Pitchfork's P2k: The Decade in Music

Something that is entertaining once > something that was never entertaining. "Rubber Johnny" is basically what happens when Hot Topic goes to film school.

He doesn't care if you think he's wrong, he just thinks you're calling him retarded if you disagree.

look, I'm not the one who put that on the table

Do music videos for indie tunes actually help the bands sell any records? Because I can't remember the last time I actually found out about a significant amount of the music I love from music videos.

I used to watch MTV obsessively from, say, 1997-2003ish, but now I barely, if ever, watch a music video. With YouTube, I've mostly watched live footage. Why are bands still making these things?

to advertise their new music, and to re-enact the act of putting one's joke in a box

AFAIK it's in their budget the labels take out of their earnings so they don't have that much of a choice

er, putting one's junk in a bix

box

What else would Pitchfork readers have to get all indignant about this week?

Does Windowlicker suck too? It wasn't this decade, but just wondering since same it's same director..

what ever happened to Reigndance

Me saying "Little Johnny" sucks automatically means I think every single thing Chris Cunningham has done is terrible!

Just wondering.. you said it's Hot Topic goes to film school..

On one side: unusual, entertaining music videos like "Windowlicker", "Come On My Selector" and "Come To Daddy" that enhance the music with which they are associated.

On the other side: a wholly self-indulgent, unscary piece of horseshit called "Rubber Johnny".

HOW ON EARTH CAN I RECONCILE THIS

Step One: Cut a hole in a box.

Well I guess that was a bad choice.. "99 Problems" was robbed however.

dick in a box is a great song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzNTCxOJK3g

I can't remember the last time I actually found out about a significant amount of the music I love from music videos.

I'm sure plenty of us are in this boat, but to be honest I have actually come back around to getting into plenty of things through videos. I mean, I think the one great potential of a video is that if it works really well with the song or artist's aesthetic, it can sometimes focus your attention and communicate the gist of the thing a bit more quickly -- i.e., instead of doing a few partial-attention listens before the song really leaps out and snaps into focus, you can get snapped into it more efficiently, maybe? Which is useful, in a time when there are LOADS of options and it's very easy for people to sort of half-hear and dismiss music in a cursory way. The Bat for Lashes video in there is a good example; I think I'd heard that a couple times in a background way and not much thought about it, but the video focused me into liking it. (It helps that the movement of the video really animates the flow of the song, calling attention to the places attention is wanted; it's a good tour guide.) I think I also use videos to make myself hear stuff I might not otherwise hear (like radio listening); thankfully there's at least one local video show here covering the kind of stuff I should probably be paying attention to.

This list has also reminded me that I always mentally mix up "Star Guitar" and various songs by the Field.

The Bat For Lashes video basically made me buy both of her albums.

i'd never seen that vitalic video before, fuck that's great

This "Top100 music videos of the decade" made by a Hungarian site is miles better than Pitchfork's. And not just because I took part in this poll: http://www.quart.hu/cikk.php?id=3847

All these lists are missing Madonna's "What it Feels Like for a Girl." I know MTV only aired it once, but have that many people not seen it?

zeus can you translate that site's explanation of why Benny Benassi 'Satisfaction' is the 20th best video of the 00s?

Erm..., it would be a bit difficult to translate, because it's not real explanation, just kind of joking. But what's the problem with 'Satisfaction'? Funny video, a good idea, give me 'Satisfaction' ahead of any Björk videos.

xpost Good call re: "What it feels like for a girl"

That Hungarian list is A+. They even included that amazing Rammstein video with the fat suits!! and Alala!!!! Very nicely done.. way better than the P2K list IMO.

xpost Makes sense, nabisco. I guess I just have been seeing fewer and fewer music videos, and now actually seem to find out about bands through live YouTube footage more than any other sort of video medium.

ugh really? watching live footage on YouTube seems like the worst possible way to be exposed to a band for the first time.

Not camera phone video, stuff like people uploading band performances from Letterman and such.

oh ok, that's not as bad. i used to set the VCR to tape the music performances on Letterman and Conan when i was in middle school.

Yeah! It's awesome that both of them book so many great bands. I also like watching clips from some British shows like Jools Holland.

