As you all know, we ask a question each day on facebook and twitter. This daily question always has a this or that format. It is not open-ended and the people just have to pick their preference between the two. This is a bracket format of sorts until we finally have a winner of that topic. The topics we have covered so far include favorite song overall, favorite song of each studio album, favorite b-side, favorite merchandise hoped to be made, and now video. This topic of videos seemed like a logical choice since Duran has made a lot of videos in their career and because they truly are great pieces of film. On a personal note, I always enjoy seeing what others fans think and prefer. The results of the top 5 videos weren’t terribly surprising to me for the most part. Here they are. What do you think? Are these your 5 favorites?
Save a Prayer:
I have to admit that this video is definitely one of my favorites even though the song is not. It is truly a beautiful video with all of the beach shots combined with the lush colors of the jungle. Yet, I think the part that really gets to me is the ending when they are all walking towards the large religious statue with bare feet then stare up in wonder. There is something about that shot that makes me think a bit more than just being pretty. Is it the awe of religious faith? Is it the power of humanity to build something so enormous? Is it showing truly how small humanity is in the vastness of the world? All of the above? Something else?
I Don’t Want Your Love:
I was surprised that this one kept moving through even though some of the votes were razor thin. I have always enjoyed this video. I don’t know that I would include it in my personal top 5. The concept of having Duran on trial is an interesting one to me. Yet, now, I wonder if this concept wouldn’t have been better for Notorious. The only part that seemed to have a real connection to the lyrics is the dancing couple. Yes, yes, I realize that Duran was never about having the lyrics and the actions of the video match completely. I get that. I am sure the idea is that a cheater, which seems to be what the song is saying, could be exposed and could be tried in a court, especially a divorce court! All of that said, I, for one, appreciated some of the very nice shots of a certain bass player.
Girl Panic:
I am fascinated that this made it into the top 5! Yes, a lot of males seemed to vote for it. Okay. A lot of females did, too. It seems to me that most people were voting for it take this video as a representation of Duran Duran with the luxury cars, five star hotels, parties, etc. While I could respond to that at length about how I think these images are all stereotypes, I will just refer people to our VERY lengthy blog about this video, which you can read here. I think it is a super intelligent video in that they are saying a lot, I believe, underneath all of the images with supermodels and fame. That said, I would probably pick Falling Down for having real intelligence combined with more images with the guys.
Ordinary World:
I am not going to lie. I am very surprised that this was the second favorite as far as the people who participate in our daily question. If you notice videos like Rio or Hungry like the Wolf are not included in this list of top 5. I understand that the garden shots in this video are beautiful as is the wedding imagery, which matches the album cover. I also get that the wedding implies hope for the future, which, again, I understand. Yet, I still have to wonder if people chose this video due to the song or was it really due to the video. As we know, Ordinary World, the song, is a real fan favorite (authors of this blog excluded). Does the video really rank as the second best of Duran’s? Personally, it doesn’t.
Favorite video—New Moon on Monday:
I have to admit that this is my favorite video. While it is not as deep or as intelligent as Falling Down or Girl Panic, I love that there are different length versions with a real plot. As someone who is political, who has teaching degrees in history, political science and sociology, I love the storyline of revolution from a government that is clearly tyrannical in nature. I love the idea of them working together for a cause! I’m a sap that way. Is it cheesy? Yes, clearly, at the end, during the neat little celebration with fireworks and dancing, it is cheesy. It is fun, though. Plus, can John Taylor look any better than he does in this video? I also have to smile knowing that the band hates this one and the fans generally love it!
So, what do you think of the choices? Do you agree with the list? What are your top 5 favorite Duran Duran videos?
-A
Prior to say that the song featured in the clip strongly influenced my votes, my top 5 doesn't coincide with the ones picked up the fans.
My top 5 clips in no particular order and today (I mean I can change my mind tomorrow) are: Save a prayer,Wild Boys, All She Wants is, Electric Barbarella, Sunrise.
My all time fave clip? I didn't vote x New moon on Monday and … I can't say what's my fave clip really!!
Congrats on the daily questions: they always cover interesting topics.
All support.
Interesting list, I need to pay more attention to Twitter so I can vote on these things!
Brackets are tough, though, and I wonder if you can truly determine which videos are the “2nd favorite” etc. I'm guessing you did the choices in chronological order similar to how you did the favorite song brackets back last fall. The problem with that approach is that it creates some early matchups that knock out songs that otherwise would be fan favorites, e.g. you may get a Save a Prayer vs. New Religion–both huge fan faves that are likely far more popular songs than most of the 90s stuff etc.–yet one of them gets bounced in the first round…it would be like doing a favorite ice cream bracket and having vanilla vs. choclolate in the first round…
The only way to avoid this is to “seed” the songs but that is ridiculously tricky….I think we can all agree that “Rio” would qualify as a “1” seed and a song like “Shotgun” would be a 16 seed–so you force those types of match-ups early (similar to the NCAA tournament). But beyond the obviously great songs in the catalogue vs. the clunkers, it gets really difficult to pre-rank them.
