The Best Videos Will Never Get Watched

At first glance, it would seem that the music video as an artform has been slowly dying for about a decade now. MTV and VH1, formerly the mainstream distributors of music videos to the masses, have largely given up on the format, and spinoff channels and upstart competitors seem to be lacking in any sort of variety or originality most of the time—take it from the guy who works the night shift in the dorms to the tune of the same damn Fall Out Boy video five times a night looping on MTVu.

Then again, the YouTube era has dawned upon us, and with it an entirely new venue for music videos to get exposure. Not only can established artists experiment more with the format, but new and upcoming bands can make videos on the cheap as well. These videos may never see the light of day sandwiched between the endless hours of pop culture slowly eating itself on cable, but are nonetheless some of the most clever, amusing, and even on occasion breathtaking pieces of short film out there on the web.

Here are a few of my favorites from 2007 thus far:

The Decemberists—O Valencia (Directors Cut)



The Decemberists are already responsible for one of my favorite music videos of all time with the Rushmore inspired Model UN parody “Sixteen Military Wives”. In this video, also by director Aaron Stewart-Ahn, we get a sort of “Kill Bill” meets “Romeo and Juliet” set in the world of Wes Anderson, with Colin Meloy making his best attempt at playing romantic lead (mostly, it just makes me laugh). While the official video ended with the song, the band filmed this extended version with multiple twist endings that ratchets up the absurdity of the drama to excellent effect.

Feist—1234



I’m more than a little bit in love with Leslie Feist, thanks in no small part to videos like this one… bright colors, choreographed dancing in a warehouse all done in one take, and one hell of a voice… what more could you want?

Los Campesinos!—You! Me! Dancing!



My roommate introduced me to this band and this video just the other day, and I was intantly enamored… its kind of like some of the trippier cartoon shorts that used to run on Sesame Street, but with much better music.