By Brittany Rankin
Elm Staff Writer
Ever since music videos became a staple for musicians and bands to expand their creativity and artistic talent, many artists have jumped on the bandwagon and made music videos for the sole purpose of having them as a marketing tool for people to go out to buy their music.
However, there are few artists today who take the music video a step further. One such band is 30 Seconds to Mars.
The alternative rock band has released three studio albums, their self-titled album was released in 2002. In 2005 their second album, A Beautiful Lie, was released.
Some of their greatest hits came from this album including “The Kill,” “A Beautiful Lie,” and “From Yesterday.” However, the music videos for each of these hit songs could easily have had more of an impact than the songs themselves.
In 2006, 30 Seconds to Mars released the music video for “The Kill,” one of their first music videos that had a creative storyline. Directed by Bartholomew Cubbins, the video draws references from “The Shining” with subtle elements such as the shot of a manuscript as well as larger elements such as the presence of “twins” in the video. The video begins with the (then four) members of the band checking into a hotel and going their separate ways.
Each of them encounters something strange and ends up coming face to face with a 1920s copy of themselves. The video is memorable for its mysterious quality of what to expect when the band arrives at the hotel and what they will encounter as well as the effects used and editing style.
Later the same year 30 Seconds to Mars released another video for their song “From Yesterday.” It was the first music video made by an American band to be filmed in the People’s Republic of China.
Lengths for the video vary from just over four minutes to being 13:30 minutes long with the official broadcast version being around seven and a half minutes long. The full-length video tells the story of the (still) four members of the band about to go onstage when instead they are transported to China for the young Emperor’s birthday celebration. In the style of “The Kill” music video all four members find something specific that each one follows. The video is told like a story and is considered to be a mini movie because of the creative aspect and plot that holds the video together. Like many music videos it is not intended to make the most sense but does evoke a mysterious quality that is present in the band’s videos.
In 2008, the music video for “A Beautiful Lie” was released. The video had a very different quality to the band’s other music videos in that it was filmed entirely on location in Greenland and has a very documentary-like quality about it. The band members are not singled out in the video but are together playing their instruments on an island of ice. The stylistic elements of editing style and creative cinematography are what make this video particularly memorable as well as the eye-opening landscape and the message that is said at the end of the video.
30 Seconds to Mars’ most recent album, “This Is War” was released in 2009 and was the band’s first concept album, creating hits such as “Kings and Queens”, “This Is War”, and “Hurricane”. The band’s most recent music video for “Hurricane” was released in late 2010. This was the video that sparked debate and is still considered to be one of the most controversial videos to be released last year. In the same fashion of “The Kill” and “From Yesterday”, the video takes on an epic mini movie quality just going over thirteen minutes in length. The video is very dark and incorporates scenes of heavy bondage, violence, and (gasp!) sex.
After the final editing of the video many sites and channels refused to air the video because of its graphic content and a “censored” version was released. Even with bits and pieces of the video edited and censored though it was still considered a difficult video for many channels to air. The video still incorporates the style of 30 Seconds to Mars’ previous videos and creates an art of creativity that goes over most heads but is visually pleasing to watch.
It is clear that 30 Seconds to Mars takes their music videos very seriously and does not just come up with a mediocre video but actually takes into account certain elements of the word “artist.” Through that, their music videos could possibly be more memorable than the songs themselves.