The music videos of the summer

After the annual debacle of the MTV VMAs recently, wherein Miley Cyrus diffused the heat of MTV giving the Video of the Year Award to renowned ultra-creep, sexual predator, and director of Miley’s Wrecking Ball visual, Terry Richardson, by enlisting a photogenic homeless man to accept the Moonman on her behalf, the reputation of the music video has been dragged through the mud. With recent changes to how the UK Charts Company takes into account sales for singles, now accounting for Spotify streams and Vevo streams, the pertinent issue for musicians is whether to augment their songs with witty, aesthetically pleasing visuals or ensure a continuing revenue stream with a flashy, potentially incendiary piece of artless exhibitionism? The summer just gone has provided a wide array of promos that have spurred conversation amongst Pitchfork interns and Daily Mail flamers alike, of which The Stand have curated the five most talked about:

Taylor Swift – Shake It Off

Like Blofeld but with better bangs yet just as equally obsessed with cats, the Nashville pariah takes a further step towards total world domination, ditching the country and western for big, brassy pop hits. The accompanying video for the first 1989 single is helmed by the director of Never Let Me Go (huh?) who opts for a cluster of disconnected cultural references, from Black Swan to Lily Allen’s Hard Out Here video so as to give backdrop for Taylor to dance adorkably whilst simultaneously offending 75% of Odd Future. This peppy song and its joie de vivre video may go some way to helping Taylor clinch back the pop crown from Beyonce, Miley et.al.

Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX – Fancy

The music industry’s gentrification of the decade we were born in continues apace with the disproportionately talented Iggy and Charli homaging the superb 90’s comedy Clueless. While no-one has dared to question the qualification of L.A. to Tokyo, one of the longest commercial flights in the world, as the “fast lane”, the song has surfed the crest of our current obsession for nostalgia to become, for lack of decent competition, the (most overplayed) song of the summer.

DJ Snake & Lil’ John – Turn Down For What

A domestic argument turns into a carnal rave replete with a man dry riding a television, melting faces, a lamp banging off an indestructible crotch and thus, the second greatest meme of the summer was born, the first obviously being the English “broom broom” girl. The song itself? Trap crap.

Sia – Chandelier

The Thomas Pynchon of pop took further steps to keep her identity concealed by employing Maddie Ziegler, breakout star of American reality bile “Dance Moms” to prance around a prison-like environment with the gusto of Margot Fonteyn on speed. But hey, at 2am, this sounds titanic.

Ed Sheeran – Sing

Ginger Nut teams up with ageless pervert and undeniable tune-smith Pharell and pulls a Timberlake circa Señorita. Minus the charm. And sex appeal. And staying power. Red Ed here cheekily has his own little fuzzy doppelganger bopping around L.A., getting into X-rated muppet scrapes which came over as cloying when I discovered that the rest of the new album comprised bitchy kiss-offs to his former girlfriend who in actual fact, attended my neighbouring high school. Never accuse The Stand of using tenuous personal connections of the writer to enliven an article…except just now.

Image courtesy of spin.com