dir. Nathan R. Smith
prod. Julia Elaine Mills
To find words to describe Mick Jenkins’s “Jazz” is to speak through tears. It’s an overwhelmingly powerful message in a month that’s given us Ferguson, MO, while its metaphor of selling water as if it’s gold is disturbingly timely in a month that saw Detroit attempt to shut off water to entire communities.
We live in a country that’s losing it, pure and simple. Early last decade, the few remaining voices of opposition we had to “patriotic” foreign wars resided in the community of stand-up comics. It was an odd alliance. Early this decade, the most relevant protests are being made from a resurgent hip-hop community that’s proved inclusive to African-American, Hispanic, and Native American rappers, and returned the genre to its social justice roots.
“Jazz” is going to be in contention for our video of the year, I’ll tell you that right now. More importantly, there may be no better artistic flagship for the current moment.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
I Can’t Stop Drinking About You – Bebe Rexha
dir. Mike MiHail
Bang Bang – Jessie J. feat. Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj
dir. Hannah Lux Davis
Heart Made Up on You – R5
dir. Thom Glunt
Superheroes – The Script
dir. Vaughan Arnell
Runaway – Pell
dir. Matt Robertson
Monument – Royksopp & Robyn
dir. Max Vitali
Special thanks to Amanda Smith and Vanessa Tottle for helping Cleopatra and I view and research more than 70 music videos from the month of August.
Gabriel Diego Valdez 