Uncolored Pictures of a Marigold

I’m not a big fan of music videos in general. There are a few that I really like though. Like “Heart-Shaped Box.” Although it has a somewhat feel of excess, there is lots of inspiration, symbolism, and a few clever touches (the raven beak-synching to the chorus, Kurt’s out of focus close-ups, the stagnant camera angle during the final verse). HSB

There’s also “American Idiot.” Most of Green Day’s videos (especially Wake Me Up When September Ends. Too much stupid dialogue) are typical of pop-rock videos: a little storyline with shots of the band performing. AI feels a bit more energized than the others. It’s pretty funny watching the band members play the song at different speeds and seeing Billie and Mike dance around (Everybody do the propaganda!). There’s also Tre running around the drums, watching the screen of a video camera, and Billie blowing his brains out during “It’s calling out to idiot America.” AI

A less known video is Weezer’s “The Good Life.” It does follow the pop-rock video formula, but they take several camera angles to make a single shot, and the storyline part is purposely boring, if it can even be called a storyline. The band performance is actually the best part, as the bass player and drummer barely even make an effort to play along with the song. They play maracas, dance, “fly” around, and switch instruments. Rivers’s guitar is colored like Kurt’s In Utero tour Mustang too, so that’s kinda cool. TGL

Of course, there’s always what I think is the most creative video of all time: “Bastards of Young.” The song is uptuned half a step from the record, so it seems poppier. Also, at the end of the video (I won’t spoil anything), the record continues playing with the next song on the album, Lay It Down Clown (also uptuned), so we can infer that the boy bought the album, not the single. And cleverly, your left speaker also silences at the same time as the one in the video. BOY Hey! That's a funny abbreviation.