Philosophy #1

Butt Holes

As the old saying goes, opinions are like buttholes, everybody’s got one. Since opinions are simultaneous objective and subjective, in subjecting yourself to these favorite music video selections you are objectively subjecting yourself to my butthole.

(I may be misinterpreting how that old saying goes.)

Philosophy #2

Fave Art > Best Art

My favorite term for proclaiming higher-archy of art (or “higher-arty” for fans of puns and word economy) is “favorite”, or “fave” for short, or “flavorite”, for fun. My least flavorite term is “best” since “best” falsely implies there could ever be such a thing as all around “best art”. We objectively know there can't be best art because art has no objective measure for greatness since experiencing art is a subjective experience. It's not like a fishing competition or an American Ninja obstacle course where it's easy to objectively determine who did best. It's whoever caught the biggest fish, or whoever did ninja stuff the fastest. With art there's only a winner for your own personal standards. This is a key reason why awards for best movie, TV, music, play, painting, poem, and best cross stitch are all inaccurate, if not in nature, then certainly in wording.

For example, when Mr. Oscar gives out his Academy's awards for Best Picture, it could be more titularly accurate with the award title of, “Our fave motion picture” or “the Best Motion Picture, according to our buttholes”. Otherwise to even have hope of picking an accurate “best” picture, the academy must expand the number of butt holes allowed to vote from just a few thousand Hollywood butt holes to everyone in the world's butt holes. Letting everyone in the world vote for their fave motion picture of the year, and whatever motion picture gets the most votes is “best motion picture” or what could more accurately be titled, “the collective's fave motion picture for this specific moment in time”.

Philosophy #3

Time

The unit of measurement known as time connects art and life, as life reacts to art and art reacts to life and this reaction happens in real time changing with time. In studying the fave music videos birthed during the same solar cycle, we can get sense of this art's relation to our ever evolving human experience.

I began historical fave music video record keeping in the year commonly referred to as 2015. 2015 is the same year Spotlight won Mr. Oscar's Fave Picture award and not Mad Max: Fury Road, or my 2nd choice of nominated films, Bridge of Spies, and definitely not my fave of all, Ex Machina because it wasn't even nominated. If the choice were made by Mr. Oscar today, would Spotlight still be “best art”?

Or what if we consider the art from 10 years before 2015 when the "fave motion picture for that specific moment in time" award went to Crash, over other nominees like Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich. All of which I'd consider more resonate with the zeitgeist of today as we sit at the glorious vantage point of the present.

But these are movies, which is a medium that gets a lot of attention. They are essentially the most expensive, most elaborate, most-all-art-encompassing art projects the world has ever seen, therefore they get spoken of ad nauseam. Meanwhile music videos not as much. Where critical examinations and explanations on feature film is plentiful, finding similar content on music videos is a challenge.

Philosophy #4

Music Videos Though?

Music videos have an under-discussed power of influence in our society. The power is due to the combination of music, (an undeniable influence in it's own right) and image (which has the ability to exponentially multiply the power of the music).

It is of our butt hole's opinion that music videos are of the most liberating of creations to consume since their very nature provides option to get enjoyment from it whether you're giving it your full attention, or not. You could both watch and listen, tracking your awareness of how its affecting your thoughts and feelings. Or, because music videos are often visually stimulating, they can serve as interesting background visuals at a party perhaps. They're also music, so they can be enjoyed without even looking at them.

Another bonus of having music videos around is the possibility it may inspire creation. It's an art form that invites dancing, or singing along, or making up your own lyrics if it's an instrumental track. This thus creates a special occurrence of a digital artistic creation inspiring in-the-moment physical artistic creation. It's much appropriate this creation can inspire creation, since itself is a creation inspired by a creation. The music video's original creation is of course the song.

Philosophy #5:

The Song

Songs are music, which is said to be universal language. Which means music videos can also universally transcend.

As far as fave music vid selection goes, the song is paramount. Since the song is essentially the screenplay of the music video, or to use another metaphor, the foundation on which the images are built upon; it must be able to thoroughly satisfy butt holes on its on accord. With full butt hole satisfaction being found in matching song with visual through the creative process.

Philosophy #6

Creative Process

It's been said the creative process benefits from boundaries. Too much creative freedom can lead to too many options, which can be detrimental. For this reason creating music videos can feel creatively liberating since it typically comes with its own boundary; the song. The song sings to the soul of the music video creator, informing them of its visual desires. Thus forming a relationship between song and visual equal to that of lovers.

Philosophy #7

Lovers

Like lovers, the song and its video must compliment each other to provide feelings neither could achieve on their own.

Philosophy #8

Lagniappe

Aside from a butt hole satisfying song and video making sweet love to one another, the additional ingredient needed to achieve the high status of fave, is what the Cajun-French call Lagniappe. It means “that little something extra”.

A music video's lagniappe is typically a fave topic of fave music vid discussion/analysis. This discussion/analysis is how we can examine how music videos are affecting our experience. With hope, we grow old, gaining experience, our growing wisdom allows greater appreciation for ourselves and others, so we may treat each other as sweet babies, just as we were brought into this world to be.

Philosophy #9

Fave Babies

Unless there's good reason, disliked music videos nor even kind-of-liked vids will not be spoken of. Only faves will get honor of mention. Fave music videos are considered akin to babies. Like a parent tries to love their children equally, music video fave babies are loved equally. Any numbered amounts faves are simply to keep track of how many there are, there's no ranking, no Sophie's Choice, no fave faves. Only fave babies.

In the next post I'll explore directly contradicting the last paragraph by picking a fave music video baby.