VIDEO VAULT THURSDAY!
(because exclamation points make all the difference)

This week’s entry into VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS is again one of those stellar examples of a marriage between imagery and music that is rare for music videos but proves how the right approach can elevate a song to something more:



Of course, it should come as no surprise that the director is a man who consistently scores high marks for his work in the genre:

After a few years writing screenplays, Romanek decided to focus on music videos and signed on with Satellite Films, a boutique division of David Fincher’s Propaganda Films. His subsequent work has come to be regarded as among the best of the medium. He has worked with many top-selling recording artists from different genres of popular music, and his videos have been given credit for making stars out of some.

THE PERFECT DRUG COMMENTARY BY TRENT REZNOR

VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS!

You know it’s always good to start of the New Year on a high note so, this week’s entry into VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS! needs to be something special and it is.

The music video was directed by Mark Romanek and first aired on May 12, 1994. It was cut down from its original length to 4:36. The video was popular and helped bolster the success of the band. The video shows events that deal with religion, animal cruelity, politics, and even terror. It was also somewhat controversial due to its imagery which included a nude woman with a crucifix mask, a monkey tied to a cross, diagrams of vulvas, and even Reznor wearing a mask while swinging in shackles. These images seem to be inspired by the art of Joel-Peter Witkin. Certain removed scenes were replaced with a title card that said “Scene Missing,” and the instances of the word “fuck” being edited out were accompanied by a stop in the video motion, to make it appear as if the stop was a result of defective film (this was done to make sure the flow of the song was not affected). The video also has a stylized, old-film look. The video is one of two directed by Romanek that the Museum of Modern Art has added to its permanent collection. The other video is Madonna’s “Bedtime Story.”

The unfortunate thing about a video like this is that it spawns a host of imitators who don’t understand why the video was a success in the first place. It does prove the point of how a music video can actually make a song more than a piece of music by marrying images to it. While this video is now almost 14 years old (in itself hard to imagine), it stands the test of time exceptionally well:

by the way, it probably is NSFW although if you do you probably want to listen to it with headphones or with the sound down

The unedited version of this video was shown on Playboy TV’s uncensored music video show Hot Rocks in 1994. In mid-2002, the unedited version of this video was aired on MTV2 as part of a special countdown showcasing the most controversial videos ever to air on MTV.

The keyboard Reznor is seen playing toward the end of the video is a piece of Reznor’s own Mellotron, which was once owned by John Lennon and may have been used on The Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

After you’ve watched the video, it’s even more interesting to watch it with commentary by the artist:

In 2006, “Closer” was number one in a poll held by VH1 Classic for the twenty greatest videos of all time.

It’s not hard to see why it made the number one spot.