Despite the incredible experience provided by Michael Jackson's Thiller, young me wasn't full on, watching-music-videos-all-the-time until several years later when a little older younger me realized this medium could help me with something I was having a problem with, which was being cool.
I realized this when my cool older cousin, Jason, came to visit my family in NC from Tennessee. His first act of business was commandeering the remote control to turn the TV channel from He-Man, the not very cool cartoon program I was currently enjoying, to what was essentially being cool educational programming; MTV. The perfect example was the video that first appeared when Jason first turned the channel, a video he currently could not get enough of, Winger’s “Can’t Get Enough,” and after this moment I couldn't get enough either, of music videos.
Winger - "Can't Get Enough"
Dir: Michael Bay
At the age of nine, I didn't know much about being cool other than having the strong feeling I wasn't. My individuality was actively being shaped by my parents. They wanted me wearing clothes and hair styles they wanted me wearing and I didn't express too many thoughts or feelings contrary. In contrast TV was showing me these long-hair-don't-care Winger boys, vulnerably telling their special friends how much they enjoy their company, while wearing jeans with holes in their knees that they've refused to let their moms patch up. It seems a big part of this being cool thing is expressing individual style, feelings, and thoughts in a way that reflects authenticity but doesn't hold attachment for need of approval. Basically expressing honestly and vulnerably and not giving too many fucks about much else.
This view of cool seems like a positive message for youngsters. One that I would have liked to receive from the role models in my life, but in a way, thanks to this video, I did, because Winger's front-man, known as Kip Winger, looks a little bit like my Dad. It seems there's something to the similar shape of their five o'clock shadow cheek bones that kin them. So it feels like part of my attraction toward this video is receiving support in freedom of expression from my dad, or at least, from a guy on TV that slightly looks like my dad.
“Can't Get Enough” was the first single off of Winger's second album, and they were dropping a pretty big budget for it. They hired a director that would later become a house-hold name for slick-looking action flicks like Armegedon, The Rock, Bad Boys 2, 5 or so Transformer movies, and my personal fave, Pain and Gain.
It's fun to watch “Can't Get Enough” and/or any of the other 15 music videos Michael Bay made before going full feature filmmaker. It's fun to notice how the music video making style has informed his feature film creating. Especially in “Can't Get Enough” I see similarities in the fast paced cutting, the lens flairs, the frequent camera movement, the dutch angles, the saturation in orange light that looks like he shoots everything at magic hour sunset.
Bay could be viewed as the parent figure for these Winger boys and their self expression to provide a lot of giving-a-fuck to achieve the look of not-giving-a-fuck. It's possible Bay had the Wingers hair styled to look unstyled, told wardrobe to intentionally cut holes in Winger's jeans, and held one-handed-bass-playing rehearsals for Kip Winger. The point is, to some degree, there is a calculation of cool being applied in order to sell cool to people looking to buy it, like me.
I had a keen feeling as a kid that the majority of being cool had to do with hairstyle. Since I felt mine to be whack, my cool advancement seemed blocked. Here's some examples of each year of public school. The hair style changes but doesn't feel quiet right, with the not-feeling-right pinnacle1 achievement in grade 10.
When I tune in to cool school, MTV, almost everyone had long hair, especially since it was a time of popularity for the Hair Metal music genre. Out of all the hairs in that genre, ol' Kip Winger gets my fave hair award.
I desired to have long Winger lox, but because self consciousness I never made it to lengths past the awkward hair-not-quite-staying-swooped-behind-the-ears stage. That look wasn't feeling right on me, especially since my ears stuck out from my head at an angle aching toward perpendicular. Later in life as an adult in my mid-20's I'd get corrective surgery to bring those ears closer to my head, as they are now. I thought of growing my hair after this, but at that point I seemed to be missing some. There seemed to be some hair retreating in the back of my head, which I prefer instead of the front so I don't frequently see it and and feel the need to superficially judge it as not cool.
I feel cool about my hair these days. It only took the first couple decades of life but I finally learned not using shampoo, conditioner, or any other hair care product works great for me. My only hair care method consists of wetting it, combing it with a sandalwood comb, messing it up with a towel, then letting it dry in the chaotic order. To discover this about myself, I had to disregard what most everyone else was doing to figure what authentically works for me as an individual.
