John Lamb - Tom Waits: For No One (1979!)

Tom Waits performed in 1978 live at the La Brea stage in Hollywood, photographed and rotoscoped. The original live action was shot with 5 cameras - 2 high, 2 low and one hand held.. shot by Dan O'Dowd and crew. The music from "The One That Got Away" blared in the background as Tom sang the lyrics. Donna Gordon is the dancer performing as the stripper, 6 takes and 13 hours of video footage were edited to make a 5 1/2 minute live action short which we turned into animation. A total of 5,500 frames were captured, re-drawn, inked and painted by hand onto celluloid acetate to create this film. Produced by Lyon Lamb Video Animation Systems and directed by John Lamb, the film bore some cool new technology and talent ..and was created specifically for a burgeoning video music market that didn't yet exist and arguably may be the first music video created for the MTV market. However, a series of unfortunate events prohibited the film from ever being released or sold commercially, consequently catapulting it into obscurity. In 1979, an Academy Award was presented to Lyon Lamb for the technology used in this short.

Duckeye - Magic & Fur: Christine

Robert Seidel - Zero 7: Futures

Tommy Pallotta - Zero 7: Destiny

Julie Morstad - Neko Case: Maybe Sparrow

Dan Bigelow - Oh My God: Bring Yourself

Hilltop Hoods: The Light You Burned

Jenny Coburn, Thomas Hicks & Will Perrens - Dntel: Rock My Boat

Dntel "Rock My Boat" from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

Thomas Hicks and Aaron Lampert - Loka: Safe Self Tester

Fizzy Eye - Wagon Christ: Shadows

Fizzy Eye - Wagon Christ: Receiver

Mario de Toledo Sader - Legowelt: Disco Rout

Legowelt - Disco Rout from Mario de Toledo Sader on Vimeo.

Britta Johnson - Lusine: Two Dots

Perish Factory - Bomb the Bass: Butterfingers

Mikey Please - Jeffrey Lewis: End Result

Mikey Please - Urusen: Nosediving

Mikey Please - Ingrid Michaelson: Maybe

Mihai Wilson and Davide Di Saro - Malajube: Le Crabe

Malajube - Le Crabe from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

Davide Di Saro - Emma Lee: Bruise Easy

Emma Lee - Bruise Easy from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

Davide Di Saro and Mihai Wilson - Ronley Teper: Faith

Ronley Teper - Faith from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

Davide Di Saro - Disaro: We All Belong to Our Before

Disaro - We All Belong to Our Before from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

Davide Di Saro and Mihai Wilson - Malajube: Ton Plat Favori

Malajube - Ton Plat Favori from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

Gabe Askew - Bluebrain: Ten by Ten

Ten by Ten - Bluebrain from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

Philosophical inquiry

What is an animated music video?

Is it just when a band commissions an animator to do a video?

I watch a lot of animation, and a lot of wonderful films I've seen beg the question: Am I an animated music video, or an animated short, or both?

Lots of animated shorts have no dialogue but just music. Clearly that doesn't mean anything with just music and no dialogue is an animated music video.

Why does it matter? Because I ponder just what I should and shouldn't post here. My inclination is to stick mainly to things that are obviously animated music videos in the conventional sense, while throwing in some things that straddle the line.

For example, Robert Valley's Massive Swerve feels like an animated short, but it's set to a pre-existing piece of 'pop' music, just not commissioned, and it works great as an animated music video IMO.

Then there's the pioneers of animated music videos, Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren and Noburo Ofuji.

I may be doing special feature posts in the future to highlight videos that straddle the line.