I was over at one of my friends this Saturday and watching Headbanger's Ball since I don't have cable at my place. Of course I had to sit through a bunch of crap to get to the good stuff but this is a habit I've had going for as long as I can remember. Why do I do that though is the question? It's not like I'd sit around anywhere else for two hours just to get maybe twenty minutes worth of enjoyment but I've sat through day long blocks of music videos just to catch a glimpse of something here and there. Back in the day I even used to make my own “metal video mix tapes.” When Rockshow would come on VH1 at like, one in the morning it was always a ritual to wake up, go check the VCR and then watch the night's selections as I would get ready for school. Man, I've got about eight tapes around here somewhere from this show. When a video by someone like Testament or Helloween does come on I get fired up and it makes the metalcore smorgasbord seem irrelevant while I'm throwing horns and rocking out to the TV. So, this got me thinking about the art of the music video as a whole, the aesthetics behind them, the financial cost, and the state of music videos today as opposed to the eighties. I began pondering how the boom of YouTube and MySpace have made the music video a digital phenomenon and yeehaw, I have an editorial.

I don't know if I am just an anomaly or what, but I really love watching a well made video. There have been quite a few that still reverberate within me today such as Metallica's One. Up until that point I had seen some sweet live clips or the “warehouse performance piece” shots but One was the first video my young mind would bear witness to that really shook me up as a fifth grader. The grainy black and white band footage interspersed with striking scenes from the independent movie Johnny Got His Gun matched up with the lyrics uncannily and created the perfect atmosphere of desperation, confusion, and rage. After only one viewing, (which was in complete and utter silence as my friend and I took this in) the images of One were etched into my memory forever. Other songs which have some neato burrito concepts behind them are Boys Of Summer (the original Don Henley version is as haunting as One in my opinion), Poison's Fallen Angel and any random Tool clip. Videos such as this are few and far between however as the notion of a concept clip is becoming less and less cool. Within Temptation went back and re shot What Have You Done because apparently the first version had “too much plot to follow.” I get a lot of non metal fans asking me why most metal videos consist of a band playing in a warehouse, in the woods, in the rain, or on stage to a non existent audience. The general answer is “money” but also I think it is to show off the actual musical abilities of the artist. Granted they are playing to a studio track obviously but come solo time you still see the guitarists wailing away and you still see the drummer pounding out that beat and going off on the bass pedals. Compare that to the new Avril Lavigne video which just has a whole lot of damn pink everywhere and no attention to band members musical prowess. That's because for music like this the audience doesn't care about how a solo is played or the guitarists' picking technique for that bad ass molten riff. Even though my musical talent is about as potent as a right hook from an eleven year old girl I appreciate and applaud the ability to master an instrument.

Ask me my five favorite bands and the list has been unchanged for years: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Journey, Helloween, and Pretty Maids. I've been enjoying the finer moments in life with an accompanying soundtrack by these guys for as long as I can remember yet it took me three years before I finally saw Helloween in actual motion on my TV screen instead of the many posters and sleeve pictures that I have. Well, there was that one site I found in `97 that had all of their music videos but they were all on a player the size of a postage stamp and my 56k modem could only play about five seconds at a time before buffering for fifteen minutes. So I don't really count that miserable experience as really seeing my German idols truly coming to life on celluloid. After scouring the earth for a copy of High Live I finally found a second generation bootleg at a metal store and ate that bad boy up. I have to admit, it was almost odd seeing Andi actually running around on stage or Weiki just chillin' during a solo with a drooping cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. I must have played that tape five times at least the first day I got it and dozens more since. As a kid there's just something that is inspiring to see your heroes in the flesh, especially if they look cool while playing the music that you've grown to love and cherish.

I wish when I was growing up I had YouTube. I have spent countless hours on that website watching videos spanning multiple genres and more than a couple of generations. I'm not a huge Michael Jackson fan but Beat It and Thriller are the shit and should be seen by any music lover at least once. Since MTV has essentially quit showing music videos and are brainwashing the youth of today with plastic, superficial reality shows that glorify a lack of morals or humility, YouTube and MySpace are now the primary outlet for artists to release their videos to. Record labels upload their rosters clips and Lacuna Coil even had a big “MySpace premier” of Within Me not too long ago. I see this in kind of an odd light however. Is it really fundamentally sound for a band to spend thousands of dollars to make a video that has about a good of a chance of getting airplay on TV as I do banging Elisha Cuthbert? While I do enjoy and appreciate YouTube nothing beats loafing on my couch while seeing my favorite artists performing on my TV. I think that the state of the video is tumultuous right now, when the music industry gets back on its feet after this digital age is settled then we can see how it will progress.

This is only touching base with the topic at hand. I didn't even get into directors, budgets, make up, and various other assorted matters that pertain to a promotional video clip. That's probably because I'm being distracted by my television because Suite 218 by Blood Promise is on and I have to continually stop to throw horns and mutter “fuck yea” under my breath.