EXCLUSIVE: Music Video Pioneer Michel Gondry on Lady Gaga: 'I'm Not Interested'
Michel Gondry has made some of the most indelible music videos of all time for some of the biggest acts of the last two decades, including Radiohead, Björk, Foo Fighters, The White Stripes, Beck and even Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones. So when Movieline caught up with him today to discuss his forthcoming documentary Thorn in the Heart, it seemed a great opportunity to feel him out on the new vanguard of the form: Lady Gaga, whose epic "Telephone" video has swept popular culture with a fury, frenzy and inspiration not seen since the glory days of which Gondry himself was a part. His response -- which swept through genre monoliths from Michael Jackson to Madonna to Marilyn Manson -- was unexpected to say the least.
"I'm not interested," he said. "To me it's like a form of Marilyn Manson. It's hard for me to talk about it; I've seen a couple of videos of hers, and not for very long. I stop watching them each time because I don't think there's melodies. I'm sorry to be negative. Like I'm not a big fan of Madonna. I respect her very much, but unfortunately the videos didn't help the music in the long run. Well, I guess it helped it to survive to the point where the video was irrelevant. So music has to find its own way, which is good for the music. It becomes smaller and more alive and it's not as crazy, except for some R&B. To me, it's just talking about the surface. I compare it to Marilyn Manson. The music to me is very expected. I don't think there's anything in the tone or the melody that makes me say, 'Oh, there's something going on.'
"And I like commercial music," Gondry continued. "Michael Jackson will always be my favorite pop musician; he was for years and years until his death, which was horrible to me. So I like pop culture. But to me, even if it's popular, there is a quality in the music you have to be able to appreciate. And I don't see it. Her melodies are very conventional. I remember when my friend and I would argue about Killing Joke. I remember him saying, 'It's so great!' But I said, 'It's so conventional! How can you find anything original? It's just surface!' I don't know, maybe the comparison is ridiculous. But the melody was very, very flat. That's probably why they are famous. But maybe it's considered high art just because of the way she dresses?"
That raised the question of the decline of the music video overall, the foundational art form that MTV has essential banished from network.
"But you know, in 1999 or 2000, MTV and VH1 did the 100 Best Videos of All Time -- two different selections -- and I had zero videos in either of them," Gondry said. "So when people tell me I'm the 'MTV Generation,' I just say, 'No.' I never won any MTV [Video Music Awards]. Oh, except for one for a video I did for Massive Attack, actually, and I lost it. My producer was furious. He wanted to put it in his office. But I loved videos. I remember watching videos very late at night -- Michael Jackson videos. The first rap videos were amazing: Run-DMC, Tone Loc, all of that was just amazing. The Beastie Boys videos were always great. But then it became very stereotyped. There was this confusion. Also: The MTV Video Awards were never about the video, but about the song. Most of the time it was just to glorify people for the wrong reason."
Got it -- and there's more where that came from. Look for it here at Movieline as Thorn in the Heart's April 2 release date approaches.
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Comments
Have to agree with him about Gaga. She's a lot of fun to look at it with the cutting edge fashion and stuff, but her music? Blech..so uninteresting.
I totally agree. I think there is nothing revolutionary about her music, which is okay. I thought the same about Madonna. It can still be somewhat entertaining (though I would have thought Gaga would have turned up her nose at so much blatant product placement in this one), I just wish people wouldn't confuse musical talent with this kind of show.
Just out of curiosity, was it the Health Department that strung up that CRIME SCENE tape across her bits-N-pieces?
Boy do I want those nine minutes back. He's right--music is excruciating lately, written for 12-year-olds and suburban clubs. And was that a prison or some kind of hooker's resort?
Lesbian hooker's resort prison! You missed the subtle message in there. I swear, with art like this, we need subtitles!
I might respect her more if she didn't look like Paul Stanley in a blonde wig.
WOW! It is amazing that someone managed to include every disturbing image I have ever seen on the internet into one 10 minute clip!
The video is terrible, the song is worse.. I had to shut off when the P. Wagon showed up from Kill Bill, that just made me sad. Next..
You know if she would put on some weight, she probably wouldn't feel the need to bind herself up with so much extraneous shit.
This is boring.
Finally someone with a brain has the balls to say what is on their mind. This chick has copied everyone from Roisin Murphy to David Bowie and her "Haus" does nothing but copy other designers creations.
She also represents everything that is wrong with the music business.
Marketing over talent; works only with the stupid.
I was done with Gaga before she started. I was done when Love Game came out as a single around Memorial Day '09. She's doing pretty much the same crap that Eminem did back in '99 and Manson did back in '97. I just wish that Gregg Alexander was back to take the piss out of her like he did on that New Radicals record with the flaky pop stars. This woman's image is all the has and I think she's lying about the songwriting as much as Beyonce is, which is why she works with Beyonce so often. So she can play a piano and make her voice tight and cute like she did on that Kid Cudi 'Poke-Her-Face' sample but I'm not impressed and I really don't care anymore.
People who think she's versatile need to go through Robert Palmer's body of work because they have no idea what the word "versatile" means.
If I could kiss this man, I would. Lady Gaga gets on my last damn nerves and that is why I ignore her. If I wanna see crazy and high art fashion, the, eh, I just watch the runway shows or look at runway fashion like i always do.
I have been nearly crucified by rabid Gaga fans for expressing the exact same opinion. I'm beyond relief that someone as great as Gondry (I deeply admire his work) also shares the same opinion. In addition, I feel that at first Gaga was cutting edge with fashion, but now I feel she'll glue anything together just for attention.
Gondry doesn't like Killing Joke?? Weird.
First half of telephone video is great. Very Corman, deep b-movie oddness. Love the cigarette glasses. Anyone who doesn't get Gaga probably doesn't get Warhol either.
Lady Gaga is a "collage artist". All she does is cut and paste from lesser known people AND her "music" is boring. She just remixes hooks that have already been done before. Not interesting at all.
For a fantastic mix of melodic music and surrealism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2WDbAFvt6A
This is imo what Lady Gaga fails at doing. There's nothing that feels fresh about her except her wardrobe, not her personality and certainly not her music. She's just taking the freaky Manson/Madonna thing and failing at doing anything new or meaningful with it.
recycled madonna
Gaga is awesome. The haters seemed just as obsessed by her as the fans. 'Nuff Said. 🙂
That is a great way of describing her: Desperate, with a glue gun.
I think you people need to look at the charts. This little girl is skyrocketting out of this world. jealousy and hate will consume you. what obstackles have any of you overcome to attain your dreams?
Whyyy do people like her?
It's utter garbage.
Finally someone realizes Gaga is all fluff (that fluff being her weird outfits and Madonna rehashes) and no actual substance at all.
She needs to go back to being a songwriter and call it a day with her wack ass music and gimmicky image.
*Her* dream. Right. That dream of hers markets itself virally and inhabits the cultural space. Good for her dreams; bad for my dreams.
Telephone isn't even a good song! Seriously, Gaga needs to make more songs like her first single, "Just Dance" because that was actually kind of good and made me want to dance. Telephone is kind of headache inducing.
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