Kiwi Farms

That's right. Music videos. Those accompaniments to top forty hits--or, at least, projected hits--that have only emerged in the last thirty years.

Some tell stories. Some are just footage of the band playing. Some are great. Many are terrible. It doesn't matter what it is--but if you like it, post it here and explain a little why!

First up for me:

Rammstein's "Sonne." A sadistic Snow White beats the shit out of her dwarfs and OD's in a bathtub. What's not to love?

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Next up: Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok."

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It's purportedly a song about nuclear armament and mutually assured destruction compared to a chess game, but the producers decided to go for the most stereotypical southeast Asian motif possible, context be damned. And so we have shots of people eating rice and going to bath houses. This song was so ingrained in my memory when I was a young 'un that I was disappointed when I actually made it to Bangkok and found no chess.

Next: "Brilliant Disguise" by Bruce Springsteen.

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Here's a heads up: it's a black-and-white video of Bruce Springsteen playing guitar in his kitchen. And that's it. But consider the context: Bruce was going through a divorce at the time, and the song--as it pans in, ever closer, to his face--becomes increasingly powerful. The fact that it was shot in black and white only adds to the video. At the end, when the camera view is only a close-up of Bruce Springsteen's face, is when you really feel the significance behind his words.

Next: "One" by Metallica.

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"One" is based upon the novel Johnny Got His Gun, an anti-war novel (and later film) penned shortly after the First World War. It follows the experience of a young man named Johnny, who was sent to the Western Front in 1917--and consequently lost the use of his eyes, ears, arms, and legs. Suffering from "locked in" syndrome, Johnny becomes a medical curiosity. Metallica actually purchased the film rights in order to produce this video.

And finally:

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"Hurt" by Johnny Cash. I'm a Johnny Cash fan, and I consider this song the most poignant and significant of his entire career. It just sums up his entire life so perfectly--I can't help but get chills when I watch this video.