Doing "Dark" in Music Videos; Jay-Z feat. Swizz Beatz "On To The Next One" Directed by Sam Brown

Above, Jay-Z feat. Swizz Beatz "On To The Next One" Directed by Sam Brown; The Cardigan's "Losing My Favorite Game" Directed by Jonas Akerlund; Director Chris Cunningham Montage...

American pop videos can make "dark" look cartoony or pretty pop commercial clean as in Jay-Z's new video. That trancy chant in the song though is dope (for the vid). And I looove for some weird reason, the image of the speaker chords. I mean love it. Also like the "Rorschach test" images. Some interesting imagery speckled throughout, but meaningless because of the lack of visual story and build, just random intercutting. A few changes during the breaks, but otherwise no climax. Drones on. The attempts at darkness makes me reminiscent of Jonas Akerlund's gothic or "sick" sensibility in pop form in his videos (see recent entry/post of Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up"), and Chris Cunningham's twisted vision. Those Swedes and Brits do dark well. Though Sam Brown may be British, it's definitely not his sensibility, in addition to the collaborating artist being Jay. There were several versions of this Akerlund/Cardigan piece. One where she's decapitated. One where she brushes herself off and walk away unscathed (guess which market that one was for). Chris' work sometimes is unbearable to watch, too gross. But images always compelling, so I posted a trailer, the "best of's".

What I do love about the Jay-Z video is the immediacy of sound quality relative to image movement/action... of each shot, object, setup. Things drip, things fall, camera moves towards, pulls back, tracks sideways, wind blows, cloudshapes gush, etc. And the simplicity of shapes relative to stark black and white. There is a sense of drama within each setup. Too bad they don't build to anything. But the visuals definitely enhance the song. The edit is fantastic. Solely listening to the song, with the persistent chant, is a little crazy making.