10 Best Music Videos of 2008

DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NOT SEEN EVERY MUSIC VIDEO OF THIS YEAR, BUT I DID TRY AND DID NOT SUCCEED. THIS IS WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT.

I also encourage people to look up music videos for this year from artists they like, post a reply and say why you liked this music video. It's a little bit more friendly that way. Yay.


10. "If I Ever See Your Face Again"-Maroon 5 Feat Rihanna


Dir. Anthony Mandler

One of the only music videos I've ever seen shot in Widescreen. Now, let me explain why I picked a Maroon 5 song before no one takes me seriously anymore (not that most of you did). In this world that we live in now, where most music videos aren't really seen as works of art anymore there aren't many directors that see a typical pop song as something else. This is a song about a one night stand and in the back you can hear some of the worst synth you've ever heard. But here's what the directors did. He used Maroon 5's huge amounts of money to not only make this video look professional but the background looks like it came from a Park Chan-Wook sex film. The editing is done in a way where you don't really pay attention to Maroon 5 but to Adam and Rihanna and the huge amounts of sex that they are producing through out the music video. It's just nice to see some directors making something incredibly professional out of a pop song about a one night stand that isn't the best.


9. "Dancing Choose" - TV on the Radio


Dir. Micheal Kuhn

You don't see a lot of music videos like this anymore. Music videos that just go off the wall with anything they can get away with. Here we see some sort of collage animation stumbling around this iconic world and since the song is about materialism and society today I think it fits. Kind of. Anyway. I just think it's nice to see something really risky in making music videos today. It's not the best video but the song is good enough to keep you interested and the editing it just fascinating. Sure, this animated story is a little cluttered and a little too confusing but just like the song you have to use your brain to really understand it. Never really seen too many music videos approached from this angel before.


8. "He Doesn't Know Why" - Fleet Foxes


Dir. Sean Pecknold

A great thing about Fleet Foxes is that their sound is old and folkish which reminds me and a lot of my friends of xmas. But the best setting for this music video would be like, an abandoned torn down room of yesteryear or maybe a barn. WHAT?! DONE BOTH?! BUT HOW?! GOATS?!
While the song is so Melancholic here we have a director who looks past that (???) and just thinks what would be funny. How about them playing a really serious song in a room full of goats. With this change the tone of the entire songs changes and the words loose meaning. The song is no longer so depressing and the viewer falls into a world surrounded by the folksy floaty sound of Fleet Foxes. Which also sound a lot like Xmas.

7. "Mr. Pitiful" -Matt Costa


Dir. The Malloys

The "Backyard Rock" or "Mellow Music" genre is dying and I can't wait for it to go. With the over hype of Jack Johnston and the annoyance of hippies from art schools playing his songs and other like it most of the time they sit out in the quad, most people have grown bored of the simple style and moved on.
I was surprised to see the Malloys direct this catchy, hollow, indie backyard pop song. They're most famous for working with The White Stripes and other Alt-Rock bands with heavy rock influences. Last thing I would associate them with is some Back Yard acoustic guitar player who seems like he's so chill 24/7 That if he was given any responsibilities he would just drop them and go back to...doing nothing, I suppose.
But because it's Matt Costa and he does everything himself The Malloys saw an opportunity. They thought, you know what people don't see anymore, one man bands on the street begging for change while they play six difference instruments at once. While some would refuse to call that a lost art, the video makes that one man band look like the next indie movie and with the Malloy's style of stop motion and clever use of puppetry we have a music video that has a cute little heart while I still stand on saying that it's nothing more than a little indie pop song. Nice job guys.

6. "Violet Hill" - Coldplay


Dir. The Malloys and Tim Wheeler

Music videos now a days really forget what people like me want (but why should they remember really). We people who love music videos and see them as another artistic medium are always interested in the potential that a director could do with a song. Usually it's nothing more than make a person stand around and sing they're own song but from different angels and those are the music videos I hate the most. Why? Because they're not really interesting are they. I'm not a tween girl. I don't need to pay $10 to see a movie I know will be bad because the lead actor is dreamy and I fantasize about him whisking me away to some kind of vampire land of dreams. I want something interesting. Here, we're given the usual music video but the catch is the editing is really sharp. The editing is so to the rythm of the music that it blends together very well and you can't look away past the first 45 secons. After that the video owns you.

