Tom: We were talking about lockdown music videos yesterday, and, uh, well, I bet this video seemed like a much better idea a few months ago.
Tom: Expensive, time-consuming lyric videos do seem to be the norm now — which kind of defeats the original purpose of them, really — but at least they’re not, I don’t know, spinning some unfortunate mythos about a virus destroying humanity. Has Alan Walker done that yet? I’ve forgotten how all his mythos works.
Tim: Well, his most recent one was from a meteor strike; before that we had a solar flare, I think? And maybe it’s just that lyric videos are taking over from regular videos entirely. Now I think about it, I’m not really sure what the purpose of music videos in general is, though if they’re there to give us something to watch and pay attention to the music, lyric videos are arguably batter than Alan’s world-ending cults.
Tom: As for the music, well, it’s generic Tiësto, isn’t it?
Tim: See, you say it’s generic Tiësto, and sure, it is, but it also comes across to me as just generic dance. I don’t know if it’s because Tiësto doesn’t have a unique sound, but to me this just sounds like a Becky Hill track. Not a bad thing – but a bit less than what I’d expect from a name as big as Tiësto.
Tom: I think it’s notable that, for both today and yesterday, we’re talking a lot more about the video than the music. Is that because we’ve picked dull tracks, or is it because there’s just less interesting stuff coming out? And I wonder how much production on new pop has been paused, and how much is continuing in home studios?
Tim: I was wondering that the other day, and to be honest I’d imagine it’s much less affected than film and TV – writing tracks can just about be done over video chat, and while it’d be hard for proper instruments to be recorded at home, vocals shouldn’t present too much of a problem, that can then be sent to be cleaned up by a producer and then placed on top of fake drums and guitars, or just your standard synth beats. If you want a good example of what can be done, I recommend Radio 1’s Stay Home Live Lounge from yesterday, all recorded at artists’ homes and sounding amazing.