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Video clips as a work of art
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24 Replies
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Well, in the 80s, Duran2 to me were the pioneers of the more modern day video concept, but then again in retrospect, all those tv shows/film footage , such as Woodstock, etc in the 60s that showed Beatles, Dusty Springfield, Mamas and Papas, Cilla Black, etc in a way, perhaps inadvertently ahead of their time , I would say, might of been the true pioneers to the video concept, they just didn’t know/realize it of what it was called/were creating …until the 80s came along and redefined and/or introduced the concept to what we are all now familiar with… I hope I made me explanation understandable, , that is conveyed my point the way I intended to be said/understood, you may/may not agree with me and that’s fine either way…. ☮
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Hi, Jacki. Thank you very much for your feedback and I understand very well what you mean. Yes, in the 60s existed small video artworks that were actually not yet perceived as something special. And I fully agree with you that in the 80s the production of music videos, also from an artistic point of view, really picked up speed and also became very professional. I think it also has something to do with the fact that during this time the first music channels, such as for example MTV, established themselves and more and more people watched music videos on television. You’re right, Duran Duran not only wrote good music, but as you said, sometimes more elaborately produced videos. “Hungry like the Wolf” reminds me of a short movie with an exotic backdrop and “Is There Something I Should Know?” still uses new techniques at that time, for example „Picture-in-picture-fade-in“ (unfortunately I can’t insert the original videos, too bad…)
Where you mentioned it, I’ve added a nice work from the 60s here. When I saw the video clip for the first time, I didn’t particularly like the whole thing (maybe because The Beatles look like singing penguins in the video). But after looking at it several times, I have to say: a little bit strange but very good. This Hollywood charm (or maybe Las Vegas) with the show stairs is funny. That fits well with the lyrics, but somehow not with the Beatles. No idea how they came up with it.
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Actually what is generally credited as the first music video was in 1961. The Ozzie and Harriet tv show would end with son RIck Nelson and his band (with guitariist James Burton) doing one of his current hits. In 1961 they played his song Travelin’ Man over a traveloque type video showing cities around the world. Report is that the idea was Ozzie’s. I remember watching it. One of the advantages is remembering history as a current event
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Hi Will, thank you very much for your answer. I just watched the video clip on youtube, because I don’t know Rick Nelson at all. It’s a beautiful song with a nice melody (the singer somehow reminds me of the young Elvis, maybe it’s because of the hairstyle. Is the song “Hello Mary Lou” actually also by him?). And you’re right: towards the end of the video, landscapes and cities are displayed. The birth of the music video in 1961. Great. Yes, sometimes it is quite good to be a living lexicon. What was “The Ozzie and Harriet tv show” exactly? An entertainment or music show, something like the Ed Sullivan Show?
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Jurgen – basically The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet was a weekly tv show about the Nelson family, although I dont remember them saying what Ozzie did for work on the show. In real life he was a band leader in the 40’s and he met Harriet when she became the bands singer. also in real life they married and had 2 boys, David and RIck (hee was Ricky until he became an adult). When he showed interest in music and began recording Ozzie used him and his band to end each weeks tv show and yes he is the Rick Nelson for Hello Mary Lou. Side notes actress Tracey Nelson is his daughter, twin sons were big in music in the 90’s as The Nelsons, his first wife, Kristine was Mark Harmon’s (NCIS) sister, the twins Matthew and Gunnar are record holders as they represent 4 sequential generations of 1 family with #1 hits, grandmother Harriets parents had a #1, Ozzie and Harriet had a #1, Rick had a few #1s and the twins had a #1. Neat video on youtube of the twins with James Burton who played in Ricks band. And there is a ton of music trivia, likely more than you needed
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Thank you Will for the very detailed answer. Wow, what a family history. Compared to that, the TV series “Dynasty” and “Dallas” are really boring stuff. I will follow your advice and take a closer look at the whole thing on youtube.
James Burton also seems to have had a greater influence in music history, but is quite unknown to us.
PS: I wanted to set the video “The travelling man”, but the direct integration does not work. Now we have written so much about the song, then at least a live performance from later years:
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TThankyou Jurgen for your reply to me, and I agree with your sentiments, loved the links that you provided….
Will… Ozzie n Harriet a tad bit before my existencevby about 10-15 yrs…lol…. but do recall seeing “reruns” of it as a kid and teen , in the 70s/80s on tv….
In Canada , MuchMusic was the Canadian equivalent to USA MTV, and in Quebec there was it’s own version of a music channel called ” Musique Plus “… Also on Canadian tv there were video shows called ” Good Rockin Tonight “, ” Video Hits ” and a few others, that the names escape me just now… ????