5. "Electric Feel" - MGMT

If the link doesn't work
http://court13.com/electricfeel.mov


Director Not Listed

Ah. Here we have a song from a band that looks like they just came out of Neverland with other lost boys and girls. With the bands indie synth pop sound MGMT decided to go with a Peter Pan theme that they're stayed true to in two of their videos (Time to Pretend and Electric Feel). At first the video really reminded me of a bunch of different club music videos that are all about dancing and making out. You know, usually club music video. But then MGMT's lost boys theme comes in as well as there LSD/Ecstasy fueled imaginations. Not only is a CG bear playing a long with them, but they crack open the moon and paint the girls with a kind of pain that looks like it's made up of Microchips. Because I am a fan of seeing what one can get away with I was very please to see how they used the usual club music video, but then made it the more imaginative video I have seen in years.

4. "Champion" - Kanye West

Dir. Neon
(I know, right?!)
Nabil Elderkin and John Pina

Kanye West has made, about 4 humorous music videos including Champion (Heard Em' Say Directed by Michel Gondry, Can't Tell Me Nothin' Directed by Zach Zach Galifianakis and Kanye West's Workout Tape directed by the stangely named "Lil X") and Champion is the second one that has been picked as the official music video. During the end process of making a music video the record label watches the music video and rates it's appeal. If the record heads don't think the music video advertises their singer/musician/product well and they still want to throw money at the artist, then they just ax the music video and never talk about it again. The two times they've done this, the videos that have replaced the so called "lesser" music videos, have been awful. (Can't Tell Me Nothing's video quirky video was turned into Kanye walking through the desert which made the song seem 10 times longer than it actually was and Herd Em Say remake seemed like the production team didn't have a lot of money left so they just made it in an hour).
So here we have Kanye's puppet music video and not only is it funny, but just like the Zach Galifianakis version of Can't Tell Me Nothin the video treats itself as a real music video. This isn't like, a Foo Fighters joke music video like "Learn to Fly" or "Long Road to Ruin." "Champion" has the idea of, "okay, what if a puppet made a music video to a Kanye West song, but the video is really good." Realizing that the joke isn't in the actual humor, but it's in the fact that it treats itself so serious. Honestly, try to replace the puppet in this music video with Kanye and it seems like a real rap music video.

3. "Phantom Pt. 2" - Justice

Dir. Roman Gavris, So_Me and Justice

Now, while I'm a sucker for dance music and the genre. I also love it when editors and directors try to mimic the style of short beats a with their own tools. Some times it's colors but in this case it's editing. Here the editor really played with slug and how it would effect the song that is pretty much fantastic all around. The editor used footage from the new Justice doc, "A Cross The Universe" and made that into it's own little song with the help from Justice and So_Me. Not only do we have a music video, but we have a whole different thing all together. We have a song that the movie is playing as well as the song the video is trying to advertise. I've never seen anything like this before.

Oh, and yes. That was Kanye West for like, 0.5 of a second.

2. "Handlebars" - Flobots

Dir. Dirty UK
(Seriously?)

The summer hit of 2008 also made a fantastic music video (suck it "Paper Planes"). Because Flobot's songs are so political that you wounder if they've ever heard of the term subtlety, the music video takes a slightly different approach to the song. While the song itself is about a nice person turning corrupt over new found power, the director decides to split up the message into two people instead of one and almost make a short film out of a song. Very clever since the song is so likable and catchy. I read an article in a Stanwood news paper and heard this music video blurbed on NPR. Both saying that this music video is the best music video in years. And people wounder why I call this form of medium an art.

1. "House of Cards" Radiohead

Dir. James Frost

No music video has ever experimented like this. Ever. No camera or film were used when making this music video. Everything that was captured was done by a computer and all of the images that were taken were from a scanner. Radiohead has always been at the front of the media world, but I'd never thought they would go this far. I honestly think that if we start to look into this kind of technology film and cameras wont be needed at all in the future. If that's not revolutionary I don't know what is.

