Are you ready to rock.... ugh — I actually wrote this.
And it is. Except now that number is closer to 70,000 videos. How did we rate so many? Or, more importantly; Why? The how is because we have a unique search engine that scours YouTube for all the Fan-made and unofficial music videos there. We divide them up into categories and each day a few of them get added to a queue for our in-house panel of judges to rate.
There was a time when we had between 200-400 videos every day to wade through. Our search engine got much better and that number dropped. Plus, there was the pandemic lockdown. That changed everything. We still see around 60 videos a day and add about 15 for the judges to see. After a week of this we break it down to our Top-10 videos for the week. So, now you know.
One thing that happened with watching all these videos for the last five years of so, is we have been able to notice trends. Trends in style; in music; in camera use and editing. Now that AI has become so accessible we have noticed trends there as well. But trends in AI videos has a lot to do with how the software has been advancing. Sometimes it seems this advance is happening at breakneck speed. But quality of the completed video seems to be more obvious.
Recently, I found FIT, a website that listed the top videos for 2023. Noticing that the most recent videos in their article were done back in February of 2023, it seems the article as a bit premature. Changes in the software occur so frequently it has been a challenge to create a list of the years best videos. I know this because we are doing it on our YouTube channel. At least we have the qualifier “…so far.”
However, the trends we notice are much more involved than we find in a few videos. Gone are the “infinite loop” video from last Spring. We are not lamenting this passing. As more producers learn their tools it has become easier to determine how much work goes into each video. Especially with the editing. Editing used to be very straightforward. Now it is determined by the amount of prompts used and what is done with the AI generated images afterward. As Patrick Hanser of Bacaré said in our interview with him, “prompting has become an art form.”
Other trends we’ve noticed is the music itself. AI allowed the original musician to more easily developed their own videos. As I said last week, the new musical artist can write and produce their own music, upload it for streaming (and maybe money), then create a music video using AI — all in the comfort of their recording studio that used to be a garage. At first, the music we heard was mostly electronic and all its variations. But this is changing again. Sure, we still hear the electronic music (it’s getting so much better by the way), but to my pleasant surprise our weekly lists have more guitar oriented rock ’n roll. If you believe rock is dead then pay attention to this weeks Top-10 list.
Starting our with the Surf Curse and their song “Freaks” all the way to the 1980s song “The Future’s So Bright” by Timbuk3. Rock is far from dead. In fact, after listening to some of these videos it’s easy to see how it may be back on top someday soon. Stay tuned here as we show videos from PaulG and the Invisible Twangonauts, of the Monyo Project. And Dope Music Video used Jimi Hendrix in two of his videos — seeing Hendrix’s used in videos is a first around here.
So now the Top-10:
Starting out the countdown is from Wenge St. Louis with"Freaks" by Surf Curse — because skateboarding is land surfing. Around here we all like skateboarding and surf videos. Some of the best action. This video is so much fun we had to ignore the insert in the middle.
From Curse Mackey here is his song "Dead Fingers Talk." Halloween is right around the corner and this week’s video are bringing it here early. Stay tuned.
The first of three videos in the Top-10 this week from Optimoos. I think we had this happen once before. Here is Grouplove and "Hello."
From blnk is "Different Kind" — The word is getting out about how to make good videos and the software is advancing by leaps and bounds — as blnk shows us in “Different Kind.” There are few image more pleasing and hypnotic than that of pulsating shapes and colors. This is stunning. We have been following their work and they never fail to impress us.
Jessi Opett produced "Figure You Out" by DJO. Wow! What a production. Working with a big crew like this takes skill and patience. Jessi Opett pulled it off. What an unexpected treat this was for the week.
Here is Cotton illand and his song "Empty Space." We’re seeing a lot video going directly to AI. It’s a good way to show the artist singing his music. It's an AI/Human hybrid video. Sometimes the AI is very subtle you have to stop and think about what you're seeing.
Here is Jeffery D Brower and his song "The Holy Ghost 2.0." Good R&B seems hard to find these days. Jeffery D Brower has stepped in and filled the void with this beautiful spiritual. Kudos to the brilliant editing work.
Monyo Project and their song "Burning In The Fire" — Along with other recent bands, the Monyo Project seems to be in the frontlines showing that rock n’ roll is definitely not dead. Here we are in the top three rundown and your are about to be rocked.
Here's another by Optimoos as we fall into Halloween. From The Hives, off their new album, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, is "Bogus Operandi." Grab a cup of coffee and wake up to this video. It'll be hard to stay still with this playing. It’s on constant rotation around here.
The #1 video this week is Timbuk 3, "The Future's So Bright." The third video is the third video by Optimoos in this week's Top-10. Holy cow! This video our selection to highlight the TikiKiti International Film Festival for 2023. It says it all. This song from Timbuk3 done in 1986 and lives on in this video. You’ll be hearing this from us a lot more for some time to come.
This does it for this week. Stay tuned for more top videos from around the Internet next week. And thanks for being here.