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Hi Jurgen. That MLT video is just out of this world! In a similar vein, I also like this one that feels so mysterious, and carries me away. I was not familiar with Bowie’s original, but to be honest, after MLTs version, Bowie’s just didn’t have a chance with me. The landscape shots and the setting as Mona and Lisa walk up the hill just immediately sets the mysterious mood. A work of art musically and visually.
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Hi Jung, great video! The whole thing looks like it was shot on another planet. Maybe Mars, when it still had an atmosphere and water. The light mood, the barren landscape and the gray cloud cover in the firmament. Everything fits the Starman theme. With David Bowie I feel the same as you: I did not know the song. Although he is certainly a great music icon, I can do little with his music. I think I never understood his attitude to life. Mona and Lisa’s attitude to life, on the other hand, I understand light years better!
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For me probably the biggest standout video from the 80s when mainstream videos started is this one. I think it is a work of art, so imaginative, you don’t want the video to end. The video I think made the song even bigger, and both complement each other perfectly.
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That’s it Jung. Also my absolute favorite video from the 80s. Always beautiful! I don’t know how many times I’ve watched it. I was very fascinated by the artistic style at the time: the constant but fluid change from the real world to the comic world, which has an almost surreal effect due to the pencil drawing. A masterpiece.
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At this point I would like to present a music video from the recent past. “Haus am See”. The deliberate change of black and white and color, the post-colored parts of the picture, the whole video editing and the cool choreography of the drummers: I find this very successful. The video also fits very well with the text (I have attached a translation of the text in excerpts). A new, contemporary variation of “When I’m Sixty Four“.
(Text excerpt:)
- I was born here and walk the streets,
- I know the faces, every house and every store.
- I have to go away, know every pigeon here by name.
- Thumbs out, I’m waiting for a chic woman with a fast car.
- The sun dazzles, everything flies by.
- And the world behind me slowly becomes small.
- But the world in front of me is made for me!
- I know she’s waiting and I’ll pick her up!
- I have the day on my side, I have tailwind!
- A choir of women on the side of the road, singing for me!
- I lean back and look into the deep blue,
- Close my eyes and just walk straight ahead.
- And at the end of the road there is a house by the lake.
- Orange tree leaves lie on the path.
- I have 20 children, my wife is beautiful.
- Everybody comes by, I never have to go out.
- Here I was born, here I’ll be buried.
- I’ve got deaf ears, a white beard, and I sit in the garden.
- My 100 grandchildren play cricket on the lawn.
- When I think about it, I can hardly wait.
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Hi Jurgen, this Peter Fox song is very nice, has a catchy tune, and thanks for translating the lyrics to English. I like German pop/rock songs. Falco and Nena are famous, and I like one Mona and Lisa covered in their 2007 concert. A group called Seed, and the song is “Aufsteh’n”. One of my fave songs off that album.
I think some songs in German sound nice. Maybe I should have taken German in highschool instead of the obligatory French we were all required to take as Canada is bilingual English/French. I may have liked it much better! 🙂
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Glad to hear you like the video Jung. Peter Fox’s music represents a new self-confident music trend in Germany: the vocals are mostly in German (unthinkable in the young music scene until the early 80s) and follow an idiosyncratic style, originally probably influenced by rap, hiphop and and I don’t know what else. It sounds cool by German standards and leaves the paths of beautiful, melodic singing. By the way, Peter Fox is not a proper name, but the name of a music project. The singer’s name is actually Pierre Baigorry. The group Seed and the song “Aufsteh’n” didn’t mean anything to me until just now, but I watched the video and the singer of the group Seed, surprise, is named: Pierre Baigorry. (Is that a coincidence or did you know that?) In the song “Aufsteh’n” I like the mix of two languages quite well. But I am skeptical about the rhythm: I find german mentality and reggae music that fits as well as elephant and (playing) double dutch.
Even if the topic is getting a little off track right now, I think your ambitions to learn German are great. When you have taken all your courses, then you can play the piano, sing german lyrics and watch the stars at the same time. wow. sounds like a really cool plan. Whether you would enjoy the german language more than French I cannot estimate. Certainly English and German are more similar than English and French. Also the pronunciation of both languages sounds quite hard. French sounds clearly more elegant. In German language there’s the possibility to form long sentences, interrupted by some insertions, and at the end of the sentence you’ll find the verb you need to understand the complete sentence. Sounds very cumbersome? It is ( and so is my english). So if you like to search for easter eggs at easter (high frustration tolerance) and if you like it to hold your breath under water until you can’t stand it anymore (high capacity for suffering), you will have a lot of fun with the german language.
Do you actually speak Korean? I find Asian languages very fascinating, precisely because they are so completely different. For me, it’s always an endless flow of sounds in which I recognize little structure but no individual words at all. But the sound of the languages varies a lot. For example, Thai is almost a sung language, Vietnamese is very hectic and fast, Japanese sounds very hard and choppy (sounds like karate only with words) and Korean, I don’t know, somehow in between?
