Tuesday, November 11, 2003
VIDEOS ARE GETTING DEPRESSING
I haven't been enthused to write any review lately, and not because I have no readers. I haven't been enthused because the quality of videos is getting fucking depressing. OK, there has always been a low signal to noise ratio, but come on.
There is now in regular play on the channel MTV Hits (give us 22 minutes, we'll give you all the videos we have in rotation) a video for a song called "Get Low." This is a horrible song, just awful. I guess it might do you some good in a club if it's loud and the bass is bouncing off your face, but I can't imagine wanting to hear the damn thing. As bad as the song is, the video is worse.
The video is sexist and, more damningly, bad at being sexist. What is the one thing hip-hop videos have going for them? That's right: hot women. This video can't even get hot women in it. So instead we get the spectacle of sexually objectifying ugly women.
Complaints of sexism probably sound hollow on a site featuring the Rack of the Week. But I think there is a line between healthy fun (looking at racks) and advertising a lifestyle in which the world is seen as a strip club. Lil' Jon and Whoever the Fuck start the video in a barbershop where you get lapdances while you wait for your hair cut. What?
Nearly every hip-hop video even remotely in the mainstream in the last ten years has been exactly the same. Big party/club scene? Check. Rappers flashing fancy clothes, expensive jewelry, and shiny cars? Check. Underclad hotties shaking their butts and boobs? Check.
What the hell is this? And you know it: just about every hip-hop video does this. (The exceptions, such as Bryan Barber's thought-provoking video for OutKast's "The Whole World" are few enough to easily remember.) Jay-Z insisted that he make a single and a video out of the song "Big Pimpin'." Why? "Because [paraphrased] people need to see what big pimpin' is all about." Yeah, thanks, HOVA, because the last ten years of videos identical to yours hadn't clued us in.
And then we have a bunch of rock videos with music that can barely be classified as rock. We have Simple Plan whining in the rain, we have Blink 182 frolicking with Catholic school girls in prison. (Get it? Restrictive schools are like prison, and all these inner party animals are just waiting for rock to set them free!)
And then we get pop, with Britney babbling about nothing or Xtina prancing around pushing her fake tits together to some "ballad" best suited for an elevator. In hell.
And then you get some song by a bunch of fourteen-year-olds with the lines "I want to break out/Get me some take-out". Huh? Does that mean something?
So, there's still a lot of great work out there, but it's so hard to find it anymore, what with the programming hegemony of MTV. There are videos that are fun, thoughtful, innovative, primitive, comical, serious, and, yes, even sexy without making you feel like you wallow in the depths. OK, a lot of this quality are found on the DVDs below, but there's more where they came from.
I just can't be inspired to write a review about it. Sorry. Maybe next week.
I haven't been enthused to write any review lately, and not because I have no readers. I haven't been enthused because the quality of videos is getting fucking depressing. OK, there has always been a low signal to noise ratio, but come on.
There is now in regular play on the channel MTV Hits (give us 22 minutes, we'll give you all the videos we have in rotation) a video for a song called "Get Low." This is a horrible song, just awful. I guess it might do you some good in a club if it's loud and the bass is bouncing off your face, but I can't imagine wanting to hear the damn thing. As bad as the song is, the video is worse.
The video is sexist and, more damningly, bad at being sexist. What is the one thing hip-hop videos have going for them? That's right: hot women. This video can't even get hot women in it. So instead we get the spectacle of sexually objectifying ugly women.
Complaints of sexism probably sound hollow on a site featuring the Rack of the Week. But I think there is a line between healthy fun (looking at racks) and advertising a lifestyle in which the world is seen as a strip club. Lil' Jon and Whoever the Fuck start the video in a barbershop where you get lapdances while you wait for your hair cut. What?
Nearly every hip-hop video even remotely in the mainstream in the last ten years has been exactly the same. Big party/club scene? Check. Rappers flashing fancy clothes, expensive jewelry, and shiny cars? Check. Underclad hotties shaking their butts and boobs? Check.
What the hell is this? And you know it: just about every hip-hop video does this. (The exceptions, such as Bryan Barber's thought-provoking video for OutKast's "The Whole World" are few enough to easily remember.) Jay-Z insisted that he make a single and a video out of the song "Big Pimpin'." Why? "Because [paraphrased] people need to see what big pimpin' is all about." Yeah, thanks, HOVA, because the last ten years of videos identical to yours hadn't clued us in.
And then we have a bunch of rock videos with music that can barely be classified as rock. We have Simple Plan whining in the rain, we have Blink 182 frolicking with Catholic school girls in prison. (Get it? Restrictive schools are like prison, and all these inner party animals are just waiting for rock to set them free!)
And then we get pop, with Britney babbling about nothing or Xtina prancing around pushing her fake tits together to some "ballad" best suited for an elevator. In hell.
And then you get some song by a bunch of fourteen-year-olds with the lines "I want to break out/Get me some take-out". Huh? Does that mean something?
So, there's still a lot of great work out there, but it's so hard to find it anymore, what with the programming hegemony of MTV. There are videos that are fun, thoughtful, innovative, primitive, comical, serious, and, yes, even sexy without making you feel like you wallow in the depths. OK, a lot of this quality are found on the DVDs below, but there's more where they came from.
I just can't be inspired to write a review about it. Sorry. Maybe next week.
