Everyone’s a critic. It’s a common expression that everyone agrees with. But say that everyone’s an artist and you’ll have people going ‘Oh, but I’m not creative.’ There’s the rub, methinks. We’re critics because deep inside, we’re artists. We bash songs, films, and other artistic work because in our heads, we already have ways to do them differently. If everyone interpreted a song in the same way, wouldn’t that be boring? It wouldn’t be art now, would it?
Mad World by Tears for Fears
Director: Clive Richardson (director of eight Depeche Mode music videos)
Rating: 3/5
In this music video rendition of the 1982 UK hit single, a despondent-looking Curt Smith sits staring out a window, while outside, Roland Orzabal performs a bizarre dance routine that is undeniably from and of the 80s. Smith and Orzabal represent the contrasting reactions the lyrics have to what they say is a mad world: laughter and sadness.
Smith is looking out into the world like a prisoner through the window, not minding Orzabal dancing freely outside. He never seems to have the courage to step out and verify his perceptions. He seems content to pass judgment on the rest of the world without firsthand experience. Is it typical teenage pride, that rebellious, independent streak that gives us all the nerve to say ‘shut it’ to everyone who refuses to see things our way?
Mad World by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews
Director: Michael Gondry (of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; pioneer of the ‘bullet time’ effect)
Rating: 4/5
The music video shows Jules and Andrews on a rooftop, looking down at school kids. As he stands in what seems like a fit of nostalgia, the children appear almost oblivious to the shapes and figures that they form. You could say that the perspective from Jules’ point of view may be incidental, or you could be more inventive and say that Jules is only imagining the children form these figures as experiences and feelings from his childhood.
In both versions, there’s a certain aloofness to the everyday world. In Richardson’s music video, there’s that fear (or arrogance) that prevents one from getting involved in what lies outside the fence. In Gondry’s version, there’s a ‘been there, done that’ sentiment, with Gary Jules refusing to see anything more in the characteristics of children, beyond what he remembers from his own past.
