The Music Videos of Beck

Periodically I come across Beck and I think “Oh yeah I really love this guy’s stuff.” Idiomatically he straddles so many genres, anti-folk, electronica/dance, hip-hop, and several types of rock, and he does it with seeming ease. The songs have this strange coherence where the seemingly dispirit elements that make them up fit together in a way that is so perfect, in a way I never thought that they could be, like turntables and acoustic guitar, harmonic and programmed drums.

It wasn’t until last week that I saw the music video’s for many of his songs that I really like. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they too had the same internal coherence. They have that “je ne sais quoi” that the Spike Jones directed videos of Fat Lip, The Beastie Boys have. They have a visual playfulness (that is mirrored in the music), coherence, narrative and internal logic that seem incongruous given the fact that I couldn’t tell you what any of Beck’s songs are actually about. They often seem to play on some vaguely familiar style of art, film, or television, but do it in a way that seems original and fresh.

Here are a few, but the Universal Group You Tube page has a bunch more (they have embedding disabled).

Meiko

Sometimes you just hear something and it just grabs a hold of you, and you know that it's perfect. When I heard How Lucky We Are I knew that I'd be a Meiko fan. Her lyrics are sharp and draw you in and her understated delivery is none the less full of feeling. The production is sort of minimalist in the same, understated, way that Meiko sings. It's lean, but it has detail, variety and contour, things like voice doubling, eclectic percussion sounds, and Rhodes keyboards . These elements are used sparsely, in limited combinations, so that things aren't cluttered and the songs tend to have a certain calming, pleasant ambiance to them. Her songs have been featured on some TV shows and she tours quite extensively.

Billy Bragg

Those interested in the contemporary roots music are probably familiar with Billy Bragg. Bragg is probably best known for his collaboration with Wilco "Mermaid Avenue", which took Woody Guthrie songs that only had lyrics and put them to music. This collaboration yielded two albums and a movie which is quite good. In many ways Bragg is a throwback to the kind of songwriting that Guthrie empodied. Smart, often direct and playful his songs tend to take a strong stance on political issues. Bragg however is from England, so some of his work is particular to the happenings of his country. The artistry, song craft and playfulness, however, often mediates any lack of knowledge on the part of the listener. Bragg came on line during the early 1980’s, and his early songs could be described as New Wave one man punk-folk. Here are few songs that I like: