I have a confession to make.
I may be converting into a music video enthusiast.
Some of you may remember that my very first post for bkI was a thinly veiled rant on how music seems to be slowly subverted from an audio medium to a visual medium. In case you missed it, it’s sitting back there as Visual Autophony. And….I still believe in the spirit of that first original post. I feel that music should have the chance to be first experienced within the theatre of the mind, letting the strength of the song alone carry our imaginations. However, I am always willing to sit back and enjoy a good music video, once I have that opportunity to meet the music on my own terms.
I mean this sincerely when I say this. It is a moral imperative that you see the music videos of OK Go.
Not just one video. All of them.
Seriously.
On 3/1/2010, OK Go premiered their new music video, This Too Shall Pass, the official version of the recorded version of the song from their new album Of The Blue Colour of the Sky. And, if I may switch to fanboy mode for a moment, it is freaking amazing. Masters of the one-take video, the latest gem is a 3 minute and 53 second long experiment in controlled chaos. The video’s star is not the band, but rather the giant Rube Goldberg machine that is timed perfectly with the song. The choreography is nearly flawless, with the only interaction by the band is the initial tipping of the dominoes in the beginning and the paint blast of all four members at the end. The members appear in intervals, acting as mere ornaments for the automation occurring about them. The transfer of kinetic energy from domino to paint cannon is so intricate that the video deserves several viewings, just to absorb the sheer awesomeness of it all.
Now, this isn’t the first time OK Go has astonished the world with a clever idea and a low-cost video budget. Remember the treadmill video? Just in case you might have forgotten, check out Here It Goes Again. Somehow, I am willing to bet you saw this. After all, this particular video went viral when it was first released and helped elevate OK Go to their current popularity in the music scene. Of course, one could argue that, after releasing a video like the treadmill video, maintaining that same level of creativity would be hard to do. However, OK Go makes it look easy.
Take the video for WTF?, for example. Guess what? It’s another one-take video. And again, it is a visual masterpiece. It is amazing how much fun you can have with a wiffle bat, beach balls, and color tape with a green screen studio. Watching the making-of video for WTF? is just as amusing. All the items used in the video are either bought from the local dollar store or found lying around. Simply genius.
So, thanks go to OK Go, for breaking me out of my musical snobbery and showing me that music videos are worth viewing. I’m telling you…go to YouTube and watch the video’s from OK Go’s own channel. Whether it is men on treadmills or using the entire Notre Dame Marching Band in guerrilla musical warfare, it goes to show that it pays to keep the eyes as well as the ears open.
Also, for some extra-curricular activities, check out the New York Times article posted by OK Go’s lead singer Damian Kulash in regards to the record companies efforts to control the music video. It’s an informative opinion piece showing the benefits of music videos as advertisements and what limiting the access to those music videos could do.
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