No More Stars

In the last few years, an ever-growing number of bands and artists choose to remain anonymous in their music videos. This disappearance of the image of the artist/band in the music video leaves a greater degree of freedom for the directors; even more, it stimulates the collaborations between the musicians and the video directors. Fatboy Slim, for instance, has displayed a talent for choosing promising young directors, like Traktor, who will invariably become influential. Anonymity has turned out to be the Daft Punk trademark. In their early videos, the French dance act decided not to appear. In later videos they wore specially designed robot-like masks and gloves. In the end, they created a manga-style animation, together with veteran designer Matsumoto Leiji. Each video accompanying a new release from their current album, is an episode of a manga story. The episodes will eventually be edited into a long feature. The emergence of the anonymous band, together with the tendency towards animated music videos, culminated in the worldwide success of the First Ever Animated Band: Gorillaz. In order to provide them with on-screen ‘existence’, the animated members of the band were all given a specific background and character. One could even argue that Gorillaz are not anonymous anymore: they do exist in the animational reality. Credits: Artist, song, director (supplier) Fatboy Slim: Star 69, dir: Mattias Hoene (Partizan), Weapon of Choice, dir: Spike Jonze (Satellite), Praise You, dir: Spike Jonze & Roman Coppola (Satellite), Ya Mama, dir: Traktor (Partizan), Sunset (Bird of Pray), dir: Blue Source (Sony Music), Right Here, Right Now, dir:Garth Jennings (Sony Music); Markus Nikolai (Norman Cook Remix): Bushes, dir: Matt Kirkby (Harry Nash) Daft Punk: Digital Love, dir: Leiji Matsumoto (Labels/Virgin), Aerodynamic, dir: Leiji Matsumoto (Labels/Virgin), One More Time, dir: Leiji Matsumoto (Labels/Virgin), Stronger, Faster, Better, Harder, dir: Leiji Matsumoto (Labels/Virgin); Gorillaz: Tomorrow Comes Today, dir: Pete Candeland & Jamie Hawlett (EMI/Parlophone), 19-2000, dir: Pete Candeland & Jamie Hawlett (EMI/Parlophone), Clint Eastwood, dir: Pete Candeland & Jamie Hawlett (EMI/Parlophone), Rock da House, dir: Pete Candeland & Jamie Hawlett (EMI/Parlophone). The Avalanches: Since I Left You, dir: Blue Source (Blue Source), Frontier Psychiatrist, dir: Kuntz & Maguire (Propaganda)