It’s a bit thick, but good to my eyes:
Music is the discourse that passes itself off as nature; it participates in the construction of meaning, but disguises its meanings as effects.  Here is the source of its singular efficacy as a hidden persuader.
Teaching a week on ads for my music video course, and thus had [...]

Rogue Wave’s “Publish My Love” (mov) is a pretty good song from a pretty good album—nowhere near as good as so many want it to be, but good nonetheless. The video for same falls into a similar category (WTF it’s in a book!). It looks like it took an extremely long time to do, but [...]

As witnessed through Death Cab for Cutie’s last two albums, singer/songwriter (and sole meaningful member) Ben Gibbard’s formerly unique style of songwriting has morphed into something nearly unlistenable. In the cyclical, cross-medium method that’s become the popular standard, Gibbard’s lyrics have taken on the universal, overly sentimental tone of teen melodrama “The O.C.,” which, as [...]

Today’s MMMV will be hosted (unbeknownst to them) by the recently controversial folks over at Good Weather for an Airstrike, who, through posting a good portion of their top 65 videos of 2005 with EZArchive, caused the server to crash and their subscription to be terminated. Don’t hate, though–they’ve left us with a magnificent [...]

The return of Monday Morning Music videos today starts with the first clip I’ve seen from the Arctic Monkeys, for “When the Sun Goes Down” (mov). More than most other videos, this one adheres very closely to the song’s narrative–almost to the point where I began questioning which one was made first. It works well [...]

One of today’s videos you all have probably seen already, and the other may have completely missed the radar of those of you not inclined to seek it out. There are, however, some interesting similarities between the two, and while I plan comments in that direction, I’d like to know what you think of ‘em [...]

Laura Veirs‘ bittersweet brand of singer/songwriter-ness is a little too Starbucks-y for my tastes, but her video for “Galaxies” (Terri Timely) is funny and very well-crafted.
Xiu Xiu’s video for “Muppetface” (Chris Cruse) probably should have made the top 20. It’s bizarre, disturbing, and challenging–in other words, the perfect complement to Xiu Xiu’s music.
Okkervil River’s [...]

The video for Wolf Parade’s “Shine a Light” (mov) is the first opportunity I’ve had to associate any visuals with the band’s music other than those created by my mind. It’s an interesting conceptual piece, nicely mirroring the gritty, cryptic elements of the music with a combination of high and low tech special effects. The [...]