Who directed this? This video has been out for over two weeks and there’s no director name to be found.

Fuck this video. If you say you like this video, then you’re trying to be nice or you have shitty taste, in which case, get the fuck off of this website. I mean it.

I meant to mention this way back in the end of January, but a certain Top 79 list was still fresh off of our fingetips and the time for drinking and watching football was upon me. But it’s a few months later and here we go.

Welcome to a brand new session of Berating the Popular, in today’s class we’re going to cover three topics, ‘Shadow of the Day’, director cuts, and WTF happened to Linkin Park.

In the MTV version of ‘Shadow of the Day’, Chester Bennington gets up in the middle of the night to go outside and watch the riot he was viewing on his TV. This turmoil tears him up so much that he has to stand there and turn his back to the fighting and the flames. I would love to tell you there is more to the story but there really isn’t. That’s it. That’s all that happens. He walks around for four minutes and some change. Nice. There are a thousand fundamental questions that are just begging to be answered. Like, Joseph Hahn really directed this? Why the hell is Chester getting up at 11:55 p.m.? Where is the rest of Linkin Park? Why is he suiting up for a riot? Does Mike still rap for this band? Let me give you my favorite moments from the video.

If Mariah Carey actually knows what 802.11n is, then I’ll shove forks into my eyes and finally admit that My Chemical Romance is the best band ever. I’m sorry, but I’m going to ruin the ending of this video for you — she uncomfortably utters the words, “My download speed is killing me, I hope you upgraded to 802.11n”. I’m not sure what to say about that, maybe the girl went back to school and is full of knowledge now. Her new album is called E = mc ^ 2 and I’m guessing the album is full of gems like ‘Einstein I’ll Be Your Bitch’, ‘Thug Physics’, and “I’m Relative For Life”. Wait, but this single is called ‘Touch My Body’. Wait, she’s half naked throughout the whole video. Wait, Brett ‘Rush Hour’ Ratner directed. Oh I get it. She’s just fucking with me. The world is still right, she’s just gone and lost her god damn mind.

I’ve been kicking around this video in my drafts folder for sometime now. And though its been out for awhile, I couldn’t shake it and just let it lie there, so let’s embark on a little journey we’ll call “A Good Video by Default”, for now. Also, I won’t try and front that we’ve been all about Erykah Badu and that we’ve listened to her stuff for some time now. Aside from “Tyrone” we haven’t really been up on her music and outings. Thats just the way things are sometimes. However, after this, we’re making sure she’s on our radar, but we won’t blame it on the video.

[Visit Shots Ring Out to read the rest...]

(Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly column where we talk about videos that are popular. I know we usually try and feature music videos that are warm and happy on the inside, but every now and again we just need to get some things off our chests. We have anger issues, what can I say. So what better way to facilitate their release, but through talking shit about mass media music videos. Be it rap, rock, country, whatever. We will be here to make light of it. So, if this is a band you like, or a director you are friends with, we are sorry ahead of time, and probably really don’t care anyway. Enjoy.)

If you pause this video after about 5 seconds, your powers of intuition might tell you that this is a rap video, because we all know that rap videos love the low-angle spinning rims shot. Plus the opening beat kinda leans that way too — but no, this is not a rap video. Un-pause and you shall see that this is a joint from everyones’ favorite Canadian pop-punkers, Simple Plan.

I know, I actually thought these guys retired too, or maybe just got kidnapped on some tour to the Middle East — but to our surprise they still make music and it still hurts my heart.