Music videos - Does anyone else feel this way?

You got in ahead of me, I was going to start such a thread for the same reasons.

I'm generally with you. If I happen to come across a really good video, fine. But I don't look out for them, and I don't eagerly anticipate them. I'm just not bothered about them. To the extent that if I act on a recommendation or follow up on an artist having heard an interesting song on the radio, I'll often youtube them but even if there's an official video of theirs I'll just sit back and listen to the song and not bother watching the visuals.

I remember back in 1982, seeing the video for Vienna by Ultravox and thinking for the first time, blimey this video malarkey's starting to get a bit out of hand. I'm sure it was the main inspiration for Not The Nine O'Clock News's Nice Video, Shame About The Song. (you need to select annotations from the little cog menu and switch it off to get rid of the annoying caption). I love that the band is called Lufthansa Terminal!

Oh man, I had a major adolescent thing about Pamela Stephenson then....

It's probably a generational thing, videos weren't simply an issue when I began listening to music and in that particular period, artists were really about the music, Genesis too, Peter's costumes notwithstanding. Videos for me don't stand in the way, don't add anything either. I also happen to think Genesis weren't particularly good at or perhaps interested in them. I struggle to remember a really good Genesis but it never had an impact on my appreciation, or less, of the song in question.

At the beginning of the nineties, I was a regular viewer of mtv. At that time, there was no internet and you seldom had the chance to see the artists you liked on tv. I enjoyed the music videos a lot. There are songs, where the video comes to my mind instantly, when I listen to them. Sledge Hammer by PG, Take On Me by A-Ha and Cry by Godley & Creme, etc.

A well made video can make a great song even more enjoyable. On the other hand, the best made video cannot lift a song, that is crap.

Quote from slowdancer

A well made video can make a great song even more enjoyable. On the other hand, the best made video cannot lift a song, that is crap.

I think you mentioned the right examples, videos which are still remembered today, I would say ''iconic'' but it's another term being tossed around too much. Then of course, it's not that I disagree, because I don't think it is an area where you can agree or less, it's just personal. I would say that a good video, certainly helps promoting the song but personally, none of the abovementioned, outstanding videos change my perception, appreciation or enjoyment of the song itself. I don't think much of Take on me, for instance, aside from the nostalgia factor, I was in my 20s after all. The video was really great but it didn't really made me buy their record. As for the Sledgehammer, had the video been bad, I would certainly have bought Peter's new album all the same.

Quote from slowdancer

At the beginning of the nineties, I was a regular viewer of mtv. At that time, there was no internet and you seldom had the chance to see the artists you liked on tv. I enjoyed the music videos a lot. There are songs, where the video comes to my mind instantly, when I listen to them. Sledge Hammer by PG, Take On Me by A-Ha and Cry by Godley & Creme, etc.

A well made video can make a great song even more enjoyable. On the other hand, the best made video cannot lift a song, that is crap.

I agree, and a-Ha's is one I'd have quoted too. As for Godley and Crème, an Englishman in New York would be an example I'd use. Rio by Mike Nesmith another. As for "can it add anything to the song" well, Alphaville's Jet Set has a line "We love them like we love decay" (A reference to the Russians) but add a twist that, if memory serves, the lyric sheet, unseen by most listeners to the song, includes, by holding up a photo of D(anny) Kaye!

Definitely generational, for me music videos will always be connected to the 90's in the first place. Back then, charts songs seemed to be an inseparable unity of music and video. As a teenager I even fell for buying singles whose video was great only to find the song on its own sucked. In today's times videos have entirely lost any importance.

This is a video that my teen self enjoyed so much it made me buy the single; once I heard the song without video I was like holy crap, what the hell was I thinking.

[youtube]

This one is more of a short film than a video and it makes the actual song just background music to the video. Hard to believe the song pre-existed the video, it looks rather like someone made this short film and let someone make film music to it. You see, music videos can be pieces of art.

edit: Oh and for Genesis videos - maybe it's again the 90's kid in me but Genesis videos never got better than Jesus He Knows Me and I Can't Dance. Both were just brilliant.

Another music video that's a must with the great Christopher Walken dancing to Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice

Come To Daddy by Aphex Twin is for me a notable one, if perhaps a tad unpleasant and not to everyone's taste.

Madonna did some good ones, Ray Of Light and Hung Up spring to mind.

Bowie, Ashes To Ashes has always been a favourite.

Boomtown Rats, I Don't Like Mondays is an example of a song I found just okay but was lifted by the video, I still enjoy watching that one.

For reasons I won't bore us with, School of Seven Bells cover of I Got Knocked Down But I'll Get Up while not much to it is very moving because of the circumstances behind it.

U2, The Fly was the first inkling I had that maybe they weren't as annoying as I'd previously thought and might actually be quite good (I still love that song).

Quote from foxfeeder

As for Godley and Crème, an Englishman in New York would be an example I'd use.

Yes! Beat me to it. Cry is good and very watchable, but Englishman is the one.

It was me who opened up this can of worms so here goes!

I suppose I do feel that a good video can add to a song. I was 15 when I saw the Bohemian Rhapsody video and like it or not (!) I was so blown away by it that it did influence me about the song, great though the song is on its own. I have to say the same goes for Sledgehammer. When it came out I didn't know Peter's music, but there it was & I loved it. So I had to check out the album. I have a couple of others - Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush & Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. Also Phil's Take Me Home.

But I would also say that this is not set in stone. I was a Dire Straits fan for years before I ever saw any of their vidoes, and a couple of the pre Brothers In Arms ones, are cringingly low budget & embarrassing to watch. They didn't make me revise my opinions of either Romeo & Juliet or Tunnel Of Love. In addition while the Money For Nothing video may be 'iconic' I was going to buy that album anyway. I would never say a video is better than the actual song. I agree that if I don't like a song, Citizen Kane could not save it if it were the video to the song.

As for Genesis, I am not like many of you here who were already huge fans. I came to them late & I never saw their videos. When I bought the Video Box DVD I think the only ones I had seen were the Invisible Touch ones (and I suppose it must be said that the Land Of Confusion video may have been a factor in my buying that album). So I have really enjoyed watching the videos in recent times. I tend to stay up late & watch some of them depending on mood. That's what we do in our house - we have videos saved on the computer & we take turns watching our favourites.

There has been the rare occasion for me where a music video had its intended effect — it captured my interest enough to make me want to explore a band that I hadn't previously.

"Salvation" by The Cranberries had that effect on me.

But I've never had the opposite happen where I was turned off from a song by a band I already liked, because I thought the video sucked.