The best video of last decade

When bands are given thousands of dollars and the opportunity to make a music video, most usually think of the most exotic location they can physically get to, and a plot confusing enough to make even Richard Kelly balk. What a lot of record companies and artists haven't seemed to figure out yet is that just because you throw a lot of money into something, doesn't necessarily make it good (*coughs* Waterworld) and that sometimes, simplicity is very much key.

Ok Go proved this in 2006 with their video for the single, Here We Go Again. I'm sure whoever pitched the idea of four guys doing a dance routine on treadmills must have received some pretty frosty looks from the head honchos at EMI, but it proved to be one of the most intelligent music videos in years. MTV viewers are so used to seeing fancy artwork swirl around the screen, or girls writhing in tiny costumes on over-sized sets that this provided the fresh new stance that everyone was waiting for.

At face value the whole thing seems incredibly simple; hop across a few running machines in time to music. But anyone who has ever been on a treadmill will back me up in saying that incidents of flying off the back after dropping your i-pod, or nearly breaking your ankle as you're trying to jump off to take a quick breather, are far more regular occurrences than you may like to admit. So how these guys not only came up with a complex three minute dance routine to be spread over six treadmills, but then pull the entire sequence off seamlessly is totally beyond me.

For a band who have been around for over ten years with songs just as good as the one that accompanied this video and yet not gained such attention previously, it certainly suggests that the music video was key to getting them noticed. It worked incredibly, becoming an internet sensation that has been viewed around 50 million times on youtube and the most downloaded music video ever on itunes, although interestingly the single itself still only peaked at number 36 in the UK charts. MTV may air more reality tv nowadays than it does actual music videos, but Ok Go have proved that the video is just as influential as ever in thrusting a band into the spotlight, and that several minutes of pretentious extravagance isn't always the best way to go about it.

http://www.okgo.net/