Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Best music videos of the decade (Honorable mentions)


"Video Phone" (Extended Mix) (2009) 
Beyonce with Lady Gaga
Director: Hype Williams
It was a tad too late in the year to put them up against the Chosen 15, but I had to give these ladies a shout-out. Beyonce has become a video minimalist while Gaga has gone the other way--Hype Williams melds the two the only way he can: awesomely. Hype even left some of the bluescreen hoods in the video! Chicks, guns and chewing gum; please don't leave us in 2010!




 "3's and 7's" (2007)
Queens of the Stone Age
Director: Paul Minor
QotSA definitely understand the importance of 21st century video making. There is one particular shot near the end of this one--it only lasts a second--but it's a view from a shotgun, blasting a fleeing victim. It may sound morbid that I like it, but it perfectly captures what grindhouse/exploitation films were all about. Really authentic.



BEST OF DECADE INDEX (( Intro .:. Hon. Mentions .:. 15-11 .:. 10-6 .:. 5-1 ))


Red Hot Chili Peppers
Director: Tony Kaye
Stadium Arcadium's first single spawned one of the higher points in a wide catalog of RHCP goodies. No guest stars, no plots... just a brief retelling of where we were musically 50 years ago, and what happened to rock and/or roll since then (with a little Misfits thrown in).



"Star Guitar" (2002)
Chemical Brothers
Director: Michel Gondry
One of Gondry's premier tricks is perfected on "Star Guitar". Anyone who's ridden a train can connect with it--which is pretty much everyone. People may think "Believe" is the best Brothers visual of the 2000s, but I find it a bit cheesy for the top nod.



"Empty Walls" (2007) 
Serj Tankian
Director: Tony Petrossian
When System of a Down took over the protest crown in the mid-2000s, they carried a heavy burden of producing incendiary videos at the level of Rage Against the Machine strength. Serj's solo song is the most blunt about everything that went wrong with Iraq and the US, with an ingenious backdrop.



BEST OF DECADE INDEX (( Intro .:. Hon. Mentions .:. 15-11 .:. 10-6 .:. 5-1 ))

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