I realized recently that I’ve been so focused on trying (and failing) to be funny in these blog posts that I’ve lost sight of the blow-hard pedantry that has been a mainstay of this blog for years. I’ve let my fans down and, far (far far far) more importantly, I’ve let myself down. Expect more ill-conceived philosophical rambling and less dick jokes from now on.

What is a music video? Is it an ad for your band? An ad for a retro camera phone? An exercise in homophobic wish fullfillment? While a video can be all those things, I believe that a music video operates on several levels.

1. Something to look at while the music enters your ears.

This is the bare minimum. Without level 1, you would just be listening to music, not watching a music video.

2. Something to reinforce the content of the music.

This frequently takes the form of either showing the group performing or having them act out the content of the song exactly. This is a step up from level 1 because the video goes beyond just being a target for your eyes to being something with actual content.

3. Something to enhance the content of the music.

This is what a good video is all about. It might introduce fully new concepts, shed new light on the contents of the song, or just clarify the point the song is trying to make. If you want a video worth watching, you should be shooting for level 3 content.

Take the song “Ego Trippin’ (Part Two)” by De La Soul (please). If you didn’t know anything about De La Soul, you might think it’s a typical brag-fest, but the video is here to remind us that it is instead a parody of a typical brag-fest. Take a look:

The video opens with some men screaming.

One is wearing a gas mask, one has headphones on, and one is wearing a hat made out of money.

The money hat is really something.

Then the rapping starts in earnest with an exuberant finger waggle.

The plot, such as it is, is very simple. The song is called Ego Trippin’ and almost all of the rapping is bragging of some sort. But De La Soul is subverting this trope.

Here is one of the members in a Mercedes.

He arrives at “his” house.

There is a super-rad party inside with drinking and beautiful women.

But the celebrity dream is not to be.

This plot structure isn’t much (it doesn’t really take up most of the video), but I like how it works so well with the song. There isn’t a point in the song where they say “we’re only joking”, although it’s pretty clear. In the same way, the video itself doesn’t give any hints at the joke except for these all lowercase messages occasionally flashing across the screen.

There’s even a sort of parallel universe where the members of De La Soul are cool.

The video does have one misstep, a real groaner of a level 2 moment. Here’s what is shown when the singer says “the foot”.

See how it really reinforces the concept of “foot”? Thank god for that.

The rest of the video is pretty great, though. There are these cool shots where the singers have their faces really close to the camera while there appear to be people standing perpendicular to them.

Also, I love how much fun the group seems to be having in the video.

I feel like you can’t fake the fun.

I hope this lecture has enriched your life. And, if you are one of the many music video directors who read this blog closely, taking copious notes, I hope you’ll remember this message and think of me during your next shoot.

-PTD