Because I Know When That Hotline Bling....

Source: W Magazine, Art Issue

Drake dropped his new Hotline Bling video today. Watch it below:



 Just kidding! But the similarities were too uncanny. Especially around 3:48 onwards.  There's the use of the stairs, the dancehall choreography, the staging, more.  The reason is likely because Director X directs a lot of videos, and which creative doesn't have favorites to fall back on?

So, while everyone else is analyzing the wonderful world of the video, the songs Drake has sampled, and how many people have remade Hotline Bling, I  just wanted to wax nostalgic on the days of the hyped music video director. Remember when people watched music videos on TV and TRL was a thing and there was Hype Williams and David LaChapelle and sometimes you let an animated hoodrat chic named Cita tell you what was coming up next?  Music video directors were almost as recognizable as the dancers and artists featured in the videos. The Viacom network reigned supreme with shows featuring not only the top music videos, most expensive video specials, "adult" videos, and Pop Up Video which share unimportant facts about the creation of the videos. Even the Disney Channel played music videos for non-Disney artists as part of their awkward commercial breaks. And when you didn't have cable, you played with the antenna to get Ralph McDaniels Video Music Box.

Music videos still play a prominent place in the music industry and pop culture today. But it's not the same. And that's probably a good thing. The excessiveness was just one more pop culture addition to esteem issues.  But I have to give thanks to Director X for this opportunity to remember the great days when a video debut was an event, and the dances were something you wanted to learn...cha cha or not.


Update 10/23: Read choreographer Tanisha Scott discuss the making of the Hotline Bling video with Fader.

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