This is the video for Weezer’s latest single, Pork and Beans, off their latest cd, which I’m currently downloading on iTunes (even though I fucking hate iTunes).
Having watched that video (or just looking at the screen shot and then moving on because you have a life and can’t be bothered), I’d now like to pose a question that Jeff and I talked about the other night. This video is funny and references all the stupid YouTube “hits” that had everyone on the interweb “buzzing” and sending viral emails. I think it’s a pretty great video. However, Jeff pointed out that 10 or even 5 years from now people won’t know what the hell half the stuff they reference in the video is. So in the sense that it’s got limited staying power, it isn’t a great video.
So here’s what Jeff and I wondered: if you were an established band like Weezer or DMB or Coldplay or U2 or whatever and your label came to you and said “you’ve got to make a video for a song but you’ve got creative control over it”, would you try to make an artistic video that could stand the test of time or would you do a funny one that had little or no artistic value like Pork and Beans?
Personally, I’d make a funny one because A) you’d enjoy making it more than you’d enjoy making an artsy one and B) no one makes videos anymore anyway.
In the early 90s DMB was making videos because that was part of being a musician and MTV actually played music. And if you look at the old DMB music videos like Crash or Too Much you see that they are an attempt to be artistic. That’s because at the time music videos were important and a reflection of your band. You make a serious and artsy video because you want people to know that you take your music seriously and are artistically talented. Now, however, videos essentially don’t exist so what’s the point of trying to use it to impress people with your artistic vision? Why not just be goofy and make fun of the things going on in the world. No one does that better than Weezer. They’re a band that is very serious, but seemingly doesn’t take the outside world seriously at all. They don’t care how they’re perceived, they don’t really care to make some great social commentary, they just want to play their music. Thus, all their videos, which you can view on YouTube, are very simple; it’s them sitting around or doing something goofy.
Personally, if I were a musician I’d do the same. But let me know what you think; would you make an artsy or funny sort of pointless video?
