Here’s the five favourite music videos (from the last five years) Chris chose while I…
Category: Review
Whether you call them VJs (the old-school video jockey, which mainstreamers invariably confuse with MTV presenters), or DJs (new-styled digital jockeys, illustrating the move away from simply remixing analog sources such as tape and slide projection), DJ Magazine recently released a great list of the top 20 best VJs of 2005.
I’m glad to see personal favourites and old friends featured, including Stu and Robin of Hexstatic taking the top spot, and The Light Surgeons also in the top five.
I love and hate the latest Madonna video, Hung Up, in more or less equal measures.
Why I hate it:
- Performance clichés (couldn’t afford a good location scout?)
- Hip-hop meets disco milieux (!?)
- Incoherence (false narrative)
- Krumping (Madonna trope: superficial use of street fad)
Been a while but Dougal Wilson’s new music video, Cash Machine for Hard-Fi continues his love of constructing quirky contemporary tales. Despite the murky colour palette, this is a lightly whimsical take on receiving those ‘No funds available’ messages in the corner ATM. In Wilson’s world a whole Lilliputian workforce is hard at it behind the facade creating the banknotes ready to be delivered.
Garth Jennings of Hammer & Tongs is back in the promo saddle after his extended hitchhike into debut movie territory.
His video for Beck’s Hell Yes! [RM/WMV streaming] features a quartet of Sony QRIO ‘dream robots’ in synchronized dance. Their metallic skins offset nicely with glowing purple-blue and green features while they perform on a pristine white stage for a sombre Japanese audience. Tech demo appropriated as pop promo.