# Music Videos and Silent Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 7, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874 "2007-10-07T20:01:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874/1 "2007-10-07T20:01:15Z")
In another CS thread, Walloon said (referring to favorite film homages): > [@](#): > > The Smashing Pumpkins [video](http://youtube.com/watch?v=EsZYqaSc4cU) for “Tonight, Tonight” is a marvelous tribute to the early fantasy films of Georges Méliès, particularly [Le Voyage dans la lune](http://youtube.com/watch?v=7Kpnbl3tn58) (1902), down to the look of hand coloring. It’s a terrific video, new to me, but it stirred my curiosity: What other music videos explicitly reference, allude to, or evoke silent films? Madonna’s **[Express Yourself](http://youtube.com/watch?v=YMt53HYkfY8)** may not emulate the silent movie style, but it is a direct spin-off of Fritz Lang’s _Metropolis_. The J. Geils Band’s \*\*[Freeze Frame\*\*](http://youtube.com/watch?v=ebkl7Yk_OLE) is pretty terrible as videos go, but they use (presumably public domain) silent film material, including Keaton’s _Steamboat Bill Jr._ and Lon Chaney’s _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_. So, can anyone think of others? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874/2 "2007-10-07T20:36:35Z")
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy] The J. Geils Band’s \*\*[Freeze Frame\*\*](http://youtube.com/watch?v=ebkl7Yk_OLE) is pretty terrible as videos go, but they use (presumably public domain) silent film material, including Keaton’s _Steamboat Bill Jr._ and Lon Chaney’s _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_. [/QUOTE] The Queen/Bowie video for “Under Pressure” also uses silent film clips (probably some of the same ones that J. Geils did, I didn’t look). ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874/3 "2007-10-07T21:45:45Z")
[Radio Gaga](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CjFw4HRIMI) by Queen uses actual footage from _Metropolis_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Khadro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadro)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874/4 "2007-10-07T23:56:33Z")
Your Woman, by White Town [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lVL-zZnD3VU/maxresdefault.jpg "White Town - Your Woman (Official HD Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVL-zZnD3VU) ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874/5 "2007-10-08T00:26:14Z")
Wasn’t there a video that used images from Murnau’s _Nosferatu_? Maybe Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874/6 "2007-10-08T02:54:14Z")
The original video for the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ song [Put a Lid On It](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHGnIlNtD5o) has the feel of a silent film plot. Not as much as “Tonight, Tonight” but you get the gist. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-and-silent-movies/421874/7 "2007-10-08T16:50:53Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] Wasn’t there a video that used images from Murnau’s _Nosferatu_? Maybe Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”? [/QUOTE] In the Smashing Pumpkins’ video, “Ava Adore” Billy Corgan is sporting quite the Nosferatu look. I think he did it in other videos. Madonna’s “Express Yourself” referenced “Metropolis” greatly, even using the “moral” about “between the heads and the hands are the heart”. Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Otherside” was greatly influenced by “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (even to the point that they wanted to avoid being TOO derivative of it) as well as German Expressionism, surrealism & cubism (I got this from the Wikipedia article). Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl” was a direct homage to “Caligari”. Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” used Chaney’s “Hunchback” to amusingly illustrate the line “Some boys take a beautiful girl/And hide her away from the rest of the world…”