Metal Music Videos - Another Potential Long Thread

[AngraRULES]

So, reading the Headbangers Ball thread made me wonder one thing, so now I open this for discussion:

Do you still watch metal music videos once they're released? If you do, why? And ultimately, are they still relevant at all?

The reason why I ask is simple: I personally used to be all about the music videos back in the day (late 90s to early 2000s). I loved catching the good stuff, even if it wasn't that often on MTV, MTV2 and VH1. However, it seems to me that nowadays, music videos are as pointless, boring and (seemingly) irrelevant as ever. Could it be because 90% of metal videos are all alike?

Please discuss.

 

[metal41]

Yes!!!!! I still watch, collect and like to make compilations of them to play. Kind of like my own version of a metal show,, cept with stuff I actually like!!!

 

[nomisofsiman]

So, reading the Headbangers Ball thread made me wonder one thing, so now I open this for discussion:

Do you still watch metal music videos once they're released? If you do, why? And ultimately, are they still relevant at all?

The reason why I ask is simple: I personally used to be all about the music videos back in the day (late 90s to early 2000s). I loved catching the good stuff, even if it wasn't that often on MTV, MTV2 and VH1. However, it seems to me that nowadays, music videos are as pointless, boring and (seemingly) irrelevant as ever. Could it be because 90% of metal videos are all alike?

Please discuss.

I think for a while videos were indeed pointless...around the time that MTV and VH1 were hardly playing music, yet the youtube thing didn't quite catch on yet. I think with so many people using Youtube or even checking out a lot of bands' myspace pages, videos have become popular again. Now, as far as the quality of music videos, you are correct. They are for the most part similar, but there are occasions where a band makes a high quality music video and I do enjoy watching them. Though, I wouldn't say I often watch music videos.

 

[AngraRULES]

I think for a while videos were indeed pointless...around the time that MTV and VH1 were hardly playing music, yet the youtube thing didn't quite catch on yet. I think with so many people using Youtube or even checking out a lot of bands' myspace pages, videos have become popular again.

See, I happen to think somewhat differently. Here's why, people can upload just the song into Youtube (that's mainly how I check it). A lot of times, the songs in the official video clips are also edited, which in my opinion, is a total turn off. I'd much rather watch a Youtube clip of audio only - or a live version of a song than those expensive, edited music videos.

Now, as far as the quality of music videos, you are correct. They are for the most part similar, but there are occasions where a band makes a high quality music video and I do enjoy watching them. Though, I wouldn't say I often watch music videos.

I haven't seen a video I really liked in a long time. It sucks because bands are obviously making less and less money with sales - I wonder if that means the quality of videos will continue to decrease more and more.

 

[nomisofsiman]

See, I happen to think somewhat differently. Here's why, people can upload just the song into Youtube (that's mainly how I check it). A lot of times, the songs in the official video clips are also edited, which in my opinion, is a total turn off. I'd much rather watch a Youtube clip of audio only - or a live version of a song than those expensive, edited music videos.



I haven't seen a video I really liked in a long time. It sucks because bands are obviously making less and less money with sales - I wonder if that means the quality of videos will continue to decrease more and more.

I figured someone would say something like that. I agree, that's mostly what I do too, but you have to figure that there are a lot of people that don't know about people just uploading the clip. People on this board know, but I'm not so sure a lot of the mainstream music fans do.

I think it depends on the genre. Black metal I would say tends to have the best music videos because they tend to be very cinematic. Power metal and classic metal do tend to have some very shitty videos though. Despite my love for Judas Priest or Halford for that matter, their videos rank amongst the worst in terms of modern videos. They all tend to be animated, but really, really, REALLY bad animation. I'm guessing you're eluding to the bands that do the performance in a warehouse strategy?

 

[Diabolik]

I actually used to tape Headbangers Ball back in the 80's and still have all my compilations of the good stuff and interviews with bands like Nuclear Assault, Kreator, etc...I have some stuff like when Billy Milano was on there and kept on giving Downtown Judy Brown ( yes, she hosted it for a while) a hard time and would not let her talk and he kept on hitting on her. Also when Mr Metal Adam Curry was interviewing the singer from Ludichrist / Scatterbrain and he kept on hitting this siren to piss him off. The VJ as getting totally pissed because they were trying to get a decent segement but the singer from Scatterbrain kept on blasting this siren. It was very funny.

