MTV’s Best Rock Video award, which will be given out during the Video Music Awards on September 13, has been won in the past by
Korn,
Limp Bizkit and
Linkin Park. This year’s five nominees for the Moonman represent a little bit of everything – you’ve got modern rock, pop-punk, established rock royalty, super-popular mainstream bands and emerging up-and-comers. Let’s take a closer look at the five nominated clips for 2009 and then let you sound off on which one you think is the best.
Coldplay – “Viva La Vida”
Photo courtesy Capitol/EMI.The title track from Coldplay’s wildly successful 2008 album, “Viva La Vida” is certainly the most visually striking of the five nominees. That doesn’t mean this clip, directed by celebrated hip-hop video auteur Hype Williams, boasts a particularly complex narrative. It’s just the four band members performing in front of a vivid, painterly background that seems to float like clouds behind them. The contrast between a simple presentation and an elaborate visual scheme works well for the song’s orchestral, not-quite-rock arrangement. “Viva La Vida” also received nods for Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.
Photo courtesy Island.The lead single from
Fall Out Boy’s 2008 album,
Folie à Deux, represents a harder-edged sound from the Chicago emo band. Likewise, the video addresses complaints that rock ‘n’ roll has lost its danger and purity by sending the band members out into the streets to cause havoc with innocent bystanders. Veteran Fall Out Boy director Alan Ferguson is behind the camera again for this clip, which marries the song’s bratty insolence to a series of prankster images, goofball shenanigans and a Sarah Palin joke.
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Photo courtesy Reprise.Acclaimed video director Marc Webb made his feature debut with this summer’s (500) Days of Summer, but he returned to the small screen for this 21st Century Breakdown clip that stars “Christian” and “Gloria,” the young couple who are the main characters of the album’s storyline. Inspired by the ballad’s melodramatic, yearning quality, the video is filled with appropriately over-the-top imagery: circling camera shots of the lovers looking passionately into each other’s eyes, bullets ripping through the walls around them, and Green Day giving an emphatic performance amidst the chaos. “21 Guns” is also nominated for Best Direction and Best Cinematography.
Update: Green Day ended up winning the Moonman in this category.
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Photo courtesy RCA.The video for
Kings of Leon’s luminous ballad from
Only by the Night does the old trick of combining live footage, life-on-the-road home movies and shots of frontman Caleb Followill singing directly to the camera while sitting on a couch. This sort of video is typical when bands are in the midst of a lengthy tour and don’t have time to waste on an intricately structured, high-concept piece. But because “Use Somebody” speaks to the loneliness of the traveling life, this somewhat conventional video’s concert-heavy footage nicely connects with the song’s lyrical content.
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Photo courtesy Chop Shop/Atlantic.“Decode” became
Paramore’s breakthrough single thanks to its inclusion on the massively popular
Twilight soundtrack. The accompanying video hammers the association home by placing the Tennessee band in a forest meant to look like the one from the teen-vampire film. (If that wasn’t enough,
Twilight clips are interspersed throughout the video.) Paramore fans who want to see a lot of close-up shots of lead singer Hayley Williams will be pleased with this video, but it’s hard not to be underwhelmed by such a run-of-the-mill offering. This video’s nomination suggests that it was more a response to the song’s success than it was an acknowledgment of the clip’s artistry or originality.
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