I Love YouTube: Viral Music Videos

Music videos are among my absolute hands-down favourite film-forms ever, which isn't surprising since I am of the 'MTV generation', if it's even still called that. At their best, videos combined music (which I love) with high-concept, anything-goes filmmaking that often seemed to push the boundaries of spectacle and filmmaking technique (which I also love). At their worst, they featured the Vengaboys. But even at their most superficial and downright retarded they were cool and funny and inspiring and on TV non-stop for 24 hours a day, which was awesome, especially in the days before the internet when TV was all you had (thanks for being there, TV).

Then, tragedy struck. Sometime in the last decade executives at MTV and MuchMusic decided to use their powers for evil and air The Hills or Pimp My Ride instead of their usual barrage of non-stop music videos. I dunno if it's because kids weren't as into them anymore or if they thought kids would prefer reality TV instead, but in either case, the music-video-as-a-thing-that-was-on-tv-all-the-time was pretty much dead.

Even though reality TV killed the video star dead, not all is lost! A great little invention I like to call YouTube seems to have resurrected the music video thanks to the billions of people with short attention spans procrastinating at work. All of a sudden creative indie bands like OK Go are making music videos themselves and posting them online to be seen by 50+ million people. And now artists seem to have a place to 'debut' their music videos once more, making them a once-again viable form of expression for young filmmakers! Hoorah for YouTube!

Blockhead: The Music Scene

 

 

 

I... I have... why am I naked on the roof...

 

OK Go: This Too Shall Pass

Gotta say, I'm not the biggest fan of their music, but these Ok Go guys seem to be having a lot of fun making cool videos. So I guess I'm a fan!

 

 

Making of a Viral Video

The guy what did the one above talks about the one above. He is smart.


Daft Punk: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

The greatest thing about YouTube is of course that it's basically one giant library of user-generated content, and every once in awhile, somebody does something cool. Even though this is far from what can be considered the official video for this song, it's certainly the one I associate with it...


Michael Jackson's Thriller: Prison Dance

Another YouTube original. It will be forever impossible to talk about the Thriller dance moves without referencing these inmates of the best prison ever...


Beyonce: Single Ladies

Over 80 million views on YouTube helped to make this the catchiest, and (eventually) the most annoying song of 2009. In a way, Taylor Swift, Kanye was right.


Lady Gaga: Telephone

Welcome to today's big-deal music video releases; huge, internationally famous artists making 10 minute Thriller-level music videos at every turn. Who's to know if they even air on tv at all? I guarantee you almost everybody I know saw this when it debuted and immediately had an opinion about it. I doubt the same could have been said 10 years ago... God I love YouTube