I started this article with the idea of putting the year in perspective based on the music videos we’ve watched. This year we’ve watched nearly 2,500 videos. This is a lot to go through when looking for trends and similarities: We found plenty of both. It seems that the producers and artists who created music videos this year are as affected by the world they live in—just as much as anyone. Except these people are artists and visualize their thoughts and words.
There are a few very obvious stories this year. The big one (see section on The Big Story) is the advent of the AI (artificial intelligence) music video. Controversy surrounds these tools at every turn. As much as tried to avoid this controversy it was nearly impossible (see the section on censorship). Sometime we would see a video that would be considered “deepfakes” and move past them. Other times we would find videos where AI did the music and voices. Early on we decided not to include music videos where a human did not write and record the music.
There’s no question the big story this year is how AI changed everything. There are plenty of examples — by the thousands. It is a good guess that half of videos we saw were AI music videos.
When we decided to add the AI video to our catalog we needed to understand how to evaluate one of these videos. Starting with our current rating system, we began asking questions. So much misunderstanding could be swept away if people started just talking those that make these videos to see what is involved. So, that’s what we did.
I mention this because of the hell that has been raised by people who don’t understand AI and how the AI music video is made. This lack of understanding is what has led to all the fear we see every day. Granted, the blame for this misunderstanding rests squarely on the shoulders of those who created this type of software. Most companies did a mediocre job at explaining what they created and how it all fits into a larger picture. This explanation was left to the artists and video producers to show the world what can be accomplished with these world-changing applications.
Once I started to ask questions about how the AI music video was created things came into focus. This understanding began in earnest when I found this animation by Patrick Hanser to his song “Cores” by his group Bacará. Via Instagram I connected with him and he agreed to an interview. This interview became a podcast. From this interview I was able to understand how TikiKiti could adjust our rating system and accommodate the AI music video. This was back in June.
However, more happened that many industry-types didn’t expect. The music video is not just a new and vibrant art form: it has also become a shared experience. It is this concept of a shared experience that made the original MTV so successful. Friends were talking to friends about seeing the latest Peter Gabriel video to his song “Sledgehammer.” (This video won several awards.) More importantly, it helped sell music and the record labels were thrilled as they counted the cash that poured in.
It’s this last part that isn’t currently happening — sort of. There no record labels with wheel barrows full of money going to the bank. This is why we are told by the industry specialists such as Damian Keyes to forget the music video—there’s no money in it for the big guys anymore.
This is not to say there’s no money for the individual artist making their own videos. Visit YouTube and see all the many musicians with tens of thousands of subscribers making music videos that are being seen thousands, if not millions of times. Now the artists and producers get paid directly from YouTube based on their audience.
An example of this is Kelly Pardekooper, who for years has been make his unique brand of country and rock music. Unlike many musicians, he has a publicist who has helped him sell his music as part of TV show soundtracks. This helped him get away from touring. But he needed something more, and a record label contract just didn’t seem like a realizable goal. This was when he tried his hand at making his own AI videos to some of his new music. He just released a new EP with three songs, appropriately titled, 3 Slices. Each song is around three minutes long. He made some simple, black and white AI videos to each. Instead of the usual views of 100-200 for his past videos, these new AI videos have been viewed more than 22,000 times each. All this in the space of one month.
It is here with a YouTube channel that an artist and their music videos become a shared experience. Social media has now taken over what was the realm of commercial television. Posting you video on YouTube and sharing to other platforms, helping to make some video go “viral” is the new shared experience. And it has become a real numbers game. “How many views did you get,” is what you are asked when someone wants to boast or decide how much you are worth. “How many likes did you get,” is what helps to determine the popularity of a video, and whether you win an award or get more money.
Forget the big record companies. Who needs them…. Right? Even though these same companies are watching you to determine if you have mastered social media before they consider investing in you and your art.
For the first time one person, be it a musician or other video producer, could sit at home and create an animated video to what ever music they wanted. And they did.
TikiKiti got its start because of the quantity of music videos on YouTube being produced as fan-made and unofficial music videos. Most artists love them. It means they have a fan base willing to put in the time to help promote their music.
When AI became more available everything changed.
The AI music video brought the expense and development of the music video to almost nothing. Expense is now determined by how much time the musician or producer was willing to put into learning the applications. No longer did they need to spend thousands just to hire someone with all the gear to make a video. Now, the independent artist was even more independent, and the music video has evolved to become a unique art form no longer resembling the old videos formerly seen on MTV.
That is all history now.
What also changed this year is how those who started doing the fan-made video and unofficial video are still doing them. Except now, many are working professionally as producers. The quality of the traditional music video has soared as well. This reflects the competition we are seeing for the eyes and ears of all those who are watching music videos.
