Music Video Awesomeness

I love music videos. A good music video is often enough to get me to fall in love with a band. OK Go are one of those bands who put out amazing videos every single time.

Anyone who knows OK Go knows they specialise in awesome videos. From the first moment I saw their break away viral video for A Million Ways done in a backyard and spawning thousands of copycat videos all over YouTube, I knew I loved them. Witness the awesomeness of a Matrix-style fight done by four dudes in suits to a catchy song.

The followed up A Million Ways with the slightly less awesome but still very cool Invincible, in which the band dragged items - including a water cooler, a bed, a giant jar of olives and a white drum kit - into a room... then blow them up.

The next song was the one everybody knows - Here it Goes Again done on treadmills. That's three awesome videos, all with basic premises but which all make you stop and go 'wow!' Not only that, but OK Go have catchy songs. Songs which you like more because you can't help but love the videos.

But wait! There's more. There's also the brilliant Do What You Want which features a marching band, a hoola hoop artist, salsa dancers, people riding segways, skate boarders and people on pogo sticks - all in a room, dressed in the same pattern as the backing wall paper and carpet. No faces, no skin - even their props are covered in the stuff.

No other band I've ever seen have quite done for the music video what OK Go does. While their earlier videos (pre 2007) are usually quite average, everything after 2007 is pure gold. The exception to this rule is C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips which is pretty clearly the early run up to A Million Ways.

After Do What You Want, they took a bit of a break, but came back with WTF? which plays on the same kind of effect as the bouncing cards at the end of Solitaire (you know those ones that you keep waiting to fill the whole screen?)

Want to know how they put that piece of colourful spectacular together? Check out the making of video. OK Go are pretty brilliant for their YouTube presence - they show how they make the videos, and vlog. They are clearly pretty aware of how to use the viral video to increase sales. Like most viral video attempts, not everything works - today was the first time I'd discovered WTF, but that doesn't make it any less awesome. The making of is definitely worth checking out.

Today, OK Go released their newest creation for This Too Shall Pass and let's just say it's taken off. I've seen it plastered everywhere this morning and it's only been online for 18 hours. Check it out below.

Much like WTF?, the band have created a making of video for this one, spread over four parts. You can check them out here: part one, part two, part three, part four.

What you mightn't realise is that they regularly put out two versions of a video. Check out the other version of Do What You Want. They've also got a second version of This Too Shall Pass, which will probably make you laugh out loud.

The thing is, OK Go are the masters of the single-take music video. A Million Ways, Here it Goes Again and both versions of This Too Shall Pass are all done in a single take. Simply amazing.

And THAT, dear boys and girls, is why I like OK Go. It's not their music (though I like that too), it's their music videos, which always put a smile on my face.