Literal music videos

Apparently this has been a thing for a while already, but I just found out about it: literal music videos.

The recipe:

  1. Take a well known music video, the more abstract the better
  2. Write new lyrics, based on what is literally happening in the video
  3. Dub the video with the new lyrics. Bonus points if you can actually sing (but not necessary).

Some of my favorites:

Total Eclipse of the Heart (Get outta my way, I’ve got to pee / never mind I just went on the floor / now I need to find a mop)
Safety Dance
I’d do Anything for Love (My mattress is made of gypsy sluts)

Any other good ones I missed?

Look up a YouTube vlogger named Tobuscus. He’s famous for his Assassin’s Creed literal trailers, but my favorite is his take on Hitman. (Even nuns go to shoe sales. And prison.)

“Arthur Fonzarelli’s got an army of clones!”

Unfortunately, you’ve started with the masterpiece of the genre. After you’ve seen this one, all other examples will be but a pale shadow of its greatness.

true, but there are other good ones.

I like I Believe in a Thing Called Love and You Spin Me Round

Take On Me

I saw the thread title and imagined it the other way around: take the sound (the individual notes, the key of each individual chord, etc) and map them to something visual, then use that as your music video.

Yeah, like a shot of a heart being eclipsed…

This was my introduction to these and still one of the best.

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” was pretty literal to begin with. Look at how they represented, “Turn around, bright eyes.”

And yes, I thought that sort of thing was what the thread would be about, and I immediately thought of that case. That’s what I came in to say.

Well, I’ll be damned. I would have never thought that “You Spin Me Round” would have been the slightest bit entertaining as a literal music video, because I didn’t recall that the original video gave you a heck of a lot to work with, but it was a keeper! As for recommendations, “Head Over Heels” by Tears For Fears is a pretty good one.

There’s a literal video for Video Killed the Radio Star that’s pretty good, and it’s exactly not what any of you are thinking.

One Weekis pretty good too.

I almost freaked out for a minute because I was literally, this very morning trying to remember the name for these kinds of videos. Unfortunately what I was actually thinking of are the ones where they show the words as they sound. The one I had in mind was Indian and I want to say it sounded like “Benny Lava” (?) I probably saw it posted here, now that I think about it.

Are you thinking of the misheard-lyrics version of O Fortuna from Carmina Burana?

No, he’s talking about this. The original upload by Buffalax of the ‘Benny Lava’ song is no longer online, though.

A possible term to use from Japanese for that sort of thing is Soramimi.

No, but that is awesome!

So the thing I’m thinking of *is *called “Benny Lava”! Bummer that it’s not available anymore. I remember it giving me a serious case of the giggles.

That’s exactly what I thought the thread title meant before I opened the thread. Hilarious and pretty well done!

The gayest guy on Earth
Would call this over the top

My favorite is no longer on youtube but here is Hero. The lines want to engulf your entire chin and shouldn’t these cops be helping me are my favorites