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It’s not too late, Jung! You could enroll in an introductory German course at a local university. (Evening classes tend to have a lot of adult students, so it wouldn’t feel as weird.) One semester won’t make you fluent, but it will certainly give you a strong sense of the flavor and structure of the language.
I dabbled in numerous foreign languages as a student, and German was my favorite, probably because it’s so closely related to English. My first-year teacher in high school spoke nothing but German for the first three weeks, yet we were able to understand him because he spoke slowly and used words that were phonetically very similar to their English equivalents.
The one thing that takes a little getting used to is the syntax for complex sentences. For example, if I this sentence in German word order to write were, would it like this look.
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That sounds like a good idea David. When I retire my plan was to take some various interest courses at a college, piano/music, astronomy, and adding a language like German would be good.
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Hi David, it’s nice that you speak a little German (or really good?). You mentioned that before.
I also think that Jung should take a language course, then we can discuss some of the future topics in German. Great. „Ich freue mich schon sehr!“.Your creative combination of English language and German sentence structure is basically correct, but causes a knot in my brain. Although the translation of language sometimes can be really funny. With literal translation from German into English such linguistic highlights arise:
- How goes it you? (How do you do? / wie geht es dir?)
- English for away stepped (English for advanced / Englisch für Fortgeschrittene)
- Shitwing (Fender / Kotflügel)
- short and pregnant (short and concise / kurz und prägnant)
- You are on the wood way (you are wrong / Du bist auf dem Holzweg)
Do you also celebrate thanksgiving David? If so, then I wish you a happy thanksgiving.
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Hey, Juergen!
I took one year of German in high school, followed by three semesters in college. So I’m hardly fluent, but I can usually translate written passages except for the longer words, which unfortunately is where most of the meaning is.
Ah, yes, German idioms are great! One I remember from class is “Alles ist in Butter”: literally “Everything is in butter”, but translated as “Everything is terrific”.
Have you ever read Mark Twain’s essay “The Awful German Language”? I think you’d love it. It expresses so well and so humorously the average American’s frustrations with learning German.
Also, long ago a guy named Dave Morrah wrote a lot of stories, published in the Saturday Evening Post, in a half-English, half-German language that is hilarious to read for those who are familiar with both languages.
I do celebrate Thanksgiving, but in the U.S. it’s not until late November. But thanks for the early wishes!
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Hello David, two and a half years German? That sounds good. Unfortunately, languages are like that: if you don’t need them all the time, they disappear again very quickly. Really a pity. The biggest stupidity of my school time was to choose Latin as a second foreign language. You as a mathematically gifted person would certainly have fun with it (you probably also know Latin). Latin is like complicated “Tetris” only with words instead of geometric figures. For me wasted time, in which I would have rather learned a real language from today’s point of view. Maybe Spanish.
The article of Mark Twain I skimmed funny wise coincidentally yesterday, when I searched for the unfortunate idioms. Twain was upset about German newspaper articles and their headlines. However, in defense of the German language, it must be said that Mark Twain wrote this essay when German was really still very old-fashioned. Nobody speaks and writes like that anymore. Or do they? But there really are still a few politicians who speak these long sentences. Gladly during speeches on television. They like to start a sentence, but never finish it. Instead, they keep adding new subordinate clauses. You look at the clock, the politician talks and talks. You can make yourself a coffee, he’s still talking. You quickly go to the bathroom to brush your teeth and when you stand in front of the TV again, it really seems as if he wants to finish his sentence right away. Wrong guess. He just took a quick breath and apparently forgot himself how the sentence was supposed to end. „Alles in Butter” is funny. But if you want to say: “Get to the point”, then it’s „Tu’ mal Butter bei die Fische”. At least that’s how it’s said here in my area. „Ruhrpottdeutsch“ (language spoken in the Ruhr area). Funny thing. Maybe another time.
Oops, now I’ve already missed the point a bit. I have not noticed so. Sorry.So long David
PS: Dave Morrah I will google.
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Latin was actually the first language I tried, and you’re right, it’s basically just a huge logistical puzzle. Seemingly every word has dozens of possible endings depending on the conjugation, declension, tense, case, number, gender, etc. I don’t know how the ancient Romans were able to have conversations in real time. However, many modern languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) are descended from Latin. Plus a lot of scientific terminology is based on Latin roots, so it has its uses.
After a year of Latin I switched to French for a year, followed by German. In each case, while my peers were struggling with the concept of masculine and feminine nouns, I was rejoicing in how streamlined everything was compared to Latin!
