I would like to preface this by saying that this is in no way an exhaustive list of all of the music videos that have been created, ever, with the theme of science fiction. Actually, I was going to write about my top list of music videos featuring space bar/cantina themes, but could only come up with two, and they already appear on this list. So, much like my favourite bras, I padded this shit out to give it more of a scope beyond just a space bar theme, although really, what more do you need in life? Robots and cowboys tend to partner up thematically as often as peanut butter and jelly does culinarilly. That’s not really a word, I just decided that it needed to be.
But I digress.
I was borne of the ’80s. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I feel we grew and adapted in a fun time that we are now entrenched-in for nostalgia. The future was so bright, we had to wear shades, dammit. Sci-fi in pop culture was heard ’round the world from AKIRA and BUBBLEGUM CRISIS to BACK TO THE FUTURE and TRON (old-school styles, thank you). We actually got the best out of MTV and MuchMusic, since back then they were playing actual music videos, as opposed to highly-processed ‘docu-dramas’ that make me blissfully ignorant of the people populating the pages of trashy magazines. The music videos themselves were a new medium, eagerly seized upon. With this enthusiasm for forward thinking, it spawned then (and now) an interesting assortment of visuals, some of these leaning as far into the future (and space) as we’d allow ourselves to go.
It was with this new medium that I was brought up (along with all my other fellow Millennials), combined with my love of the strange and unusual. Trust me, a good video would hold my attention through a shitty song, and I am inclined to believe that I’m not alone in this, though of late through attending music festivals and live shows, I’m breaking this shitty programming. But as anyone who has ever gotten caught in the YouTube black hole, either alone or maybe at a party, knows the seductive siren song of looking up our favourite videos and shamelessly rocking out in front of no one but our pets and houseplants. I open my heart, mind, and legs to you now, and share some of these self indulgent selections that are more likely to rock a Millennium Falcon than a stadium…
5. “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” — The Darkness
I know some people dislike this band, but I’ll be honest — I don’t think Freddy Mercury is rotating in his grave over this one. In fact, I’d like to think he’d see this from the ether and nod his approval. This has some ’70s influence, with the jumpsuit, hair, and track, but the fighting of the space Kraken gives it a special place in my heart. It puts me in mind if the dudes from Red Dwarf were to do a ’70s-style music glam-rock video, and I’m totally fine with that. While not everyone wants a space station where the beds are circular vibrating waterbeds, it could be argued that if Captain Kirk touched down here, he’d feel completely at home and begin a bromance with these guys. Actually, fuck it — if I lived on a space station, it’d pretty much be this, except I’d ride the space Kraken like a winged unicorn through the cosmos. So, there’s that…
4. “Turn Off The Light” — Nelly Furtado
Here is a little slice of CanCon sass. Until Steve Kostanski of Astron-6 directs a music video, and let me just say here that I really hope that happens one day, this is my patriotic contribution to this list. While in a galaxy far, far away, Luke was learning to do space ninja tricks, Nelly shows off a few of her own. While midichlorians flow through most Jedis, Nelly does what any, as Crystal Precious would put it, “organic-eating-MEC-wearing-non-smoking-bicycle-luvin’ Coast’ girl would do in a rainforest swamp would do: She raised DJ decks and a party instead of an ancient X-wing. I don’t know about you, but this is quite the standard party trick yet at our forget raves, but I’d give my left tit to witness that happen in person. The track is catchy and bouncy and takes me back to my promotional modelling days when Nelly’s music was used as background noise in between terrible, over-produced hip hop. In my mind, the other bikini models and I were cheerfully flipping the import cars at the show like pancakes with The Force. So if you see a ‘booth babe’ and you ask her something and she responds, “Oh, what?”, it’s not that she’s dumb; she’s just likely envisioning mass destruction to her immediate meathead surroundings to the sounds of Nelly Furtado. Or maybe that was just me.
3. “One More Time/ Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” — Daft Punk
Because anime that is reminiscent of ’80s cartoons, electro-pop, and aliens are all things we can use more of in our daily diets. I’d actually like to entertain the notion that aliens are willing to travel untold kilometres to kidnap talent from their homeward and convert them into adapted and watered-down versions of themselves… except that the Top 40 mainstream music industry sort of already has done that since, well, the beginning. It makes perfect sense that in a galaxy far, far, away the most prized resource is entertainers rather than land, natural resources, and so on. But this series of Daft Punk music videos strung together tells an interesting story, with the music helping with flow. I won’t lie — I got taken in by the anime, but the music and the little story is what really piqued my curiosity and the node in my brain that always asks, “But then what happened?” In case you want to know too, the whole shebang is called Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.
2. “St.Pauli” — Jan Delay
There was a point in my life, where I was going to Europe once a year to systematically disrobe and do dangerous stunts while a band played. This ritual of global travel gave me a massive appreciation for strange and hidden gems that surface abroad that the general public will miss. While the media at home in North America is agonizing whether the Kardashians are on this diet or that, highly amusing music videos, such as the one by Jan Delay, are reppin’ places like Germany. I originally saw this when I was in Berlin last spring shooting for Penthouse Magazine. I won’t lie, it was a whirlwind trip, and when I first saw this, I thought I might be suffering the after-effects of jet lag mixed with memories of running around on the Reeperbahn wearing only frilly knickers and pasties, and carrying a hula hoop. Upon my return home, I re-aligned my brain cells and looked up the video and found that it did in fact exist, and was not the product of my overtired brain. However, since it is such a fucking awesome gem, I felt it my duty as naked ambassador to share this with others, from whose attention it might have escaped.
1. “Loverboy” — Billy Ocean
This is the one that started this list. Usually because I’d be kind of loaded in the office at Dollhouse during a party, and calling people over to watch. There is a lot of borrowing going on in this video, and it seems to have something of a STAR WARS cantina theme running pretty heavily throughout it. While now we look at it and roll our eyes appreciatively (or at least my friends do when I attempt to show this to them for the umpteenth time) it was pretty awesome for it’s time. Between the VFX and the practical make up and catchy track, I’m even willing to overlook the ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane’ type vibe of the narrative, although it could arguably be more chivalrous than what I’m picking up… Regardless, this was the first choice on my list for all around high fantasy-meets-space-bar vibe for this list.
XOXO,
LITTLE MISS RISK.
Little Miss Risk is the star of stage and scream. Her legendary burlesque performances can be seen at the wrong place at the right time across this landscape of ours. She co-starred in AMERICAN MARY, directed by The Soska Twins, and most recently starred in THE EDITOR and in THE ABCs OF DEATH 2.
Check out all of Little Miss Risk’s previous journeys into the wild and the wicked here!
Little Miss Risk is the star of stage and scream. Her legendary burlesque performances can be seen at the wrong place at the right time across this landscape of ours. She co-starred in AMERICAN MARY, directed by The Soska Twins, and most recently starred in THE EDITOR and in THE ABCs OF DEATH 2.
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Tags: Aliens, Billy Ocean, Canada, Daft Punk, little miss risk, MTV, music, Music Videos, Nelly Furtado, Robots, Sci-Fi, Spaceships, The 1980s, The Darkness, tristan risk
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