Archives For mtv

Remembering Breakthrough Music Videos

Except for that 3-year break MTV took off the Breakthrough Music Video category, they had continued giving away the prize — which had been given to the likes of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham — until 2010, when they officially removed the category.

So I ask again, what happened to Breakthrough Music Videos?

As a reminder, I put together a list with all the winners.

If I had been picking winners (from that past post), I chose:

  • 2006 – U2 for Window in the Skies [MV]
  • 2007 - Tom Waits for Come On Up to the House [MV]
  • 2008 – Bjork for Wanderlust [MV]

For the other two years, you know I’m probably partial to SunnyHill [1], but I’ll go with Salyu’s Tadano Tomodachi [1] concept because it’s much more a production concept than a music video concept. For 2012, despite its serious hard-hitting concept [1], I would have to go with Graham Coxon’s What’ll It Take [MV] due to its imaginative execution using fan footage.

So what are some of your favorite music videos?

Posted on March 28, 2013 In English, Music, Music Videos, Sharing, Television , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Michael Jackson’s VMA Legacy

You know you’re fucking awesome when you lipsync through a whole show and nobody gives a shit, because it’s still awesome. Though, I would argue that MJ should’ve stopped his performance in Dangerous.

Not since Michael Jackson began dazzling the pop music stage has there been any other pop act that has been able to define dancing the way Michael did. To this day and age, when dance pop music (in America) is stale, and Korea gives me pretty choreographed skill [1] — there’s still no one bringing anything new to the pop table.

You’re still missed MJ.

Posted on September 14, 2012 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Music, Sharing , , , , ,
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Diego Torres’ Recuerda Lyric Translation

Well, this one is an “oldie” alright.

I remember in 1999, I was obsessed with this song — at least, it was one of the many songs I obsessed over in those years. It has nothing to do with the video, even though I probably taped the video a million times over on VHS. Hey! We didn’t have YouTube back then!

The video is… very 90s Latin America. Floating face hovering on top of the movie — because Recuerda was the main theme song for an Argentinean movie called La Venganza. You would notice the use of Mistral in one of those scenes. It’s hilarious to watch the video now.

The song is pretty simple in lyrics. Diego Torres is an apt vocalist and songwriter at times, but nothing too extraordinary, so his songs tend to be easier to translate. He’s got some pretty good singles, though.
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Posted on June 30, 2012 In English, Films, Lyrics, Music, Music Videos, Sharing, Spanish , , , ,
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Juanes’ Trilingual Hoy Me Voy Lyric Translation

June 1, 2012 — Leave a comment

Juanes said that he dreams in Spanish, so that’s why he usually doesn’t sing in another language, even though he’s collaborated with artists that don’t necessarily sing in Spanish. So when he did his song Hoy Me Voy [YouTube] — included in his 2007 album La Vida Es un Ratico — and did a Spanglish version with Colbie Caillat, it was interesting.

For the most part, the Spanglish version does a good job at translating the Spanish — “Devuélveme ese corazón que tú no supiste valorar lo que te daba yo de verdad.” to a pretty close “So give me back this heart of mine ’cause you didn’t feel the love that I would give to you every day and night.”

A literal translation would be “Give me back this heart that you didn’t value what I really gave to you.”

You know there’s a problem when you add the words “every day and night,” as well as the cringe-worthy random “baby.” xD Which they use in the chorus (nonetheless!!!) — “Tengo miedo de no olvidarte y por eso de ti me despido” with the line “I am scared baby, I won’t forget you and that’s why i need to let you go, so-”

The literal translation for that would be “I’m scared of not forgetting you, and that’s why I’m saying goodbye.” Compared to that, the Portuguese/Spanish version (Spanguese? Portugish?) goes the dramatic way with the line “Tive medo, fui covarde, é por isso que de ti me despeço” which translates literally to “I was scared, I was a coward, and that’s why I’m saying goodbye.”

Obviously, the mixing of Spanish and Portuguese is way more natural than with English. However, it’s super interesting that the changed lyrics in Portguese are even more dramatic than in Spanish… which usually have dramatic lyrics.

Anyway, I prefer the arrangements for this version with Paula Fernandes because it gives it a super serious and more devastating tone. The original version of just Juanes in Spanish is a little too peppy, and the version with Colbie Caillat is just… too soft.
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In Celebrity, English, Lyrics, Music Videos, Sharing, Spanish, Television , , , ,
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What was that VMA Tribute to Britney?

I feel terribly sad that this had to happen this way~

It’s not like I sat through the VMA this year (the very first year that I chose not to, without counting the years I had no access to MTV), but having Jersey Shore introducing me nominees was too much for me to take… in the end, I tuned out and went for dinner.

When I found out that MTV was going to do a Britney Spears tribute, I thought to myself “why?” because, well — for starters, Britney’s not dead. Plus, Britney’s been on the music stage for barely 10 years… and out of those ten years, only five had been actually unquestionably successful.

So it pained me to have to see Britney accepting this because it means it’s just never gonna happen again. No, people. Do not expect Britney ever to recover her former glory, because it ain’t going to happen. But what’s worse is Britney (and her camp) accepting this poorly put together tribute… but who do we blame?

It’s not like the music industry has being able to produce anyone to follow Britney’s footsteps — failing to produce someone who can at least lipsync and kickass dance like Britney used to be able to. So what does MTV do? Get no-name little girls to dance to a speed-up Britney mashup. Each of her tracks gets reduced to a 15sec. blurb in which the girls duplicate Britney’s ‘famous’ moves — it’s just chaos.

And what does MTV do? They make Britney introduce Beyonce.

That just… doesn’t make sense at all.

Britney, you used to deserve so much better. Specially from MTV.

Posted on September 3, 2011 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Music, Rants, Sharing, Television , , , , ,
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