Martha, My Dear: ILM's All-Time Video-Poll Results Thread

Same as Alfred for me.

sic, you're just going to have to live with the way I'm doing this. I know it requires a great deal of creative detective work to locate these videos on the internet.

I was going to say that the Depeche Mode video was obviously a tribute to the video for Joy Division's "Atmosphere," then found out Corbijn did both.

video looks a billion times better than the metaverse

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, March 17, 2022 8:52 AM

otm

Agree with clemenza — not a very good song. Video was pretty striking in 85/86 though. I hadn't seen NES or Atari or anything like that yet, so it was very much a "WOW THEY CAN DO THAT???" kind of reaction. I wouldn't have voted for it, but I can definitely see how someone could justify a vote in this poll.

I didn't vote for anything with a song I outright dislike but there were at least a couple I would never choose to put on either.

I'm a little older, so I think the novelty aspect that would have wowed someone younger in 1985 didn't have the same affect on me; I remember thinking it was "interesting." But I get that.

so, wait, did y'all vote for videos despite your feelings for the song?

it depends! again, i do not love "right now" as a song, but the video is fucking insane

nice to see a corbijn video appear, this is probably the most obvious thing to say bc he's a photographer but his videos really do feel like gorgeous moving photographs

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-33.jpg

33. “Come to Daddy,” Aphex Twin (1997)
63 points/7 votes
Director: Chris Cunningham

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ827lkktYs

I wanted to vote for it but had to google "electronic music video with train" to remember the artist and title for "Star Guitar."

I don’t care for videos that are scary or unpleasantly weird (and I was a huge Aphex Twin fan)

As I posted earlier, beauty--my version of it, anyway--was the biggest factor in 40 or 45 of my 50 picks: beauty, plus my feelings about the song. I did, at least once, vote for a video because I found the images creepy and disturbing. Didn't vote for this one, but I can see where someone would feel the same about it.

Cool video + shit song = no vote

Same, for the most part, but I do confess to cueing up different songs to one of the videos in my top 10.

I admire the Corbijn aesthetic in theory but not enough to vote for any one example.

sic, you're just going to have to live with the way I'm doing this

I'm living with it, I was just curious as to why you're doing it this way, so I asked why

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-32.jpg

32. “Groove Is in the Heart,” Deee-Lite (1990)
64 points/7 votes
Director: Hiroyuki Nakano

www.youtube.com/watch?v=etviGf1uWlg

Didn't vote for it, but this is the first one where I can say I loved it when it was on the air.

nice to see a corbijn video appear, this is probably the most obvious thing to say bc he's a photographer but his videos really do feel like gorgeous moving photographs

Many XPs: As I said on the noms thread, hyperlinks are the way to go for posting vids if embeds are verboten. It's a little more work for the pollrunner, but it's ultimately worth it, imho.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-31.jpg

31. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana (1991)
65 points/7 votes
Director: Samuel Bayer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

Cool video + shit song = no vote

I almost think the opposite here.
If you can appreciate the video despite an aversion to the song, that is a good video.
If you already love the song, you're primed to appreciate the video already, so maybe it's not as good as you think.

this is the only good music video directed by samuel bayer

he is otherwise the worst visual stylist of the '90s and beyond

Clemenza, can you hyperlink the URL's for the videos? Or just include the https:// part so it does it automatically. It will save people having to copy/paste those URL's.

Picking an image for this was hard too--there’s just so many of them. Cobain staring out at what’s in front him--hatefully? uncomprehendingly?--has always stayed in my mind.

I didn’t vote for this, but it was like not putting Citizen Kane on my favourite-films list. It’s just too familiar, or over-discussed, or something. When it appeared, I doubt a video up to that point had made such a strong impression on me. I played it for various classes of mine for 15 years running, trying to explain the kind of impact it had, the musical landscape--my version of it, anyway--when it appeared, Marcus comparing it to Shakespeare, etc. And I’d follow by doing something I never did: I’d play Weird Al’s “Smells Like Nirvana.”

I don't want the videos embedded. If someone can post what you mean by hyperlink, I'll do that.

Or just include the https:// part so it does it automatically

this will embed them

If you use angle brackets with the "url" tag around the text it works.

Like this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

clemenza, click on "show formatting help" and refer to first example in "for hyperlinks, use"

Just show men which brackets...you mean and ?

men = me, this man

It hyperlinked to "and"! I think I know what you mean now.

"Teen Spirit" definitely seemed to be a Rubicon for pop culture, even at the time, but I think years of that dreary piss-coloured palette in dozens of videos have dimmed its allure for me.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-30.jpg

30. “The Box,” Orbital (1996)
67 points/5 votes
Director: Luke Losey

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qddG0iUSax4&t

I've grown to like the song, but the music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" still means nothing to me.

Why does that hyperlink not work? That's the url.

"the box" my no. 2

you have to include the http://, otherwise it thinks it's a board link, idk

Okay, let me try something on a test thread.

Smells Like Teen Spirit: Important, sure, but not even the best music video set in high school--though I'm probably not thinking of any of the one's you might be thinking of.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qddG0iUSax4

Adding http:// and enclosing the whole thing with url tags gives you an embed. I'll try one more hyperlink for the next one, and if it doesn't work, I'm just going to forget about it.

30. “The Box,” Orbital (1996)

very helpful

looks like you got it working clem! very excited for no. 29

I've never seen The Box before! I knew about it at the time but didn't have access to satellite tv, then forgot about it for twenty years I guess. Pretty good, poor Tilda.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-29.jpg

29. “Wicked Game,” Chris Isaak (1989)
67 points/7 votes
Director: Herb Ritts

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd-qI62gNJM

Went looking online for the original Wicked Game video with the clips from Wild At Heart a few months ago and couldn't find it.

it was hard to pick one herb ritts video but i went with this one because of the clouds. he was unmatched in making gorgeous people look supernaturally gorgeous

It didn't work--got the embed. I'm just going to ask everyone to let that go...If I get ambitious tonight, I'll try to do all that in advance, but no guarantee.

Liked this at the time, both the song and video, but didn't vote for it. Linked in my mind with Bruce Weber's documentary on Chet Baker.

i do not care about links so this is fine

I read about the Wild at Heart version, directed by Lynch--I've never seen it, I don't think.