Yesterday, Queens Of The Stone Age gave the music world a great example of how not to do an interactive music video, taking the cutting out of cutting edge with a dated point-and-click ‘virtual gallery’ for their new single ‘The Vampyre Of Time And Memory’.
In a nice bit of timing, a music icon who’s a number of decades senior to QOTSA has released his own awesome interactive piece that updates a song nearly half-a-century old for a modern audience.
Bob Dylan has finally gotten around to making a music video for his deathless 1965 anthem ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, and the 48-year-long wait was most definitely worth it; updating the rock classic as a modern interactive video, in which no two viewings of the video are technically the same.
Not only that, but the new clip for the old tune even stars a cast of surprisingly modern stars, including forthcoming Laneway Festival highlight, US rapper Danny Brown, comedian Drew Carey, and the antique valuing team of Pawn Stars, as Pitchfork points out.
Rather than spoil the fun up front, have a play of the ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ clip below… and pay particular attention to the lips while you click away on the arrow keys.
In case you missed it while channel surfing through the 16 parody stations, every single one – from the Price Is Right to ESPN – is lip syncing along to Dylan’s biting lyrics.
The TV flicking ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ Clip was created by igital media company Interlude, in partnership with Pulse Films and Walter Pictures, allowing “viewers to play an active role in the story of the music video” while using the song’s lyrics as a commentary on the ol’ idiot box.
“I’m using the medium of television to look back right at us,” director Vania Heymann tells Mashable, “you’re flipping yourself to death with switching channels [in real life].”
The clip also happens to coincide with the release of a new collection dedicated to the man born Robert Zimmerman, with the release of the 47-CD box set, The Complete Album Collection Volume 1, from Columbia/Legacy Recordings, which includes 35 studio albums, 6 live records, a double disc ‘Side Tracks’ featuring live and rare material, plus a hardcover book of new liner notes.
The ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ clip may come 48 years after the Dylan single’s original release, but finds itself in good company in 2013, a year that’s seen some pretty amazing interactive music videos spring up, including the video where you control how drunk a British band gets or this amazing ‘crowdsourced’ clip from a Dutch band.