I taped the early revamp in the 2000's just to make more compilations like I did in the late 80's. But then labels started releasing DVD comps like the ones from Nuclear Blast and stuff. Once youtube hit I stopped really rushing to tape any video shows. There is a metal show on sunday afternoons in Chicago by this one guy who plays some good stuff every once in a while. But now with youtube there is no reason to waste time taping any show....it will be on youtube instantly.

I think now though I would rather watch live footage than music videos because I havent seen a creative video in a LONG time. I am tired of the band playing in a dark wharehouse in front of a giant fan to have thier hair waving around and stuff.

I do love to collect festival DVD's. I have almost all the Keep It True DVD's, Headbanger Open Air DVD's, Bang Your Head Festival DVD's, and a few of the Waken ones. With those you get pro sound and can see how the band is live plus interviews. I watch those over and over. Plus I am a sucker for almost any band DVD from bands I like.

I do think the era of music videos are over. Even in the pop music world Mtv barely plays them. That channel is now more reality shows than anything else. I dont know the last time I heard from anyone that they saw a music video on Mtv and then raced out to get the CD. Now with Facebook and Myspace even it is so easy to spread the word on bands....you post a youtube clip....any of your freinds instantly see it and odds are 1 will like it and pass it on to more.

I would rather see bands put that money towards touring or other means than making a video. I dont even know when the last time I sat even online and watched a full music video of a band....I miss the days when bands videos were creative.....like these




John Cusac is even in this video...




Jasonics favorite video.

 

[mel_progson]

Scatterbrain rule! That song was a top twenty hit here believe it or not.

 

[ZaneF2010]

I use to records the Ball also when I was a kid, then I had my friend Brandon make DVDs of various music videos over the years but I don't even pay attention to them anymore.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

It's not so much that music videos are dead but that music videos on TV are dead. A successful music video (read: one that grabs the attention of enough people to become fans and buy product/come to shows/etc such as Tesseract's video for Concealing Fate Pt 2) is still a great tool for a band. It is an extension of the band's image, whether it's a story-based video or 4-5 minutes of the band rocking out. If it's professionally done and successfully captures fans, it was worth making it.

Getting a lot of Youtube hits for your video, and getting it played on other blogs, zines, etc is the new "MTV" for bands. I don't even see how airing your video at 12-2AM on MTV is even worth it anymore. Yeah, the band probably collects a small publishing check for getting it aired, but it's probably not worth the bureaucracy it takes to get it played on there. Simply not enough people watch HBB anymore that it will effect a band's sales or show attendance records.

 

[Thorshammer69]

Scatterbrain rule!

Those guys were great! Milk and blood, blood and milk....

 

[adaher]

However, it seems to me that nowadays, music videos are as pointless, boring and (seemingly) irrelevant as ever. Could it be because 90% of metal videos are all alike?

I do agree that most metal videos are all alike. Probably a quarter of them alone just feature the band playing in a white background. Others are just performance videos, and when they do try something different it's often amazingly cheesy(see Hammerfall's Natural High. Wow.)

However, I love them. Can't get enough of them. There are many reasons I feel this way.

1) When I first discovered the new metal scene back around 1997, there were few metal videos, and the few there were were so cheap and bad they couldn't be taken seriously. Ever seen Luca Turilli's Ancient Forest of Elves? It's such a wonder to see the scene get popular enough that metal bands can make decent music videos now.

2) If you want to get a friend into a band, especially if they aren't solid metal fans, a video makes much more of an impression than just playing a song. Plus, a well-produced video demonstrates that a band is at least somewhat "big", which for some reason is really important to American fans. Most Americans won't even consider giving a band a chance if they aren't "big". For some reason, if I show a live video of a metal band playing in front of a huge audience, whoever sees it seems much more positive about them. American fans are weird.

