Here's another one from How to Destroy Angels.
Now, before you click the video and just "listen", you need to WATCH this video.
I admit, I haven't watched a video in a LONG LONG time because they just haven't been able to hold my attention on any level. Typically I love the music and could give two shits about the video. This one...this one is different. You all know (or you should at this point) that I study violence and this is an amazing example of how we detest violence but are so madly in love with it. I read through the initial comments of people and they are calling this video "artistic", "beautiful", "moving"...but not violent. It's fascinating... utterly fascinating to me. I can't help but think of Denis Duclos' work, Werewolf Complex: America's Fascination with Violence. I'm not saying Duclos is 100% right as he certainly carries a chip on his shoulder about Americans but his work did get me thinking about how love/hate relationship with violence. The relationship is extremely complicated but it can't be ignored when we look at violence particularly as it relates to media.
That being said - this video carries with it so many elements of violence through its after images yet isn't talked about as "violence". Is it the intrigue of the story? Is it because the after images, while brutal, are shot in such a way that it transcends into "art"? Can violence be art? Is it because we know damn well that Trent really isn't dead on the floor so we don't consider the violence but rather listen to the song for the message? The most active violence that we, as an audience witness, is the fire - and some would argue it's validity and ability to be violent is nullified because fire is just an unthinking instrument of destruction and therefore it can't be violent.
Wow... thanks Trent... my mind is totally ablaze with hypothesis and questions.
But for you good reader, watch the video. Great music. Amazing video. And if you have a chance, let me know why YOU enjoyed or didn't enjoy it. Artistic? Violent? Shock value? Who cares?
