30frames

I know that some music video sites have shifted into summer hours to allow more time out at the Hamptons – but not here on 30frames.

Note that several of the links below include cussing and/or boobies.

How times have changed – music videos used to be a powerful creative force that shaped what was seen as cool and hip. Those days, as you may have read, seem to be over. Now music videos are completely copying the new 800-pound gorilla – the Intranets. I am not talking about a passing reference to something found on-line – but the whole video being inside the construct of the series of tubes.

Weezers new clip for “Pork and Beans” is a collection of YouTube references set to the beat of their trademark nerd-pop. We get the feebly back-flipping ninja, the mentos-coke fountains and even the “leave Britney alone!” guy. What, no “SHOES!” ???

Here is an interview with the director, Matthew Cullen.

"Pork and Beans" is a funny video and perfect for the song. This is absolutely not a condemnation of the band, director or the video – this is a clever idea pulled off with a high level of low-fi execution. But it is part of the trend ...

Also check out the “Everyone Nose” video from NERD – a collaboration with the amateur-hipster-porn and ironic-t-shirt site lastnightsparty. The video pretty much copies the layout of the website as well as the content – glassy eyed 22-year olds looking to have slightly self-destructive fun in dark places. The song is about people lining up to do SOMETHING in the bathroom (and it apparently involves a nose) – so, in the website, this clip has found the perfect inspiration.

I’m sure there must be more of these videos out there – clips that echo the online zeitgeist. There has to be a LOL cats video, right? In 2000, the Chilipeppers aped the look of a video game for their “Californication” clip – getting what was hot in that moment on screen with the band. Music video have always done this …

But it is clear that on-line – with amateur comedy youtube clips and amateur photo sites like lastnightsparty – is what is hot. Who is busy pitching a clip based on stuff white people like, or hotchicks with douchebags? Better hurry.

Labels: hipsters, music video, NERD, Weezer, YouTube