What is also affected are the viewing habits of those looking through the lens of social media. Songs are getting shorter. This means videos are getting shorter. The AI music video is exciting because of the intense colors it can use, as well as the other-worldly images morphing across the phone screen.
I was thinking about this when I went to a local large chain grocery store yesterday. As I walked into the store I noticed a young woman walking in front of me. It was her very long disheveled hair that I noticed first. She had a Christmas ornament hanging near the top of her head. She walked through the double doors in the foyer, and directly to her left there was a bakery display. She grabbed a couple of pastry packages, turned around and casually walked out.
I was lost in thought and didn’t quite process what just slide by in my peripheral vision. I wasn’t the only one who saw all this. A man in front of me saw this as well. He was middle-aged, and shook his head. He walked away and decided he had to tell everyone what happened.
How has the music video reflected the story of this year. On a large scale, this is what art does: It is a reflection of the culture and society at the time it is created. The music video, and the music used in it, is a mirror held up to the world we have created.
When I experienced this incident at the grocery store I tried to put it into some context. I realized it would be easier to reflect on this event by showing videos that are better at it. Isaac Garcia was thinking of something similar when he made this video to "Polly" by Kurt Cobain. This is one of many videos we have seen this year that show how people are very concerned with the state of the world. Recently I found this video from Alex MacDonald just in time for the Christmas holiday.
It felt as if I was hit by a bus when this video popped up in our queue. This type of metal AI video has become more common. Recognizing there is a common thread throughout many of this year’s videos, I broke them down into categories. Anger and loneliness are a couple of these threads. Another is fear of the future — love, love lost and oh the pain. Also, darkness and despair, sadness, depression, injustice, inequality, confusion, violence, murder, drug abuse and recovery. Plus, unbounded joy, humor, friendship, travel, art for art’s sake, dancing and more dancing, and even more dancing, — and skateboarding. These are all typical story lines in the videos we have seen this year.
The world is churning. Is there anyone out there watching?
It late in October I met Louis Servideo-Morales. At the time we both belonged a photography group on Facebook called Inspired by Edward Hopper. Louis creates portraits using AI software. What makes a Hopper portrait stand out is the loneliness and melancholy. Louis’s portraits reflect this beautifully.
What happened in this group reflects our cultural fears, and caused me and Louis to no longer be associated with this group. Around 1,500 members from the group, comprised of nearly 250,000 members, would complain to the administrator about the inclusion of AI art. The administrator was overwhelmed and he decided he didn’t have the time to manage this type of complaint. So AI was banned from the group. (If this sounds familiar it’s because we see it in the news nearly every day.)
Why? The AI programs kept getting better and artists kept pushing the limits.
Dramatic changes in any art community usually depend on a few factors, such as the advent of the sophisticated AI software. Most of these producers and artists began working to produce their own video at this time. They were spurred on by musical icons like Peter Gabriel. He helped to usher in this renaissance of the music video form with his new album I/O. By initiating a contest in April he asked fans to create AI animations to the songs from his album. In partnership with Stability AI this competition was called DiffuseTogether. The response was phenomenal. This contest brought AI animation into a whole new realm. It now plays a dominate role in the development of art currently found in the music video. Here are some examples of those that took up the challenge to produce video for his album.
This year had a multitude of musicians and video producers who would lead the way through the maze of new AI applications and the many ways social media helps them monetize their art. In this way, they become truly independent. Being independent means not relying on the monolithic record deals that end up determining your future.
The influencer I am referring to here is not the fashion addicted Instagram character showing you how tight their new jeans fit. Here the term “influencer” is more specific to the independent musician and video artist who now are able to control their life and career in ways previous generations would never think to even dream of.
Examples are everywhere, especially on YouTube.
Rex Pearson from the UK is one of the many talented guitarists who has made a life with his guitar on YouTube. With nearly 50K subscribers and 300 video (YouTube does like content—the more the better), in the last dozen years he has developed his style and his audience. Starting with guitar lessons (even an underwater lesson), he has evolved to showing off his incredible skills, as well as the more formal music video with sets, vocalists, and other musicians. His music can be streamed on all the major platforms and his videos are a testament to his style and attention to detail. Plus, we all love watching him shred his guitar while play Joe Satriani or AC/DC.
Oli Parker is another UK musician that has successfully transformed his passion of the trumpet into a way of life on YouTube. We found Oli when his video for “Havana” showed up in our video queue one day six months ago and we have been following him ever since. Using his wonderful sense of humor, he’s not afraid to break down his work into lessons and even the documentary (check out his 46 minute breakdown of the making of Havana.)
