We could ask:
Where is the band?
Who is the main character?
Why is the screen split in half?
Clearly this is a departure from the traditional conventions of a music video. Take away and interpret a meaning of your own. I have always been under the impression that is what art is all about. However, that is another debate for a different day. Perhaps this is more your style... http://vimeo.com/10818338
No, but being completely and wholly derivative should be. I mean, this approach is over 30 years old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirH8PADDgQ And if you're not going to add to it, you're subtracting to it. We could ask all those things, but the real question is "so what?" "wow, man, blooms like like mushroom clouds" is not new: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h_v6uf0Ao You might as well start it with a piece of Academy leader and finish it up with "fin" it's so Film School 101. "clearly this is a departure from the traditional conventions of a music video" SAY WHAT? "I'm going to raid a bunch of stock footage out of Getty and IStockphoto and call it a music video" is something all my film school friends did. My whole point is that this video, "hands down" is painfully derivative and absolutely, positively, nothing new under the sun. Better has been done, on similar themes, by amateurs: http://vimeo.com/26145192 ...and, for that matter, professionals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2zKARkpDW4&ob=av2e (complete with "leader") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7K72X4eo_s&ob=av2e "Art", according to Frank Zappa, is about "making something from nothing and then selling it." This video? I'm not buying.
It's certainly not a new technique, and I do think you're being hyperbolic with that title, but it's beautiful nonetheless. And it's a good song. Thanks for sharing.
ashes to ashes.