Each week here on the VH1 Blog, ourVH1 Top 20 Video Countdown host Jim Shearer (@jimshearer on Twitter) will be sharing his Shearer’s Spotlight with us. Be sure to tune into the Top 20 Countdown on Saturday morning when it airs on VH1 at 9 a.m. ET/PT.
Jim Shearer
Halloween is tonight, but if you’re not an adolescent kid daydreaming of packing your pillowcase full of Snickers bars, you’ll probably be out and about looking to celebrate. While you’re stepping into your costume, click on these music videos that will surely entertain the ghoulish music fan within you:
10) Peaches, “Trick Or Treat”
If you’re familiar with Peaches, then you know this trick-or-treating party is for adults only.
9) Lady Gaga, “Telephone”
It’s always Halloween in Gaga’s world; soda cans in her hair only confirms it!
8) Michael Jackson, “Thriller”
I guess I had to include this one, huh?
Ever heard of Cage the Elephant? They’re a young rock band from Kentucky whose second album Thank You Happy Birthday was critically acclaimed but popularly ignored earlier this year. There’s no home for the band on the radio, and yet there the band was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno yesterday.
This isn’t a story of “indie band makes good,” though—at least, not exactly. See, Cage the Elephant is signed to Jive, which may be why the American indie-rock world remains inexplicably uninterested in what otherwise fits the bill perfectly: nineties-inspired, thoughtful alt-rock. Sardonic pop critic Chris Weingarten recently started a Twitter list of “major label bands no one listens to” that included the band, along with their tourmates Manchester Orchestra.
We’re not sure how much the Leno billing did for Cage the Elephant—the band’s (mostly young) fans aren’t necessarily the Tonight Show‘s audience, nor vice versa—but we’d like to hope otherwise. As weird as it still feels to be pulling for a young band on a major label, we know that there are few things a major label can do for a young guitar-rock band these days. One is to write the check for an eye-catching music video (see Manchester Orchestra‘s VMA-nominated “Simple Math”); another is to shoot for exposure via, say, a prime late-night booking. (Another is to get a good tour opening slot, but Foo Fighters are pretty picky about whom they’ll bring on tour, so we suspect that booking had little to do with the label.) We’re crossing our fingers that the Tonight Show audience liked their performance as much as we did.