AWARDS:
Most ADD Video:
"The Age of the Understatement" - The Last Shadow Puppets

Nice Job With Found Footage:
"Violet Hill" -Coldplay (Dancing Politicians Version)

Wasted Potential:
"No One Is Ever Gonna Love You More Than I Do" Band of Horses

Horrible Video but AMAZING Ending:
"Viva La Vida"-Coldplay

A 2008 Video Disguised as a 1990's Video
"Rhode Island Freakout" - Kinski

Most Unsetteling Video I've Ever Seen:
"Molten Light" - Chad VanGaalen

Least Favorite Video of 2008

"The Youth" - MGMT
Dir. Eric Warehiem of Tim and Eric fame. Yes. That one. Has now decided to take up directing music videos. Now, I don't know how this started, but I bet it started the same way Zach Galifanakis's career in directing did. Some guy (KANYE) called him up and told him, "I FIND YOU HILARIOUS! MAKE ME A MUSIC VIDEO!" Before Zach could explain, "Wait, I barely know how to work a camera." Kanye hung up and went back to doing Kanye things. So here we have a director that is know for doing poorly produced skits on purpose and taking the only talent he has (making something horribly awkward) and trying to mesh that with music. I can only assume since MGMT is know for taking LSD and Ecstasy that they would call Eric Warehiem up and ask him for a favor because the only people who I know that think Tim and Eric Awesome Show. Great Job! is funny are those who do copious amounts of drugs.

I just hope people keep calling this guy if they want to make a funny video. What happened to Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry? Where they busy, and you had to use your 44th choice? Or do you just refuse to do anything that doesn't seem to be hipster kind of.

I don't know. All I know is that I hate Tim and Eric Awesome Show and anything else Eric Warehiem touches. Cause lets face it, what he just touches is shit. Maybe funny shit on the off chance that it is, but it's still shit cause he makes it that way.

If I Had to Pick One Girl Pop Singer Who I Thought Made Good Music Video:
"Just Dance" - Lady GaGa

She's not great. But better that most. Also, this is to show that I'm not too into the Seattle alternative scene that I haven't been watching Britney videos. I have been. I just think this one is better than Pieces of Me, Womanizer and Circus. And like X-D6 times better than Katy Perry. I hope that person dies in a plane crash and is then constantly stabbed in hell. Like, with 20 knives. Sorry. I got a little wound up there.

Runner Up:

"Touch My Body" - Mariah Carrey

Let's face it Ms. Carrey. You've never really gotten the entire crowd on your side. You've always been upstaged by Jennifer Lopez or some other lady pop singer that looks similar to you and here, your album, E =MC2 is you last feeble attempt to grab the spotlight and you try to make yourself look like the diva you want to be seen as. Heads up, I don't think that's gonna happen. Sorry. Now with the trend of being Hipsters which seems to go hand in hand with being a music elitist. Not only do you have a crowd that couldn't care a shit about you, but the popular kids that listened to you as young people have grown up and turned their backs to you because who wants to sing along to you when they're audio radar has broadened so much. Also, your popularity has plummeted so much because of new talent like Rihanna and Beyonce that not only are you seen as old hat but unfamiliar and oblivious to what your demographic wants. Pumping bass, boom-chick drums, and robot voices. So, you tell your stand by audience that you're making a new album, and what do you hand them? An album that is so bland it's amazing. If there was a grammy award for "Blandest Album of the Year" I'm sure not only would you win but you would be the only one nominated. But some how, this album is so bland, and so pointless that your audience and it's popular friends eat it up and asks for more. Because, if anything, that's all that pop music fans like, right? Bland shit that they just want to sing along to so they can pretend that instead of you chewing out your back up singer it's them.

So, because your new album is surprisingly popular what do you do, Mariah Carrey. Direct a music video. Obvious really. You take other things that you seem to think are popular and funny. You get that guy from 30 Rock and tarnish him up the Kenneth character, a nerd who is so bewildered by celebrities that he just has fantasies on the spot, which, since you directed a large portion of the video, just seems like an ugly form of masturbation to me.

Great job, Ms. Carrey. Not only have you taken a horrible and strangely creepy song (the verse, I will hunt you down always seems to follow me wherever I go) but you put it up with the most cliche idea of a fan meeting a star that you yourself have co-directed. Nice. I'm so astounded by your want-to-be-diva-ness. You've just...just made something already horrible and made it worse.

So I ironically appoint you second best pop-diva music video because even though you try to paint yourself as something different, that's what you'll always be Ms. Carrey. Second rate, and overall forgettable except when some clever DJ uses a sample of one of your bland songs in the background.

Wow, that went on for a while.

A List of 2008 Movies Coming Soon. Cause I know you guys love lists.