why the fuck did i see the entire thing?

... and just b/c this one is awesome too.

I hate this band, but I like their videos. Mostly I hate that they've gotten so popular only because of their videos, while the songs themselves are the blandest, most unmemorable pop ever.

That seems to be the consensus. Their music sucks, but they have an audience because of their visual creativity.

So, should this thread be in Arts & Entertainment?

I wonder how the band feels about people w/ this opinion. Obviously, you want people to like your music, but if people are entertained by you ... do you care what it is that entertains them?

I don't know. If you are a musician, I think music should be your main concern. But maybe that's naive of me.

What if you're an artist who makes music?

Firstly, music is art, all musicians are therefore artists.
Secondly, I very much doubt these guys started off wanting to wow the world with awesome music videos. More likely, they happened to hit it big with one gimmicky video and decided to follow it up with a whole bunch of them to keep up the momentum. I'm sure they're thrilled with their success, but I'd wager at least one of them is somewhat frustrated that people don't take them more seriously as musicians. I also think trying to come up with kooky, creative videos that will go viral on Youtube all the time must be exhausting.

yeah and it doesn't make their music any better, it just gives it more exposure. it's somewhat a grey area, the music videos question. personnally, much of what i listen to don't even have music videos attached to it and i'm free to make up my little own subplot from listen to listen and/or appreciate the actual playing and intensity of the performances. however, occasionally, some videos enhance the lyrical content (it happens rarely to the musical aspect) and help me enjoy the songs even more. DTE's video is pretty fucking cool. Pink Floyd The Wall is fucking awesome. i prefer animated videos for the sheer imagination it can display. having musicians mimicking is just useless. in my book, OK Go make better videos than they make music - their creative stamina being fully unleashed in this medium.

I think the initial treadmill video idea came from one of the band member's girlfriends, or a sister. Something like that, and then it hit big because of the choreography. When the MTV Video Awards show happened, they recreated the video live on stage. That's speaks volumes if they didn't actually perform the song with their own instruments. But because that was their main success -- the visual, they've been forced to try and top it each time. They're not trying to write better songs, just make better short films, so their success really does end up being bittersweet. Its gotta suck to achieve a kind of success that really wasn't what you set out to accomplish in the first place. I'm sure they'd rather have people care about their music, but as it stands, its a solid bet people never will.

I don't know how much that would suck. Making those videos must be better than about 99.9998% of jobs out there.

Sure, but they're not selling videos. They're a band and their product is music first and foremost. It takes money to record as well as make videos and people only briefly care about the videos and completely disregard the music. They've achieved fame and success, but not for what they'd ultimately want.

Imagine a painter that buys tons of paint and a bunch of canvasses, then throws his heart and soul into his paintings. Unfortunately, the only way this painter is able to get the paintings displayed is to open his own gallery, but when the public comes in, they pay zero attention to the art and spend all of their time marveling at the architecture of the gallery. The public doesn't buy any of the paintings and the gallery can't be sold, but many people come to appreciate the space. Whenever anyone asks "Hey, have you heard of this painter?" people always reply, "Yeah, he's the guy with the really nice art gallery."

That's kind of like OK Go's success to me and I'd guess its infuriating for them.

The Chevrolet company dislikes this statement.

Y'know, I don't think they spend one minute thinking about the questions we're asking in this thread.