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Hi Jurgen, it is an interesting coincidence. I didn’t know Pierre Baigorry was in the band Seed. The original Aufstehn by Seed is good, but it’s young Mona and Lisa’s feisty passionate singing energy that got me hooked on that song.
https://test2.monalisa-twins.com/jukebox-live-2007-2/
I don’t know, I’ve always liked the way German sounds when someone speaks it compared to other languages. My dad spoke a little German from language classes he took in University, so I use to ask him to speak a few words when I was a kids. And then also the fact my favourite composers are from Germany and Austria, including of course Mona and Lisa has something to do with it too. I think it would be ultra cool to speak to Mona and Lisa in German, or in any language really! 🙂
I speak Korean, but at a very basic level that one would converse with their parents about simple things. I get lost if I try to listen to a Korean news program or watch a Korean drama. When I was little I learned to speak Korean at home with my parents, and learned English naturally if I wanted to play with the neighbourhood kids, so learned both languages in parallel. But English had the advantage because I learned to read and write in it. I never learned to read or write in Korean. As my parents are both fluent in Japanese, and in my mothers case her native language as she was born and grew up in Japan, there was a lot of Japanese words mixed into the Korean I learned. So when I try to speak Korean to other Koreans, I sometimes have a hard time because I throw Japanese words in there. I think the way Korean sounds, it is in between Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and Japanese. The language was certainly influenced by both.
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Hi Jung, thanks for the link to the live concert of Mona and Lisa in 2007. I haven’t looked into the performance before and you’re right: they really do play the song „Aufsteh’n”. The comparison between the two versions is funny: on one side the singer Pierre Baigorry, trying to look cool and sound brash and on the other side mona and lisa, happy and full of live. Cool meets cheerful.
The way you explain it to me, I can understand that you have a special relationship with the German language, because of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Mona & Lisa. David is right: if you ever have time to take an introductory course. Why not? Maybe you’ll really like it and when you meet Mona and Lisa you’ll just greet them with a casual: “Na Mädels, was geht ab?” (“well girls what’s up”, roughly translated). Then they will surely invite you for a coke or serenade you on their guitars. 🙂
Thanks also for your very personal insight into your life. In the last 20 years I have traveled very often to Southeast Asia. I like to see the people there, because of their friendly and open-minded nature and their friendly politeness, but also because of their humor. I believe that humor is something universal that connects people all over the world. I realize that Asia is a melting pot of different cultures, ethnic groups and languages (just like Europe). I especially like the diversity of the cultures there, the wonderful landscapes, the delicious food and yes, as I said before, the mentality of most Asians. They have wonderful stories to tell, many exhilarating and some deeply sad. And I admire many people there, how they master their lives despite poverty and misery. Unfortunately, I have never been to South Korea or Japan. I think Japan is a pretty expensive and exclusive place. South Korea perhaps also. 2019 I spent my vacation in Laos. There were also many Korean tourists. They were always in larger groups on the road have a lot of singing and laughing. Nice people, but unfortunately I never had the opportunity to talk to them.
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Hi Jurgen! Hope you are having a great start to the weekend. I still have to bear through a full day of work where I am.
“Na Mädels, was geht ab?” (“well girls what’s up”, roughly translated). Thanks for the translation, I will practice it to get it perfect. Maybe for now it will be: Hallo Mona und Lisa, ich träume davon, euch beide eines Tages zu treffen! 🙂
That’s awesome that you have visited South Asia a lot. I would love to travel through South Asia one day. In 2016 I visited the island of Taiwan for a week, and if I had the time I could have spent a month there easily. Such a beautiful semi tropical place. From the beauty of nature with it’s forests and mountainous landscape to the urban excitement of Taipei. Yes both Korea and Japan can be expensive in the touristy places, but Korea can be done very economically too if you avoid the 5 star hotels and restaurants catered to tourists. Just take the subway in downtown Seoul and and get lost like I did. All the signs are in English too, so I could get around. One thing I noticed in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan is I always felt safe even late at night anywhere. They have petty crime, but violent crime and robbery is very rare. I visited Japan in 1995, so I don’t know what it’s like now, but I suspect it’s still pretty good.
Interesting you mentioned Korean tourists. A few years ago, from the recommendation of my niece who visited Canada the year before, I took a 4 days chartered bus tour locally of the Canadian Rockies. It was full of mostly Korean tourists, so I was able to spend some time with fellow country people and I got to experience my own culture which was a lot of fun. In the evenings they would take over the hotel/resorts and bonds and friendships would be made. The bus tour guide put on a lot of music throughout the trip. In hindsight, if I had discovered MLT back then, I could have brought along their albums and asked the tour guide to play MLT! Imagine that, 4 days with MLT music on the tour. Could have been so much fun and joy, and maybe some new MLT fans in Korea. 🙂
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