Best Music Vids – Radiohead.
I think that the best music video I have ever seen has to be ‘Street Spirit’ by Radiohead. The song itself is beautiful and, when it came to adding visuals, they couldn’t have got any nearer to perfection.
Just about every Radiohead song has an artistic video, but this one is their greatest ever. Right from the start, with Thom Yorke falling backwards in slow motion, you are transfixed. The black and white photography is absolutely stunning and there are some amazing bits of imagery; trailers, dancers, a dog, a child, a chair, broken glass. The whole thing is nothing short of a masterpiece.
The images are made even more powerful by a brilliant use of lighting (and lightning). Thom Yorke’s face morphs into something else and back again; whilst other subjects are picked out with a perfect use of shadow and a fantastic eye for detail.
When I first saw the video, I was intrigued as to how it had been made. How the hell did they film shots with time going at two different speeds??? If you want to find out then there’s a wealth of information about it on the internet. Personally, I decided it was far more magical not to know. I would rather continue to be intrigued by it than understand all the technicalities.
‘Street Spirit’ also features some of the most graceful dancers I have ever seen. Maybe it’s just because they are filmed in slow-mo and you can better appreciate their movements; I don’t know. But watching them leaping into the air and using their limbs to make beautiful circular patterns makes your heart skip a beat.
This video will stay with you long after you have seen it. It will haunt your thoughts and invade your dreams. There are so very many elements to it and they are all in just the right place.
If only all music videos were of such an incredibly high standard.
On a lighter note, I have just gotten paid for the image work that I did on those exhibition stands last month. Turns out that Michelle was right, and the yellow was much more attractive.
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