what makes a music video?

Queen Makeda and I were checking out the videos for Mariah Carey's "Obsessed" video and Cassie's "Must Be Love," and unfortunately, they were really wack. The "plots" are weak, there was no dancing-just a lot of posing and making love to the camera, and they were snoozingly boring on top of that. The "Obsessed" theme is taken so literally and I wish she did something sexier and more powerful for the song (maybe in black and white), rather than doing something cheeky/corny (the bus=fail). I didn't expect much from Cassie but 4 minutes is way too long to look at her bedroom eye and wall-writhing. It's too bad because the songs are hot and I'm sure someone could create more stimulating visuals to go with those beats. But I suppose that's a lot of popular videos out today.

I feel like an old-head talking about how great things were in the past (I'm too young for that!) but it's undeniable that the quality of mainstream music videos has seriously declined. It became glaringly evident in the immediate aftermath of Michael Jackson's death that he brought music videos to an art form. We can't expect everyone to create major theatrical productions as the King of Pop did, but damn, at least can there be some thought and creativity into it? It can be done without a mega budget too...peep the example and case in point below.

Let's take a walk down memory lane with one of the dopest videos ever made. Certified. Talented dancers, evocative choreography and a sexy theme cleverly placed on a simple warehouse set with basic lycra and spandex costumes and no special effects. Substance over style, my friends. Cassie, Mariah, Beyonce (yes, you too) need to take some notes from this artist, her video collection is solid and she respects dance as the foundation that takes videos to the next level.

(stay tuned this is gonna be a series...)

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