So, with regard to the videos…you could take a similar approach and pre-rank them, and then do high vs. low match-ups etc…but it still ends up being subjective and you'll ge some dork like me quibbling with the fact that you seeded Out of My Mind as a “9” behind “What Happens Tomorrow” at 7 etc. So you can never please everyone. BUT–with that approach you might have gotten a truer top 5, I guess that's all I'm getting at. Otherwise, I think it's tough to truly rank #2-5.
Regarding the list: I personally love the IDWYL video and am bummed that both it and the song seem largely forgotten today, despite being all over MTV and the radio in the fall of '88. It's just one of those great videos that isn't either just the band performing or just a story–you get both. Have always loved the Save a Prayer video and would've put it in my top 5…agree on Girl Panic, not a top-5 IMHO, and in fact I kinda dislike the video but I can't fault them for trying to do something unique and get some publicity for the song and album. For some weird reason I always liked the Union of the Snake video better than New Moon…and finally…as much as I like Ordinary World, I think I would give the nod to Notorious as a better video. The gritty black and white parts…the instrumentation…it just went really well w/ the song and album and direction they were going at the time.
With that…I will shut up now…
Chris
Thanks for sharing your favorites and your support! We really appreciate it!
-A
I absolutely agree that it is an imperfect system for sure! I didn't really rank them 2-5 as much as list the five that remained at the end. The key here is that I want the question to be easy to determine a winner and to vote. Plus, I want to remove my subjectivity as much as possible, which I'm sure the whole world appreciates. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the videos. Maybe, someday, we will ask the question in a different way and would get different results.
-A
my top 5:
Lonely in Your Nightmare
I Don't Want Your Love
Skin Trade
Serious
NMOM
my reasoning: unresolved issues with that bass player
I understand. 😉
-A
Amanda,
this isn't easy to choose because there is a large variety of styles. For instance some a truly artistic gems like Ordinary World, Come Undone, Save a Prayer, All She Wants Is, etc. Some are fun like Hungry Like the Wolf, or New Moon On Monday. Personaly maybe because I am an artist I will always look to the quality more than the fun. For instance in Ordinary World the part where we can see the band in black and white and Simon put his hands in front of him and are, because of the light, in colors this is really great concept. Same for White Lines or Perfect Day, nice concepts and All She Wants Is is a very cool and hard work. It even win a prize… Out of my Mind is also a very cool one. Girl Panic have a great concept but not that great realisation. New Moon on monday on the other hand isn't bad at all, quite fun and spectuclar for the duration. But in no way as original as the ones I mentioned earlier. The other aspect is that many people tend to vote for the song not the video. Hey we all are humans… When I get completly confused (I try to use a descent word here) is when somebody say she like the video because John or Simon are bare chest! Come on we are talking video not playgirl here. But all in all even if sometimes your competitions get me mad it is always fun to see what others feel. Surprising but fun. 😉
Pat
My fave is Save a Prayer. Visually stunning, dreamy, exotic and timeless.
The runners up (not in order):
Wild Boys – over the top 80s excess. The bondage stuff adds extra appeal. 🙂
White Lines – edgy, striking and totally different for DD
Out of My Mind – goth art
Girl Panic – glamorous but tongue in cheek
It was hard to choose my faves and there are so many great ones.
There are so many great ones! Thanks for sharing your list of favorites!
-A
Sometimes, the competitions get me mad, as well, but I, too, like to see what people think!
-A
And here is where I completely mess the system up (it is my job and I take it very seriously)…because I actually vote. Typically I make my choice on FB (sometimes I forget, and sometimes like today I can't actually decide so I don't…) Not only do I vote, but I will typically say why AND I complain when people are voting the “wrong way”. (I'm being a smarty pants here but truthfully, I do vote to screw with people sometimes. I like getting a “discussion” started when there seems to be a landslide vote one way or another.)
I agree with what you're saying though, Chris. There are times when purely because of the two options that are up for a vote on a specific day that I think one song or video gets voted because the other option isn't so great….or there are days when there are two fantastic choices that I think are both HUGE fan favorites, and yet one has to get voted down far earlier than I think it should be.
It's a tough system, but I think it would be fun (and a fascinating experiment) for Amanda and I to go through and seed these things and find out if the voting changes that way. Interesting!
-R
This is starting to sound like homework…
-A
We write a daily blog. Isn't that homework already??!? 😀 -R