The original publication can be found here.
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| Hangin' out |
When writing an article for this site it's often hard to find a suitable video to analyse. A lot of videos simply don't offer enough of a substantial story or message to look at. In general I've found that anything that just features the band playing doesn't work. Anything too self-aware doesn't work as there's very little extraneous information you can take from them without basically ruining the point of the thing itself. And anything that just features one simple idea throughout generally doesn't work.
This last point is the most difficult to deal with because these are often the most interesting videos. But how are you supposed to look for deeper meaning or hidden messages in the most minimalistic videos?
Well let's have a go...
Here's the video for UBerlin by REM:
For those that skipped the clip it involves a young man (Aaron Johnson - of Kick Ass fame) dancing through the back streets of London to the new REM song. This concept is not an original one, nor is this the best example of it. Think about any of the fantastic innovative videos of OK GO, or Christopher Walken's slick moves in Fat Boy Slim's "Weapon of Choice", or even the latest Radiohead video "Lotus Flower" (or basically any other video we use in our Video Of The Week feature). All primarily feature one or more persons dancing. So why does it still feel like a fresh idea?
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| At this point REM started questioning whether they got the right person to represent their song... |
Well for starters let's compare it to the Radiohead video. Both feature just one male character dancing in - it must be noted - strange ways to songs that you are unlikely to find playing in places where people usually dance (more on this later). I suppose it's partly the strange shapes they make as they try to project what they're hearing in to the movements of their bodies that makes it watchable, but let's not assume that the two are trying to produce or represent the same thing. The colossal differences in the tones of the two pieces are not something to be ignored. In "Lotus Flower" we see Thom Yorke twisting and flailing madly to the sounds of his song - as if possessed by the beat and the melody. His style is both bizarre and somehow natural, as clearly intended, though it's also purposeful. It's in a specific area that he won't move from for the videos duration. He's wearing a shirt and a bowler hat. It's in black and white. The dance moves may be improvised displays dictated by the way the music makes him feel, but the very essence of the dance, the reason he is there, is clearly pre-meditated and organised. This video isn't natural at all, it's deliberate Art.
Now compare that to the UBerlin video. Though it's still about a person losing control of their body under the influence of music, there's a much different feel to it. It feels more relaxed, casual and, this time, genuinely natural. This isn't someone going to a specific place to dance for a music video; this is someone walking down the street without being able to stop themselves dancing and not caring about what they look like. Like the last video these aren't deliberate dance moves either, they simply can't be. Roughly half the moves in it are just too terrible to have conceivably been arranged by a choreographer. But for an inexperienced dancer just going with the music they are perfect.
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| I refuse to believe anyone suggested doing the Jack Sparrow/Chicken dance |
Look at everything else in the video though. Look at the way he's dressed. In tracksuit pants and a T-shirt (with REM on it of course). He's not dressed up for a music video, he looks like he's just popping out to the shops for a pint of milk. It looks relatively early in the morning - there aren't many cars or people around on the streets and the light seems very low from the way he shields his eyes at around 1:11. The video has all the feel of the "morning after". It's like one of those Sunday mornings when you've just left some house party, you're still a little drunk but not quite hungover, you're going to catch the bus or find some breakfast, the sun's out, you look like a dishevelled mess and you know it but you don't care, it's too early for most people to be up but you feel alive and happy and...like dancing.
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| It's also possible he's a vampire and the sunlight's causing his brain to melt |
That's the feeling this video gives. It's not about being arty and showing off how powerful your melodies are. It's about being happy and finding the fun in the simple things like a good song and a sunny day and a lot of silly dancing. And that's what makes this video interesting.
What's also worth noting, that I briefly touched upon before, is that this song - and Lotus Flower - is not one that you would hear at a club or a party or anywhere else where you expect to find people dancing. It seems strange how songs that would instantly clear the floor even in indie clubs are portrayed in a way that suggests they were made for dancing. It really highlights the difference between things that legitimately make you want to move your body as opposed to things that are expected to.
I'm not a big fan of dance music at all, so I often ask people who listen to it all day just what it is about it that they like so much. And on the rare occasion that the response isn't "because it's a chooon [sic]" the answer is usually something along the lines of "because it makes you want to get up and dance". But this video highlights what I've always thought about this. David Guetta and Deadmau5 may be fine when you're in a club, but do they make you want to dance down the street early in the morning?
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| Dubstep is nowhere near as fun as doing this |
SATV Rating: 9/10