Talky Bookends: Difference between revisions

* [[Michael Jackson]]'s "Thriller", which is about fourteen minutes long, was the [[Trope Codifier]]; it's about five minutes before we get to the song. From that point onward, many of his bigger videos had these, to the point that they could run upwards of ten minutes (he preferred they be called short films). After their initial airings they were usually trimmed to just the song portion.

** "Bad": The setup establishes that Michael's character is an inner-city youth who was able to attend a private school, and when he returns to his old neighborhood, his former gangmates want him to prove he's still tough. When he cannot bring himself to rob an old man in the subway, the resultant challenge from the leader leads into the song; the full-length version ends with the leader accepting that he's still tough, but in a way that does not require violence to prove it. Keep in mind that this video is ''18 minutes long'' and the song takes up a good five on its own.

** ''[[Moonwalker]]'''s segments for "Speed Demon" and "Smooth Criminal" -- Michael is pursued on a movie set in the former, and the latter sandwiches the song in an elaborate fantasy story about him, his child friends, and Joe Pesci's character Frankie Lideo, who wants to profit from selling drugs to children. Michael saves the day by turning into a sportscar, mecha and spaceship. The middle ten minutes is the music video proper; set in an old dance hall, it has [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|nothing to do with the plot whatsoever.]]

** "Black or White": Macaulay Culkin's playing his music too loud, and when dad George Wendt objects, he gets blasted out of the house in retaliation. The infamous closing segment is an extended, music-less dance piece for Michael that features a lot of crotch-grabbing and property-smashing.

* [[The Decemberists]]' "Oh Valencia!" does this to start and end the video's tragic plot.

* Architecture In Helsinki's "Heart It Races" starts with a voiceover about a strange tribe's weird rites, which apparently involve dancing in neon costumes.

** Also "Jesus He Knows Me," which opens with [[Phil Collins]] as an unscrupulous televangelist asking viewers to contribute eighteen million dollars to the Lord.

** And Phil Collins' song "Don't Lose My Number" has a very surreal meta video that involves him talking to directors about their ideas for the song's music video (each of which parodies another music video or movie). The video doesn't just have an opening and closing, it continually cuts away to the dialogue throughout the song. If you've ever wanted to see Phil Collins fending off the post-apocalyptic goons from ''[[Mad Max]]'' or battling a samurai warrior in ancient Japan, this is the video for you.

* Roxette's "Anyone" has bookends shot in black and white showing an ambulance crew taking care of an unsuccessful suicide victim (singer Marie Fredriksson). The rest of the video is shot in colour, showing the lead-up to the suicide attempt.

* Blind Melon's "No Rain" beings with a short tap routine, followed by hysterical audience laughter. It sets up the story for the rest of the video.

* French singer Myléne Farmer is very prone to these, some of her music videos are more than twice the length of the song.

* [[Fall Out Boy]]'s video for "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me" has this and some [[Mid Vid Skit]]-ness.

* Nickel Creek's video for "Smoothie Song," an instrumental piece, is of the band playing the song at an instrument shop. The ending shows the band returning the instruments after finishing the song.

** And the sequel, her video to "Telephone" is less than half singing, with enough [[Buffy-Speak|talkiness]] to fill a three and a half minute song into a nine minute video.

** "Marry The Night" has 8 minutes of pre music video discussion before the song starts...

** I don't want to make it - I just want to...

* Non-Music Video example: In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARPmOwpyzLQ this top 10 online comics video] the talky bookends are well, literally talking about the structure of the video and online comics.

 

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