Style and Substance

Here's just a little plug.
I would highly suggest that you all pick up copies of the new "Directors Label" series, this time with four volumes of DVDs featuring the works of Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Anton Corbijn, and Stephane Sednaoui. I would like you all to pick these up so that more directors will release DVDs. I love music videos, and I do believe that these are a dying art form. Well, music videos will always be around as long as there are artists to promote, and a TV screen to watch (or internet, or cell phone, or...). But making a good music video that isn't just people running around with girls clad in bikinis, shaking their boobies and bottoms, all while dousing themselves with $300 bottles of champagne is a lost art. I like it when the video complements the song by adding another dimension to the song, or places the song in context. It doesn't necessarily need to tell an explicit story, but it puts moving images to convey the feelings and emotions to what is portrayed in the song.

I always thought Mark Romanek was one of the masters of the music video form. He created videos with extreme style and sophistication, and used effects to enhance a video, not to be the effect for the sake of being a cheap effect. I am happy that we will get videos for Janet Jackson's "Got 'Til It's Gone," Madonna's "Bedtime Story" and "Rain," Beck's "Devil's Haircut," and Nine Inch Nail's "Closer (the uncut directors version!)" preserved on DVD format. Even better is that you get his commentary on all of his videos, and the artist's commentaries on most videos.

Stephane Sednaoui's videos have been cute and quirky (like many of Michel Gondry's), sometimes going with black and white (Bjork's "Big Time Sensuality" and Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Give It Away"), but when he does color, he's almost like David LaChapelle, with gigantic bursts of color and imagery (REM's "Lotus" and U2's "Mysterious Ways" and "Discotheque (though it says that "Discotheque is a new version, so we'll have to see. Hopefully they won't use the "rock" version of the song and use the original "disco dance" version). The only thing missing is the inclusion of Madonna's "Fever" and Towa Tei featuring Kylie Minogue's "GBI (German Bold Italic)," two more great videos that should have been included, but omitted because too many similar elements are used in Massive Attack's "Sly."

When I think Anton Corbijn, I immediately think of U2, as that band and him go hand in hand with a very long history together. But he has done a lot of other videos too, for other bands songs that I really have never seen on MTV. With U2's "Best of 1990-2000," I'm glad that he's only featuring two of their videos, and is showing many of his other works, including Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box" and The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done." He's great at letting his videos tell an abstract story that goes along with the music. I especially love what he did with Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence." The almost surreal image of Dava Gahan running around the rolling countrysides decked out in a king outfit and hauling around an adirondack chair is comical, mysterious, and interesting.

And a last surprise inclusion is Jonathan Glazer, who I don't really think of as a music video director (he's actually done a lot of commercial work, and directed films like Sexy Beast and Birth), even though his video for Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" was played everywhere when it first came out. Also, he directed the very disturbing video for UNKLE's "Rabbit in Your Headlights" (you'll have to really see it to believe it, but it is a little upsetting. Even I was a little taken aback when I first saw it on MTV very late at night.) He's the "Chris Cunningham" of this set.

So anyways, these come out today, the 13th of September (time goes by so fast doesn't it?). Also don't forget to pick up the first three volumes that include Spike Jones (lotta Beastie Boys stuff), Chris Cunningham (Bjork's "All is Full of Love" and Madonna's "Frozen," along with that "Come to Daddy" video by Aphex Twin), and Michel Gondry (Bjork's "Human Nature" and a bunch of White Stripes stuff). You can also get a Hype Williams DVD, which isn't officially a part of this set, but it does collect 10 of his videos (I hope they will release him as a part of this collection, but with more videos like No Doubt's "Ex Girlfriend" and Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson's "What's It Gonna Be")

And here's hoping for future volumes with Jonas Ackerlund (Madonna's "Ray of Light" and Prodigy's "Smack My B*tch Up," with a full original version of Madonna's "American Life"), Matthew Rolston (Garbage's "I Think I'm Paranoid"), Francis Lawrence (Gwen Stefani's "Whatcha Waiting For," Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting For Tonight"), Floria Sigismondi (Marilyn Manson videos, Christina Aguilera's "Fighter," The White Stripes' "Blue Orchid," with bonus director's cut of Sarah McLachlan's "Sweet Surrender"), David Fincher (Madonna's "Bad Girl," "Express Yourself," and "Vogue," Nine Inch Nail's "Only"), and Joseph Kahn (way too many videos to remember them all right now, because it felt like he was directing everyone from Britney Spears to U2 for a while there!). It would also be cool to see Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Smashing Pumpkins' "Perfect" and "1979", Red Hot Chili Peppers's "Californication" and "Otherside"), Big TV! (dido "Here With Me," The Wallflowers' "Three Marlenas"), Jake Nava (Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," Mariah Carey's "Shake it Off"), Herb Ritts (Madonna's "Cherish," Chris Issac's "Wicked Games"), possibly Mary Lambert (many Madonna videos, and some Janet Jackson videos), and David LaChapelle (Moby's "Natural Blues," Christina Aguilera's "Diirty").