I'd find out with time and experience the cool being taught on MTV isn't exactly authentically cool. When I think of authentic cool, I think of these guys making underground pool palaces with just hand tools, literally creating an amazing place from dirt.
Water slides are cool, literally.
The cool that occupies many music videos is more of a virtue signal of coolness. For example the beginning of “Can't Get Enough” has a shot of guys running with surf boards. This video doesn't feature surfing in any other capacity. Surfing seems to be referenced because surfing is cool.
It's the same reason a blonde woman is posing on a motorcycle in a warehouse. It's the same reason a Dolph Lundgren-looking-muscle-man is climbing over a fence. Those characters do not reemerge in any other part of the video. These images serve to set a vibe, establishing the characters are down with multiple activities stereo-typically associated with being cool.
It's a similar situation with the shot of the oil rig pump. The video doesn't feature oil rig workers or even much reference to machines that use oil, but the pump does serve as a metaphor for the main way this vid comments on coolness; sex. One could imagine from this oil pump image that possibly some of the vid's characters work on this oil rig and welcome the off-duty relief of their sexy relationship. This image can also serve as metaphor for the sexy relationship itself in the form of pumping motions and fluids and such.
This works as metaphor for the majority of the video since the main story being told here consists of a hot moment between four hot couples. There's a couple almost making out near a table with too much fruit on it, there's a couple almost making out in the middle of a game of 8 Ball, there's a couple making out in a boxing ring in between punches and bad blurry motion effects, and there's the couple doing the modern day equivalent of taking a sexy selfy while the person you are about to send the pic to, watches. These sexy moments are sporadically cut between Winger performing this song on a creatively lit concert stage.
This type of music video story structure is a troupe used especially in the late 80's and early 90's. It's been heavily explored by the band Aerosmith who used it famously in their starring-Alicia-Silverstone-trilogy; “Crying”, “Amazing” and “Crazy”, as well as the also-directed-by-Michael-Bay clip for “Falling In Love (is so hard on the knees).” Though the later explores blurring the lines between the sets where the non-band-member characters interact and the sets where the band is playing.
Aerosmith - "Falling In Love (Is Hard on the Knees)"
Dir: Michael Bay
When I think of this troupe's use in “Can't Get Enough,” I think of the relationship between the band and the video's other characters, and I attempt to make this relationship make sense in one of two ways. One, the band is God. They've created this song creation and watch over, in a God-like manner, as the creation they created causes people to make out or get very close to making out. Two, they're a band of cucks. They simply enjoy watching people making out or almost making out to their creation. Maybe there isn't so much difference between one and two, and maybe that's not a bad thing since it's pretty much what anyone watching this vid is doing.
As young me watches "Can't Get Enough" for the first time, I'm freshly discovering my sexual attractions. I got turned on imagining myself as the attractive dudes touching attractive ladies. I didn't know why. I knew nothing about sex other than if it is what the characters in "Can't Get Enough" can't get enough of, then give it to me, cause I wanna not be able to get enough of it either.
One thing I knew for sure I couldn't get enough of is lady boobs. I knew I wanted to see them all. I could feel life get more exciting the closer I got to seeing a nipple. I wanted to put them in my mouth and suck on them till I got sleepy and took a nap on them. That’s how I used to do it as a baby. But like many babies my good times with boobs came to an end when getting weened. Then because factors that discourage public lady nipples, I went from seeing boobs daily to many confusing years of not seeing them at all. Not one single sighting. Then one day I see some cleavage in a Winger video and feel simultaneously hungry and horny, and I don't even know what the later is yet.
This is part of understanding one's own self expression in order to achieve being cool. Having an erect penis and not understanding why is not a cool look, not even if you're nine years old. I feel like that is why public lady nipples were ever discouraged by anyone in the first place, because public lady boobs might encourage public boners, and public boners are bad for the public, somehow. I don't know how, that's what I imagine someone might think. Personally, I had the opposite concern. I feared I'd get aroused in public and everyone would see I had desires and laugh at them.
This seems to be the fear that holds back being cool. Authentic self expression getting laughed at or rejected in some manner. Success in coolness coming to those bold enough to disregard such fear. To bravely wear their heart on their sleeve as the traditional metaphor for vulnerability suggests, or perhaps a more appropriate metaphor for this particular incident, wearing your hard on your pants.
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