3) Especially if I'm unfamiliar with a band, I like to get a look at them. For some reason I identify better with a band's music if I can imagine them performing it. My brain creates a visual image even when I'm just listening. Maybe it's because I grew up with MTV.

4) Metal bands today are mostly lazy or horrible live performers. They hit the notes, they are good that way, but there's just no effort to entertain a crowd like past rock bands did, and I actually think this holds some bands back, especially in the US market. Some of these guys make grunge bands look expressive on stage. But in a video, most bands actually try a little, so you get a cooler performance in the music videos than you get at a live performance.

 

[adaher]

Oh yea, reason #5:

By making videos, they give Glenn the chance to make awesome PP roster announcements every year now.

 

[Justin G]

I'm still a big fan of music videos. They're one of my favorite bonus additions to CDs, and I buy a fair amount from iTunes. I like having a visual counterpart to the music, and some bands (Kamelot and Dimmu Borgir come to mind) do a really great job with them. I load them on the iPod for the gym. Watching videos makes time on the treadmill pass much faster than just listening to music.

 

[General Zod]

I had been TiVoing the Headbanger's Ball. But it got to the point where I would fast forward through the entire show, without watching a single video. So, I'll watch a video if someone posts one here or on Facebook. But that's about it.

 

[Pellaz]

I think the last video to REALLY catch my eye was Dimmu Borgir's "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse." Just because it looked amazingly expensive on the production side.

It's not so much that music videos are dead but that music videos on TV are dead. A successful music video (read: one that grabs the attention of enough people to become fans and buy product/come to shows/etc such as Tesseract's video for Concealing Fate Pt 2) is still a great tool for a band. [....]
Getting a lot of Youtube hits for your video, and getting it played on other blogs, zines, etc is the new "MTV" for bands. I don't even see how airing your video at 12-2AM on MTV is even worth it anymore.

Couldn't agree more. A video CAN be a good promotional tool, even in this day and age (maybe especially so with the rise of YouTube), but the outlets and channels for videos are completely different now than they were, say, 5 years ago.

Oh yea, reason #5:

By making videos, they give Glenn the chance to make awesome PP roster announcements every year now.

--And yet, this is completely true.


Speaking of old video outlets, does anyone remember Rock Video Monthly? They'd send you a videotape every month with ten metal music vids on it.... "Rock" was a complete misnomer because these were almost always metal videos, some of them surprisingly extreme for the day. I had a subscription (it was fairly cheap, something like $3 or $4 a tape) and still have them to this day.
They're probably worth AT LEAST $1 apiece on eBay!

 

[ConnieOH]

I still like to watch music videos, mainly on YouTube because it is the most convenient. I just recently (finally) registered on YouTube so I could add all the videos I like to my favorites. I look through them every once in a while at watch whatever sounds good at the time. I like being able to watch the old as well as the new videos.

I think overall the newer videos are better than the old ones, which were often a bit cheesy. Especially for bands that are my absolute faves or those that I don't think I'll ever get to see live, videos are the only way to "see" them perform.

 

[Corsair]

I'm guessing you're eluding to the bands that do the performance in a warehouse strategy?

Beat me to it.

I think if the band approaches the video as something more than just a promotional tool, and does more than the 'play in a dingy warehouse' crap, a music video can be a lot of fun, and even contributee to the atmosphere and awesomeness of a song by providing an experience that appeals to multiple senses. THe videos for Devin Townsend's "Bend it like Bender" and "Coast" are good examples of taking the music video medium into some relatively unusual territory, and if you're prone to overthinking things, give you a story to puzzle out with the music providing both a backdrop and atmosphere.

So I guess what i'm getting at, is that I think music videos can be cool if they're more than just throwaways that show the band playing instruments with some fancy video effects, which are boring and totally pointless. Even if they don't generate any extra revenue, I feel that, much like good (see: Gimmicky) packaging with an album, a good video kinda shows that the band is very much into what they're doing and want to give the listener a little something extra, and why I have a good deal of respect for bands like Mastodon, even if I felt like their last album was pretty bad.

These things will not however, make music actually better, and all the fancy propaganda in the world won't get me to like a song more if I don't like the sound of it.