The Art of the YouTube Music Video

June 22, 2007 7:40 PM

There are a lot of special people out there making special music videos for their favorite songs. This tribute to Don't Fear the Reaper is particularly... moving. Marvel at the mid-90's VCR-edited version of Toto's Africa. There are some great Star Trek slash music videos out there. (1st link possibly NSFW). Then you have these guys, breathing new life into classics with some serious lip-synching skills.
posted by TheGoldenOne (22 comments total)

I'm greatly moved by this one.
posted by Tube at 7:57 PM on June 22, 2007

The star trek vids were funny. Thanks.

This star trek blooper reel is pretty funny too.
posted by vronsky at 8:07 PM on June 22, 2007

...moving. You bastard. Now I have to hope I have enough mouthwash in the house to get the taste of that out of my system, and if I don't and I have to drive to Walgreens with five beers in me to get more and I lose it because I'm already wasted and kill someone IT'S YOUR FAULT.
posted by localroger at 8:13 PM on June 22, 2007

1st link possibly unaccessible. I tried 3 times to enter the code to creat an account and it barfed on every one. I think they got a glitch in their system.
posted by localroger at 8:19 PM on June 22, 2007

Great post.
posted by vronsky at 8:24 PM on June 22, 2007

Man, that 2nd Star Trek one ("The Time Warp") made my day! Awesome sourcing of clips.
posted by jonson at 8:25 PM on June 22, 2007

The NIN/tortured-gay-spock-kirk thing is pretty much genius. Gay spock-kirk fan fiction has been one of those "uhhh ...." things for me, forever. Some 20 years ago, I learned an editor-friend's sister literally made her living writing samizdat Star Trek homosexual novellas that were only sold in the dark alleys behind Star Trek conventions, and I instantly realized there was a large chunk of the world I'd never understand. (That stuff really used to be a bit hidden. Today there are five computers in every American house that can immediately and wirelessly access virtual worlds of anthropomorphic squirrels sodomizing each other at John Edwards' virtual campaign HQ.)

But seeing this clip, it's all perfectly obvious. Of course Spock and Kirk were tortured gay lovers! They even apparently spent a lot of time looking forlornly at home computers.
posted by kenlayne at 8:38 PM on June 22, 2007

No one else noticed that the lip synchers' account name was Michael Bluth? Come ON!!!!
posted by hincandenza at 9:12 PM on June 22, 2007

Oh yeah, the clip choices for that Star Trek Time Warp video are fantastic! It's apparently done by the same guy who did the previously-linked Camelot/TOS music video. He's done some others that are just as good:

I Will Survive
I'm Too Sexy
Bohemian Rhapsody
posted by painquale at 9:43 PM on June 22, 2007

"Moving" is a joke, right? I want to take away that person's Powerpoint.
posted by Many bubbles at 9:44 PM on June 22, 2007

Africa: Preformed by TOTO
posted by Quonab at 9:53 PM on June 22, 2007

Hope for the future of humanity.
posted by mediareport at 10:13 PM on June 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

What is it with crappy directors and throwing every wipe in the book at videos. Is there some video editing machine with a library of wipes the size of a clip art collection?
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:32 PM on June 22, 2007

BrotherCaine, your use of the words "director" and "video editing machine" betrays a fundamental misapprehension. Replace "director" with "closet case" and "video editing machine" with "commodity pc running cracked consumer-grade video editing warez" and you'd just about have it. And yes, a huge collection of cheesy-ass wipes are a staple of home video editing programs; if anything more so than the pro software, since the pros don't want them.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:43 PM on June 22, 2007

But seeing this clip, it's all perfectly obvious. Of course Spock and Kirk were tortured gay lovers! They even apparently spent a lot of time looking forlornly at home computers.
posted by kenlayne at 10:38 PM on June 22

I've spent a lot of time looking forlornly at my home computer. Am I gay?
posted by Quonab at 11:11 PM on June 22, 2007

George_Spiggott, my first exposure to a gratuitously bad wipe was in the movie "Deep Cover", where the director chose to employ a derelict wipe. A derelict walks across the scene and it changes behind him.
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:26 PM on June 22, 2007

I could extinguish that LadyFire.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:59 PM on June 22, 2007

The one for "Africa" is the best, because it seems obvious that the dude thinks that walking along lip-syncing a song by Toto makes him the Ultimate Bad-Ass.

Are there Thunderbirds slash-fiction videos? Because there should be.

my first exposure to a gratuitously bad wipe was in the movie "Deep Cover"

You've never seen Star Wars?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:03 AM on June 23, 2007

I blocked that out ROU_Xenophobe, but now you've reminded me.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:29 AM on June 23, 2007

My contribution to the genre: Firefly, with Warren Zevon's "Renegade".
posted by EarBucket at 4:35 AM on June 23, 2007

Haha, the Toto one was like Ray Mears set to music.
Can't link directly to the Ray Mears page because of crappy frameage.
posted by Joeforking at 4:57 AM on June 23, 2007

and if I don't and I have to drive to Walgreens with five beers in me

You can solve that problem forever by just switching to drinking mouthwash.
posted by nanojath at 11:47 AM on June 23, 2007