Do you put well known songs in your amvs?

Full Metal Sempai · Post by **Full Metal Sempai** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 5:14 pm

Well,it's not a long ago since I made my first real amvs and I always had this question.

What I mean is that there are thousands of amvs with

Evanescence - Bring me to Life,My Immortal
or Linkin Park songs
or Metal Gear Solid 2 Theme
or Bonjovi - It's My life
or Hoobastank - Crawling in the Dark
and other well-known songs

which are really great songs and some of them are really fit for amvs.So,it's only natural to try to make an amv with these songs.

But,that time it will immediately come to my mind a good amv with this song and I will feel that I'm not worthy enough to make a better video.So,I have the tendency to choose less-known songs for amvs.

Same things goes when I watch amvs with the same song - I compare them with the best video I have with this specific song.

Have you ever felt the same thing while watching or making an amv?

ps:Sorry for my English...

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 5:31 pm

I can't even begin whining about my music tastes....

...trust me, if anyone even bothered to look at some of the songs I used.... but no. Noone appears to have the same music taste as me. Which always leaves me with a clean slate, if there's a good thing about it.

I'm surprised people have a problem with picking original songs for AMV's. There's SO MUCH good stuff that has never been done and probably never will be done - that the very fact of people picking popular, overplayed, mainstream music is saddening and indicative of the mass-consumption tendencies of the society today extending to art.

Not to say those songs you mentioned aren't good, either.

Then agian, thankfully not everyone is after originality...

Kai Stromler · Post by **Kai Stromler** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 5:54 pm

Both anime and non-mainstream music can be expensive hobbies. Since most AMVers come to the hobby from anime, it makes sense that most of them do not divert their financial resources away from anime and towards music that is not available on the radio where they're from. And since radio is itself restrictive in what it considers (and heavily determined by commercial interests, but that's fairly immaterial), the universe of "possible" songs is fairly small. There's your paucity of musical originality. (though the economic argument falls down in the face of so many newbies who steal all their audio and video sources.......maybe we should just say they're asshats with no taste, or kids who don't know better yet)

Since I came to AMV from music rather than anime, I don't have this problem (of the last 10 SH videos, there is only 1 using a band even signed to a major-label contract). I'm somewhat obsessive about musical originality and will try to always enter a new song rather than repeat someone else's work -- or at least watch everything using the tune so that I know where I stand.

Don't do original music because you're afraid to challenge well-known stuff. Do original music because you think the mainstream sucks, and people should listen to the stuff you listen to.

--K

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 6:02 pm

Kai Stromler wrote: Since I came to AMV from music rather than anime, I don't have this problem (of the last 10 SH videos, there is only 1 using a band even signed to a major-label contract). I'm somewhat obsessive about musical originality and will try to always enter a new song rather than repeat someone else's work -- or at least watch everything using the tune so that I know where I stand.

Very logical, and definitely explains my case. I also came into (making) AMV's more by the way of music than anime (though I first started watching them because of anime).

In my case, I honestly don't even care for originality. I like to say that people 'accuse' me of originality, whereas it's not actually my intention. Some people might think messed-up wacko music like what some of my less-serious videos use is something I put in specifically to freak out viewers - and they couldn't be more wrong. It is, honestly, the stuff I listen to on a day-to-day basis. There's nothing surprising about my music choices when you consider what I usually hear playing on my stereo. There's nothing intentionally original about them, either. And if someone beats me to the 'original' task of making the first Captain Beefheart AMV - I won't hesitate for a second to make the second one when I'm ready.

Originality is good. But don't let it get in the way of making the videos YOU want to make.

megaman917 · Post by **megaman917** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 6:21 pm

This may also depend on your definition of "well known".

I myself mostly use rap music, and am currently making more rap AMVs. I try to avoid using the mainstream songs. I also always try to make it my business to use songs that haven't been used here at the .Org. So as far as originality and concepts go, I think I'm safe.

Al'x · Post by **Al'x** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 7:19 pm

I always compare two AMVs that use the same song. In fact, if the AMV that I saw first was particularly memorable, instead of watching the other AMV, I just recall how good the first one was and dismiss the second one. So I certainly agree about that. =)

In fact... sometimes just similar styles of music will remind me of another video. I know when I saw a video that used Spiritfall's My Reason, I was instantly reminded of another video that used Hoobastank's The Reason. =|

I've never really thought of making a video with any of the music that gets used a lot on this site. I guess that would be partly because I am afraid my videos would get no recognition (also I just have different taste in music like Otohiko). A few people associated this video with Caffeine Encomium, which of course screws over my video since I'm not Kevin Caldwell. =\

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 9:29 pm

NERV Evening News: part of the reason I did this was because I just <i>knew</i> it hadn't been done before.

Haruko the SF: It was big in the 80s, and I was honestly really expecting someone to have done the combination before, but no one had.

DV:UI: Again, I knew no one would have done it. This is when I started thinking I might be getting a reputation for doing videos to bootleg mixes... <^^

AEO:EB: Music choice was secondary to the main concept, so I didn't care.

RMH!: It was big in the 80s.

My Evil Alien: Okay, one of the Org's most overused bands, and one of their popular songs. Did I care? No. I wanted to do it, and I did, and I offer no apologies for the music choice.

bum · Post by **bum** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:20 pm

Nope. Well, my first two vids were kinda popular. Then I started editing instrumentals.

Coffee 54 · Post by **Coffee 54** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:47 pm

My last two project contrast nicely in this reguard. Face of the Enemy was made, in part, because I had never seen an AMV with a Middle Eastern sound to it. However, my next video used a song and anime combo that had been done nine times before, and I couldn't care less. Well, maybe a little. Not enough to stop me though.

CerebralAssamite · Post by **CerebralAssamite** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:55 pm

Well I want to be notorious for using very origional music, music that no-one else has used or is used very very rarely. The first amv I released I got high scores for origionality music wise, cannibal corpse and 6 feet under werent used on the org (there was a vid with a cc song but it wasnt available)
A few vids im currently working on are bands Damaged and Blood Duster, I don't think many people would have ever heard of them.

I hate overused song's and band's such as well anything mainstream, Linkin, Korn, System, Eversence, limp just to name a few.