Björk: All Is Full of Love (1999)
Curious how many music videos use images of technology to capture human emotions. Some, like the Such Great Heights video, do it by having humans wandering around inside the technology. Björk takes a different approach, appearing as a robot being operated on. When I think of Björk’s music videos I think of Michel Gondry as director, but this video was actually directed by Chris Cunningham.
Daft Punk: Around the World (1997)
Oh, right, here’s a Michel Gondry-directed video. Here the various musical elements of the song are reified as robotic dancers: the mummies are the drum machine, the skeletons are the guitar, the spangly swimsuited girls are the synth, the robots are the vocoder, and the — what the hey are those tall guys, anyway? — are the bass. Niftiness abounds.
One Comment
Where’s Mr. Roboto?
The Bjork video is interesting… I’ve always considered her a robot. Also, I see that Gondry takes a page from Busby Berkeley, at least for some of his choreography.