John Santos

The American Spectator Has Found The Best Post-MTV Video

Yo, Pixies, I'm a big fan and I'm really happy for you, and I'ma let this dude from The American Spectator finish, but your new video "Snakes" is most definitely not "the best music video of the post-MTV era."

The latest "Music Videos Are Dead, Long Live Music Videos" article comes from conservative outlet American Spectator, which has apparently just discovered that videos are online and that they sometimes don't feature the band.

That's not to say the article isn't without its charms. I do quite like this bit about the declime of the big budget video empire: 

The paradox of music videos is that they grew worse as their budgets grew better. Initially, too-literal visual interpretations of lyrics, cheap, clichéd images such as smashing glass, and singers earnestly acting as actors signaled disaster. Later, when the productions resembled, in budget at least, a typical James Cameron film, the pretentiousness clashed with the inherently kitsch format. Think “November Rain.” Aspiring to make an epic music video misses the point.

So, go ahead and read more at The American Spectator. And watch that Pixies video, which we actually quite like, even if I would hesitate to call it "positively Shyamalanian if not Hitchcockian." I do agree with "oddball" and "off-kilter," however.