Great Music Video Series

Ginger's posts on great music videos got me thinking about bands and groups that go above and beyond with their videos. I'm going to give you three very different examples of what I mean. Hopefully you'll see something new, and something awesome.

The first example is probably familiar if you've been on the internet before. Ok Go. You might now them as the guys dancing on treadmills. They are the masters of the long take, most of there videos since "Here it goes again" (the treadmill video) are done in one long take, (although it takes them many tries to get them). I have trouble thinking up any band who has attempted to do this in more then one video. They've done several, really I've just linked to four (counting the embedded video below) in the last paragraph.



In the course of doing this, I would also argue they're probably the first group to have two viral videos to their names, usually you only get one (unless your last name is Cicierega).

My next example you've probably never heard of, even if you like anime, even if you like the show it's based off of. There was a short lived epic show called Gurren Lagaan (it doesn't matter what it translates to).  27 episodes of people piloting giant robots and fighting for their freedom. The show became a big hit in Anime culture, even if it's extremely over the top (but in a fun way), and a parody of the genre. The company that made the show decided to make music videos of the soundtrack using the characters (even if they don't fit in continuity). The result was Gurren Lagaan Parallel Works. 8 music videos which span a list of genres, some better then others. Last year a 2nd set was released. I'm starting you off with #4 because it's probably the most accessible, it's labeled inverse, because the heroes of this video are actually the villians from the show, and vice versa



Some other examples are a knight's quest to resque the princess (set to a rap song), and a take on the magic girl genre. There are a couple other good ones, but if you find a working #6 don't watch it, it is very much a WTF Japan video. Otherwise have fun, the 2nd set is not a easily numbered.

Finally I give you the most epic, set of music videos ever done, 14 music videos which tell one story. Daft Punk's Interstella 5555. All combined this video is 1 hour and 4 minutes long animated magnus opus. Detailing the story of a band kidnapped from their home galaxy, and the hero who fights to save them.



These 14 songs were also from their album Discovery, the song list was not changed for the videos continuity, even though the videos came long after the album. The animation is also done by Toei Animation, the people responsible for Voltron, Dragon Ball (original recipe, and Z), One Piece, Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Yu-gi-Oh! So, this was not done, by newcomers to animation. It still looks like it was heavily influenced by Voltron to me. Seriously sit down and watch it, sometime. You will not be disappointed.

Well these are my votes for video series that I think are awesome. I find myself watching these over and over again when I have nothing going on and youtube is open.  Despite what I've posted, these do not reflect my main genres of music. So give them all a shot, you might find something you really like, even if it's in a genre you don't generally listen too.