On Music Videos (DrakeGTA repost)
This month from the DrakeGTA Archives: A rant about interruptions in music videos!
Music was always a contentious subject been me and Drake. Sure, we liked quite a few of the same bands, and we both had what could be called “musical ADHD”, a condition which causes those affected to constantly ping-pong erratically between genres. But often we’d find ourselves arguing about the finer points of music, like the saxophone in Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”.
In the case of the article that I’m republishing today, however, me and Drake agreed on the matter 120%.
Drake published this rant about interruptions in music videos, simply titled “On Music Videos”, back in December of 2010. Despite how short it was, it hit the nail right on the head.
There’s nothing worse than a good music video or even just a song being completely ruined by an unnecessary interruption. The one that immediately comes to mind for me is the music video for Michael Jackson’s hit “Smooth Criminal”. The song is great, and the video is good too. But then out of nowhere the video is interrupted by a bizarre “interpretive dance” scene, where the music stops, the lights go out, and everybody in the video weeps and wails while swooning around like they’re drunk for two solid minutes. I’m not sure what the hell Michael was thinking here, but it absolutely ruins an otherwise good music video.
As far as pointless interruptions in songs go, this one isn’t technically an interruption because it comes at the end of the song, but Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” ends with Joe saying “Uh oh, here comes a flock of wah-wahs!”, then proceeding to make strange noises for over a minute. This annoying bit was supposedly an inside joke amongst the band. Most of you probably haven’t heard this part, because radio stations usually cut it out when airing the song. Unfortunately, Spotify doesn’t, so if the song comes on I either have to be on top of the skip button, or listen to “WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH” for an entire minute.
Telling a story through music is a concept as old as man, and the advent of video gave musicians another creative layer to utilize and further tell their stories. But if you need to stop in the middle of your music video to adequately tell that story then chances are you’re not very good at writing.
This is “On Music Videos”, originally posted to DrakeGTA.com on December 5, 2010.
So I’d like to take a minute (just sit right there) to talk about a small issue that has been perplexing me lately. As your friendly neighborhood neck-beard, I must watch music videos, because it is imperative that I stay abreast of modern culture. (Ha ha, I said breast.)
Anyway, I’ve noticed a disturbing and growing trend in music videos; pausing in the middle of the song to tell a story. Its one thing to have an intro, or even an outro to a music video, and that needs to be small and tasteful, like five seconds or less (Only songs deserve true intros, and then, only epic songs, like “The Final Countdown” by Europe), but if your music video has to pause in the middle of a freaking song, you not only fail at telling a story, you fail at life.
Listen to me, if you want to write a short story, write a goddamned short story, people love short stories, that’s why there is no market for them. If you want to make a short film, do it, and put it on Youtube, where it will be buried beneath Fred videos and Lego Starwars films. If you want to direct a music video, direct the video, no interruptions, no pauses, no breaks, its not acceptable, no exceptions. If you stop your video in the middle of a song, it better be to fucking cure cancer, and then when you’re done, you edit that part out. Not only is interrupting a video a sure sign that you’re horrible at writing, directing, producing, or whatever the hell you pretend to do for a living, its a violation of all the values that we, as human beings, hold dear.
I’m talking about social responsibility here, its one thing to dump toxic-waste in the oceans or poison the local water supply, but when you screw-up our music videos, you’ve crossed the line. Let me make this clear, when your music video stops in the middle, you deserve to be shot, you and anyone who signed off on the project, and the programmers who allow it to be shown. Forget Frankenstein’s monster, partial birth abortions, and sheep cloning, this is the true definition of abomination.
I understand this is a mute point for most of you, but for you violators, let me put it this way. If you’re thinking about putting an interruption in your music video, consider your options, and if you can’t find a way to make it work without the pause, kill yourself instead, it is the responsible thing to do.