But yeah, 99% of live footage of bands on YouTube is awful. It should improve a bit when the cameras that come with phones improve, but that will take a long time.

well i mean, the overwhelming majority of bootlegged recordings of live music will always suck no matter the technology. that's why it's better live.

Yeah, definitely.

"It should improve a bit when the cameras that come with phones improve, but that will take a long time."

You underestimate how quickly technology improves!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th5DrOPTl2E

(Ironically a crappily uploaded video on youtube)

hahaha!

Loved the artists' best-of-decade feature. Selecting a definitive "best-of" list is a bit of a fool's errand (i.e., a fruitless mission; mind you, I still love reading the definitive lists -- and reading this thread), but there's a looser and lighter spirit to the artist lists. There are also dozens of items on the artists' lists that I doubt we'll see on many other best-of lists.

there's a looser and lighter spirit to the artist lists

yeah, i 100% agree. my favourites of the pitchfork bunch were john darnielle's, dave longstreth's, and the no age guy's list. i like how rather than a critic who is concerned i guess with repping for strong, lasting albums, and having a wide ranged of styles covered, or having more culturally significant albums on their lists, artists' lists are refreshingly subjective and give a glimpse into their musical universe and cool alternative musical histories. also it's hilarious how certain artists just busted out full length pitchfork essays.

There are also dozens of items on the artists' lists that I doubt we'll see on many other best-of lists.

Really? I thought it was funny how the same early '00s albums kept popping up on everyone's lists -- Kid A, Vespertine, Is This It and any Black Dice record. It reads almost like clockwork...

i enjoyed carl newman mocking his own mundane taste.

I was glad to see so many early 00s records show up at all, because journalists and music writers have this "weathercock" problem of only repping what has been cool for the last two or three years- I find a lot of these summing up the decade list-making activities are heavily weighted to the recent past- looking over so many of these lists people's repression of electroclash and Fischerspooner and Crossover and W.I.T. and Peaches and Adult and all the stuff they rocked out to circa 2000/2001 is kind of, er, amnesiac, innit?

What is the Benjamin quote, "nothing is less erotic than our parent's fashions"?, i.e. the recent past is a little embarrassing, it seems.

i enjoyed carl newman mocking his own mundane taste.

Yeah, that was funny. "Let's throw Neko Case's Fox Confessor in here as well and be done with the nepotism. I love you, woman." I LOVE YOU, TOO, WOMAN!

I thought it was funny how the same early '00s albums kept popping up on everyone's lists -- Kid A, Vespertine, Is This It and any Black Dice record. It reads almost like clockwork...

Sure there's going to be a lot of commonly-chosen discs. But consider the many, many novel and interesting choices some of the artists made, e.g., Carl Newman (of The New Pornographers) choosing The Rock*A*Teens, Sweet Bird of Youth; Britt Daniel (of Spoon) choosing Cliff Martinez, Solaris OST; J0hn D. choosing Christine Fellows' song Vertebrae; Tim Ruttilli (of Califone) choosing Mighty Flashlight/Mike Fellows, Self-Titled/Limited Storyline Guest; and on and on.

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm trying to prepare a decade-end list of my own, and every time I think about including a personal favorite that doesn't get much love, I fret about the classic album I'm invariably omitting to make room for it. Musicians usually don't give as much of a shit about this.

^^that often makes me re-evaluate the "classic" album though, often along the lines of "how much do i really feeling like listening to it" &c. if a "classic" album deserves to be there, you'd think of it as a personal favourite.

True.

+1 on J0hn's choice of Vertabrae, that song (and that song alone) once reduced me to a blubbering mess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdnY9d0Zuzk

^ not an official video.

i found it really funny that the xx dude went on about fwd, it means i have regularly gone clubbing w/them.

i think what distinguishes what i consider classic albums from my personal favourites is maybe the opposite of what lex said? a personal favourite was an album i was deeply in love with at a certain time, and is preserved in a glossy, bright haze by the glory of those memories. alot of these albums are imperfect in a lovely way, aren't albums i would expect the average critic to rate highly. when i listen to it, i don't necessarily rediscover a new wonderful aspect of it, but it's a nice warm hug. a classic album is one i can never really digest, and although i might go months without listening to, will be blown away every time i do reach for it.