My favourite things

[shallowness]

Ask me about a 'favourite thing' - it can be as broad (my favourite album) or as specific (my favourite example of a certain type of pairing) as you like - and I will try to answer in the comments. Then I will ask you about a favourite thing of yours.

Comments

[shallowness]

I think 'Goddess on a Highway' off Deserter's Songs is probably Mercury Rev's closest moment to the mainstream.

Thank you for the links! I (re)watched a couple. I was puzzled by 'Confide in Me' when it first came out and the aesthetic of the vid, but now I'm struck by how clever it is.

I've always enjoyed Will Young's videos, although I hadn't seen that one. Clever twist. Like Kylie, I get the impression he's collaborating in the videos. I'll probably be revisiting 'Your Game' soon now.

Do you think videos have lost their impact? I mean culturally, even if the numbers of hits online may be higher.

I'll watch/rewatch some more - A-Ha's 'Take on Me' is one that stands out, as you say.

[hestia8]

Oh yes I know that one! That's the only one though.

Funnily enough there was an interesting article on Confide In Me recently:

http://chartshaker.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/1-555-confide-kylie-minogues-confide-in-me-turns-20/

(TWENTY? Christ. I don't remember it being that old, as I didn't really get into current music until we moved back to London, but I must be wrong about this one as the release date is right there!)

Yes, I think Will Young has a lot to do with the content of his videos, which is why they're so good and also occasionally a bit of wish fulfilment (the Blue Peter one, I think). He's actually one of my favourite artists, which usually surprises people after I've pushed a bunch of electropop on them. I think it's a combination of his voice and his videos.

I have been thinking about this recently, and I'm not sure they have lost their impact(because they've never been counted towards chart positions). I think for artists they're still a big thing - in the way that going on TOTP was a big thing when it was still on - and a lot of them still want to make something interesting (Iggy Azalea seems to have started doing movie pastiches, first with Clueless and now with Kill Bill). Although it's a bit of a joke that MTV doesn't show music videos anymore there are usually a lot of subsidiary channels/alternatives. Alright, probably because it's a cheap way to run a channel (hardly any of them have presenters) but a lot of the radio stations have diversified into music video channels. I think for some artists it's a will-this-do kind of thing, but you can usually tell (Michael Buble comes to mind for some reason!).

I think for older groups they might have lost their impact - I think I've seen one DM video from the last two albums actually on a music channel - but they're also out of the demographic for most of them and the style for all the rest. Then again, older bands like that don't really need their videos to be shown on the channels.

Not that this matters to me either way, now that I've moved and no longer have Sky *mournful sigh*.

Also, you get big artists releasing lyric videos now - obviously this is because everyone wants everything instantly and it's a placeholder while the actual videos are being made, but some of them could function as the actual video. Lady Gaga's lyric video for applause must have been made while the video *was being filmed* (based on what she's wearing).

I'm not a Katy Perry fan, but if you compare the lyric video and actual video for Roar, I don't really see what was worth the wait or why the lyric video wasn't enough - I'm sure for some other artist it could have been.

Lyric - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9SeJIgWRPk
Official - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevxZvSJLk8

[shallowness]

Doing the personal maths, I can believe it's 20 years. Interesting article.

I will always heart Will Young for being such an intelligent pop star, especially for coming through a talent show route.

I think I must be moving into the older demographic, and the fact that videos aren't on easily accessible Freeview channels (I think I've lost 4Music and Viva, and they were rarely airing music channels anyway). I can count the number of videos I've paid much attention to this year on one hand - I didn't even know about the lyric video phenomenon!