PaulG and the Invisible Twangonauts (that would be Paul Gibson) invented a complete band to perform his guitar-heavy rock and roll. Carrying on in the footsteps of Link Wray and Reverend Horton Heat, PaulG rocks his way from one AI video to another. In the process he created a unique, and fun, brand.
ViDeZo, from Russia, did an amazing video for the Foo Fighters song “Everylong,” turning it into a story of how music can pull you through hard times. It even includes what seems to a performance by football (soccer to all us Americans) star. The entire music video is superbly produced with guitar playing central to the story.
Kevin Bodin Films holds a special place in our hearts. We first met Kevin early in our history. Four years ago and 2.4 million views later, his video to Saez’s song “Les Cours Des Lycées” received one of our first Barclay Awards. Since then he has produced 45 unofficial music videos and has 17K subscribers to his YouTube channel.
His video to “Moaning Lisa Smile” by Wolf Alice is, in our humble opinion, the best rock music video ever made by anyone. His new video to “Première fois” by Rouquine is one of our highest rated videos from 2023. What you won’t see on his YouTube channel is the multitude of other videos he has produced for scores of musicians. Kevin Bodin is a unique talent who has taken the history of French filmmaking and evolved it using modern tools and techniques.
blnk studio comes to us from Poland. Marek Mardosewicz and his musical partner Łukasz Markiewicz are both from Szczecin, Poland. We interviewed them back in early November because they were always showing up in our video queue with new and amazing AI music videos. They are on a short list of AI producers we follow closely when we want to understand how AI software is being developed. It is not as if they just play around with the applications, they actually are experimenting with new ways to create some different and beautiful. Early on they determined how important it is to include original music. This is where Łukasz excels. He writes the music to all of Marek’s incredible animations.
From Hungary comes Monyo Project. Another duo of brilliant songwriting and AI animators on the forefront of blending their musical and visual styles. Monyo is one reason we see the electric guitar on the rise. His skill is on the same level as anyone we have seen this year. They call themselves a Cold Rock band that is from Transylvania and founded in 1999. With nearly 500 videos on their YouTube channel you can watch their history unfold right in front of your eyes.
From Portland, Oregon comes Mike Rhine. When we found his videos in our queue we had to stop and take a second look. Here is one man producing some of the best music videos we have seen all by himself. He usually is performing the fan-made videos himself—and doing with so much passion and gusto you would think he was the actual performer. One of his stand out videos is to “If I Came Back Home” by Grabbitz. Here you see his attention to detail and how he uses everything in his surroundings to make his brilliant videos.
It seems that Dice The Nicest is just getting started. With his career and his music videos. His music hits us in a very personal way. As I remarked after seeing one of his recent videos, it just made me feel good. His AI animations are simple but memorable. We always look forward to his new videos.
Kelly Pardekooper is a solo artist we found when his AI videos showed up in our queue. With a unique sound as well as a stripped down style with his AI video he has come into our conscientious, and will likely be staying for some time. You can read about him in an article on our website, as well as watching our podcast with him.
Optimoos has been such an influence, not just to the AI community but to us as well. He produced the video that became the icon to our 2023 TikiKiti International Film Festival. We have watched him explore the boundaries of his AI animations and take them to levels not seen elsewhere. One of the most profound examples is his complete set of animations from the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon competition. He took this classic music and turned it into a film that, for many, will now be always associated with the music when they hear the opening heart beat.
Today, Optimoos is exploring using animation to develop a serial animation and also creating a series of tutorials for those who want to develop their own AI animations. There is no stopping him on his quest to build something unique and brilliant. We think he is already there.
When thinking of those with the most influence this year we need to end with G.L.O.A.T. Entertainment and Michael Heathen. During the course of researching their label and the artists they work with, we found a group poised to launch their company and the artists that work with them into the stratosphere of success. Going back through their videos we can see a rapid progress from the usual music video to a company focused on growing their brand. They have a team of talented artists doing everything from AI to making the music. Finding them this year was one of the highlights for TikiKiti.
It’s impossible to list all of the artists we found this year that have helped us bring the official, unofficial, and fan-made music video to the art form it is today. For most that look out at the world at large, they see a complete mess. Turmoil is everywhere. The one place we have found that brings us a ray of hope for the next generation is from those that are producing these music videos. They are focused on their art and determined to make a difference in their world — and ours.
* Wired Magazine, Dec. 1, 2023, Swapna Krishna, “How Dr. Clara Nellist Collides Art and Science.” “I think art is what makes us human,” says Dr. Clara Nellist, a particle physicist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. “Pure scientific curiosity … I compare it to art.”
