Towards a typology of the pop video cliche

[Cloo]

For euro-trance videos. Strangely-accented blonde bird who can't really sing, in a wind tunnel looking a bit ethereal.

 

[moose]

Monotone miserable bloke sings under lamp post in the cold and rain whilst upstairs, indoors, pretty woman recklessly laughs and gossips with girlfriends or cat, bathed in golden glow from central heating.

 

[Bob]

Gangsta veedeyas Obligatory shots:-
= 400 veeeery mooody looking blokes standing behind "artist" in a public place. Car park, basketball court...
= At least four shots of said 400 holding up jewellery, illegal substances and funny fingers.
= One example of how said "hustler" made his money in the hood. Close up of artist handling lots of money, bags of strange looking green vegetables.
= A driving shot. A shooting of drive-by.
= Cars, cars, cars
= Zzzzzzz

Players.
= Need at least one white suit shot, preferably in uber-luxuorious house.
= A swimming pool shot. "look at me with all these women, I know all of them by name-tag"
= Cars, cars, cars

female singers
= Wiggle ad-nauseum. That's about it really. [Lyrics for song and theme for video are optional]

And remember: It's usually day time and never raining with the 'wealthy' shots. The 'making money in the hood' shots are far more often in the dark/rain.

 

[Fruitloop]

For euro-trance videos. Strangely-accented blonde bird who can't really sing, in a wind tunnel looking a bit ethereal.

Sometimes with cutaways to some bloke who's dumped her and instead of sitting around in his gruts watching Men and Motors with a Fosters in one hand and his dick in the other, has decided to wander around the desert/arctic/Salford with no shoes on until he dies.

 

[Alan Hunt]

Helicopter shot of singer, guitarist, saxophonist playing at the top of an ancient temple in some exotic location.

Exotic locations.

Moving the camera around bands really fast and doing about a million cuts to make them appear that they are a really exciting live act when really they just stand there and play.

That whole 'flash cut' editing style that started with Losing My Religion and was subsequently used on every video for the next five years or so.

Using surrealistic imagery to give the impression that there might be some deep meaning behind it all. I think that Duran Duran is the originator of this. IE. Union of the Snake, Is There Something I Should Know

Wearing 'freaky' contact lenses.

 

[jayeola]

add to that slo-mo of band/singer just standing there.
slo-mos in general are just boring.

why don't classical musicians make videos?

 

[Apathy]

trance vid;

young cyber girl with headphones round her neck and carrying metal breifcase/record box being chased thru some spotless modern location with loads of glass buildings and futuristic outdoor escalators by a couple of joyless looking matrix-style agents.

 

[hektik]

close up of star singing a song.

someone suddenly shouts cut. camera pans out to reveal he is on a studio, shooting a video. star walks off of the set, and once past the camera's starts to sing the song again, all the while slowly walking away while lots of technical things to do with the video occur in the background.

 

[jayeola]

 

[chooch]

Not to mention the walking around town

Yes. Single tracking shot along street; singer walking or whole band driving. Passers-by passing by. Wow.

Always think Avril Lavigne is a rich source of video cliche.

 

[Skim]

Fish-eye len shots with some rawk type gurning close-up into the camera. Makes me think of Gary Stringer from Reef, or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

 

[Harold Hill]

The forgotten 80s idea of up to 12/15/20 people using well choreographed dancing to resolve any sticky situation as typified by Michael Jackson, Janet, Pat Benatar, El Debarge etc.