The Ten Most Pretentious Alt/Indie Videos of All Time
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By Scott Tomford | MOG Associate Editor
It's undeniable that indie and alternative rock have done a lot more good than bad for the art of the music video. Usually, the bands (and their directors) come up with interesting and kooky concepts that are worlds apart from the videos you'd see on MTV (if they still made videos). Sometimes, though, these artists cross the line to the dreaded P word: yes, they make terribly pretentious videos that look like third-rate art-school projects. In honor of our love-hate relationship with pretentious indie antics, we present to you MOG's list of the ten most pretentious music videos of all time.
10. Cold Cave - "Life Magazine"
We're not even really sure what's going on here. There's some images, and they look important, and serious, and unconnected, and.... well, pretentious as hell.
9. Dirty Projectors - "Stillness Is the Move"
Okay, we get it, the Dirty Projectors are quirky and write great oddball songs. And uh, they're in touch with nature maybe? This whole thing is just a hodgepodge of half-assed symbolism and weird for weird's sake.
8. Interpol - "Evil"
This is going for edgy and engaging, but the only thoughts we have while watching it are that puppet Paul Banks will probably be the last thing we see before we die. And we'll probably scold it for looking so overdone with our dying breaths.
7. R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
Gee, R.E.M. really WERE ahead of their time... without this music video, most of the videos on this list might not even exist!
6. Radiohead - "Just"
Look, we absolutely love Radiohead, and they've made a lot of brilliant highbrow music videos that might even be called "art." But this? This is heavy-handed symbolism and attempted existential thoughts at their worst. Even Radiohead can't be perfect, guys.
5. Coldplay - "Vida la Vida"
If Radiohead end up on our list, you know that Coldplay, a band many consider to be Radiohead-lite, would end up on the list with a cut from their "experimental" album. "Vida la Vida" is a catchy tune and all, but come on, the watercolor backgrounds, the vintage get-ups, and the slo-mo posturing just reek of utter pretension
4. Cass McCombs - "You Saved My Life"
The guy from the Radiohead video should takes notes: if you look like a sad, lonely outsider prone to doing melodramatic things like laying down and yelling or walking around like you're in a sad montage, the solution is love... and an over-stylized slow dance silhouette
3. Owl City - "Fireflies"
Ho. Ly. Crap. This is just... there has never been a better time to say we're shooting ducks in a barrel by listing this. Our yikes detectors just exploded!
2. 30 Seconds to Mars - "Yesterday (The Wish)"
Oh man, what is this?! We'll take a stab at it: Jared Leto trying to make a video as massive and self-important as his ego. This kid's one wish is to bring 30 Seconds to Mars to the past from the future? This is just one pile of epic fail in terms of trying to take itself seriously.
1. Feist - "The Water"
Look, you should consider yourself lucky that this is the short version of the video... you can download the complete 15 minute "short film" here, but we wouldn't recommend it. This video has it all if you're looking for a pretentious video... quiet imagery, serious looks on everyone's faces, ultra crisp cinematography, and, most importantly, classic pretentious weirdo Cillian Murphy. Look Feist, we love you, but only one song should have a video over 14 minutes long, and it's called "Thriller."
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Comments (17)
Great list. Here's our recent list of the top ten best Indie/Alt music videos, showing that there's still some good stuff out there.
http://www.neonfiller.com/page4.htm#videos
ducks in a barrel. I love it.
Owl City is Indie/Alt? It's on Kidz Bop..
I think you secretly love,love,love the video.
Absolutely love the song, but the video fits in exactly as you describe:
Pretentious is almost as overused of a word as hipster. And in both cases, you'll never hear someone call themselves a hipster or pretentious for that matter.
Always external.
Ahem.
I'd still put this video on the list:
you can definitely still like pretentious... I love Feist and they have been on a ton of these lists!
Indeed: Stairway to Heaven is one of the greatest rock songs of all time, and also one of the most pretentious. This is more of a hater's guide, which is just as fine, too!
Pretentious, perhaps, but Radiohead's "Just" video is one of the best music videos of all time.
re: owl city Spoon did a far better riff on this theme
Tynansanger, who is that song/vid by that you posted? Seen it before but don't recall who it is. Thx!
It was Department of Eagles "No One Does It Like You." It's been on solid rotation on the NYC public access show New York Noise, which my friends affectionately refer to as The Hipster Doofus Show.
Thx!
Pretentious, perhaps, but Radiohead's "Just" video is one of the best music videos of all time.
Huggers................. just say no to Radihead.
Radiohead=pretentious? or is at least >. Glad to see R.E.M. made the list as Michael Stipe and his film Co. C 100 or something like that churned out some very fun stuff. Since "just" is there i am making an assumption you had to choose which R.E.M. one to pick and didn't use "Everybody Hurts" because of its simularity to "Just" You cats at MOG are the heppest cats around.
I rearlly dunno how you can slag off the 30 seconds to Mars video for "from Yesterday" because it is fucking awesome and millions of people must disagree with this bullshit statement because it won loads of awards for being the best video!!!