Why can't we make videos like this anymore?

EDV

EDV

Well-known member

The choreography, the acting, the humor, the casting, the camera movement, the timing, the whole concept and the way the story comes together....an absolute classic of a video for the ages. Today, we'd see a girl stripping throughout the video, a talentless singer / rapper with no acting skills, and the choreography trying to show off a stupid luxury vehicle and a bunch of hoes. WTF happened!!
 
Katie Lee's finest hour too. She never really made it as an actress, but her acting here was sweeeet! Kudos to the Director for getting non-actors to perform so well!
 
A relatively unimportant observation but I didn't notice the use of shallow depth of field anywhere on this video.
 
There are some great music videos being done none of them from major artists or major labels nobody has the budget.... if it doesn't fit a preconceived concept .... or a formula that they know works there's no chance of them doing it.... that's why. You see the same music video over and over and over...
 
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Why can't we? Budgets and musicians willing to take the risk of looking doofy by attempting to act. Billy Joel comes off a little campy, or flat out cheesy to a younger audience here. There's still a lot of good videos being made, they're just not being made with this kind of budget or this Broadway Show aesthetic.
 
Has somebody been watching VH1 Classic? I just got cable for the first time in years. Last time I had it there was no VH1Cl, and I never had cable growing up so I'm just now getting to see the videos to all the songs I grew up with. First time I had cable was in 2003. Know what was on in 2003? R. Kelly's "Thoya Thoing", tons of Seether videos, and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake me up when September Ends" by Green day. Barf vomit.
 
Josh Bass said:
Has somebody been watching VH1 Classic? I just got cable for the first time in years. Last time I had it there was no VH1Cl, and I never had cable growing up so I'm just now getting to see the videos to all the songs I grew up with. First time I had cable was in 2003. Know what was on in 2003? R. Kelly's "Thoya Thoing", tons of Seether videos, and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake me up when September Ends" by Green day. Barf vomit.
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I don't know... I have not watched broadcast TV regularly since CBS canceled the Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour, nor subscribed to cable... but I did see Devo playing on an episode of Saturday Night Live, lampshade head gear and all, as well as Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" music video...

These days, all this and much more are on Internet... fortunately I don't have to pay some ungodly sum for having a pipe spew into my living room... I can select the porn of my own choosing, when I want it...

Ok, I am one of the people who would like to have Game of Thrones, and similar content unbundled from the current strangle hold that the cable companies have on HBO...

I've looked at the numbers... and it seems there were about 5 Million viewers for GoT for the first broadcast slot, with another 1 million for the second viewing slot, but overall including 'online viewers', the total seems to be about 16 Million... which means there are 10 Million viewers (I think that stat may be fore the viewers during the 24/48 hour period following the first broadcast...) who are not viewing via the cable spigot.

There's hope yet...

As for the OP... I dunno... it was sort of a 'dull' video, but then I'm not a fan of Billy Joel. But then... I've never been a fan of Michael Jackson from "Puppy Love" on, but did see the 'game changing' element of "Thriller"(1983) (directed by John Landis...), relative to 'music videos'...

As a note, I never was a fan of any of the Beatles, as 'Beatles' movies. Of the individual Beatles showing up in films I did like "The Magic Christian"(1970), although I don't think I'd class that as even a 'musical', let alone a 'music video'...

Some of the "Monkee's' skits were funny... but then they were lampooning the rise of the 'Rock Star'...
 
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EDV said:
Katie Lee's finest hour too. She never really made it as an actress, but her acting here was sweeeet! Kudos to the Director for getting non-actors to perform so well!
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That's Christie Brinkley.

Big departure from "Glass Houses" Billy Joel. Most people don't remember the period in Joel's career when he was known as a bad boy and was rejected by the Co-Op board at New York's famous apartment building, The Dakota.
 
bill totolo said:
That's Christie Brinkley.
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I stand corrected...

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oh yeh...
 
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I think corporations have more control over "art" today and they tell us what we want.

I think the 80's had better music and artist for the most part [with less heavy handed corporate input] and with cable becoming more widespread, music channels needed more content so we got better music/videos.
 
Well, the "Uptown Girl" video has a special memory for me. I was in NYC with my parents and brother, about to start my freshman year at NYU (30 years ago? crikey), when we happened across that very set and we stopped to watch for a while. I still remember that they were doing the shot at 1:42, where Christie gets out of the car. The director was yelling at the camera operator to include more of the guys in the band, the operator was yelling back that he couldn't without cropping her out of it (very much old-school New York set decorum) and I would have stayed all night if I could.
 
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