Video War Round 1: Ok GO Vs. Maroon 5

Man, we were SO ready to start this post off with a vehement, "BACK AWAY FROM THE HATERADE," but you guys deprived us of the opportunity by showing this new series so much LOVE. There was nary a nay-saying comment last week when we introduced Video War, and Mick Jagger even invited us to dinner for giving him yet another unfounded shout-out (that's a lie: he invited us to lunch). We're ECSTATIC that you guys are so amped (get it? Amps are a music thing, right?) about this series, and we can't wait any longer to unveil our favorite submissions from last week. So, without further ado, here are the purveyors of pop, the champions of choice, and the knights of the sound table (that one took us 3 hours to come up with):

First up, the few, the proud, the proponents of Maroon 5:

Nillabee: Maroon 5's new song, "Misery" is far more pleasing than Ok Go's "White Knuckles". "White Knuckles" has no intelligible lyrics I can pick out. Words pop out here and there, but that is all. I find Ok Go to be formulaic. Ok Go's formula is to be as weird (but surprisingly not unique) as they can be while making marketable pop music, and do interesting physical things in their music videos. Add to that some lame guitar jams, distancing production, layered harmonic voices, and you've got "White Knuckles". I don't care if they do cool things in their videos, because their music is lacking in so many aspects. Their songs are so similar I cannot tell them from one another, while Maroon 5 songs will linger, nicely, in my head for days. This is because Maroon 5 has a formula that works: singable and understandable lyrics, a pleasant and groovable meter, a memorable voice, and Adam Levine. Also, I love Adam Levine, which is reason enough. And one final point: Adam Levine.

Dizzy_In_My_Head: I personally do not really like Ok Go. I love Maroon 5 though. Any guy that will let his girlfriend pretend to beat him up gets my vote. All the switching of props in the Ok Go video distracted me and I could not understand what the guy was singing. Maroon 5 had a clear plot and I understood the video. And besides, I just love Adam Levine. My vote goes to Misery by Maroon 5.

And now, let's hear from the amorous admirers of Ok Go:

violet_hill1944: Both song-wise and video-wise, I preferred White Knuckles.
When I first heard Misery on the radio, I liked it, but it wasn't anything earth-shattering. With Maroon 5, you know exactly what you're getting: catchy, mainstream electronic rock/pop with a hot male singer (which is by no means a bad thing). But the video for Misery was a little too sadistic for me, and unfortunately now it's all I'll picture when I hear the song. Beside that, its kind of promoting abusive relationships, no?
I wasn't really able to pick out a lot of lines from White Knuckles, but from what I gather, it wasn't about crazy-arse girlfriends that flush their boyfriend's heads in the toilet and push them off buildings, which is always a plus in my book. The video for it trumps Misery for exactly two reasons:
1. Adorable, synchronized routine involving dogs
2.  Cup stacking, 'nuff said.

britt b: OK Go is a band that writes ingenious lyrics, has amazingly creative cinematographic ideas, and they always exhibit their impressive dancing prowess! From "Here It Goes Again" on treadmills (with almost 4 million views on YouTube) to "This Too Shall Pass" (with a high school marching band) to "End Love" (stop-motion photography in colorful clothing) and now to their newest video with well-trained dogs for "White Knuckles", they have shown time and time again that they are a band that has some fresh ideas to bring to the world. No two songs of theirs are alike, and their newest CD, 'Of the Blue Colour of the Sky', happens to be one of my most favorite albums (White Knuckles has also been my ringtone for 4 months, and I am STILL not sick of it!). They managed to use trained dogs in their new video -- who just thinks of something that epic?!

Maroon 5, on the other hand, is just like any other (fourth-class) band out there today. Their lead singer (Adam Levine) has an EXTREMELY annoying voice and their music all sounds the same. Don't believe me? Next time you hear "Misery" (and btw, what exactly do they have to be miserable about? not having sex with a girl? ridiculousness...) on the radio, during the chorus sing the chorus from "This Love" (their last 'hit' song). It is the exact same beat and background music! And if we are just talking about the video, OK Go takes risks with their videos and try to give the audience something they have never seen before. Maroon 5 decides to put in a hot girl wearing too much make-up. How original. (My sarcasm hand just broke the sound barrier it moved so fast)

I think that if I ever see Adam Levine on the street, I may take a leaf out of that girls book and clothesline the crap out of him for cursing the world with his annoyingly nasal voice. OK Go my be weird, yes; but at least they have some originality and like to challenge themselves artistically.

glorantar: OK GO won.
And I don't need a 1-3 paragraph essay thing to prove it.
It had a goat.
Need I say more?

VictoriamissingAlbert:
1. Maroon 5, really?
2. Ok GO has the coolest music videos. They put their complete effort (or their manager's effort) into every one of their CREATIVE videos.
3. I love the spinny chairs! That was amazing.
4. Planks!! Rainbow planks that turned into stairs!
5. Maroon 5 = whiny pop band voice, complaining about why girls think he's greasy (and not in a Danny the T-Bird way...)
6. One guy wears nerd glasses, and sideburns, and he's bald!
7. White furniture from Ikea.
8. The band was actually really good with the dogs, as you can see with the commands around 3:22. I must say that dog in the front was a bit off *shakes head* but it was nice that there was no animal abuse.
12. HAHA Maroon 5?!

Alissa: How can you even think of putting OK GO in the same category as Maroon 5.
First, off lets start at the beginning. Names! When you say OK GO, I think of something exciting happening, like the start of a race, or a sword fight. Maroon 5 sounds like a typo on a crayon.  Not nearly as cool. And, OK GO has cute dogs (and a cute singer). Maroon 5? A girl who looked like she walked out of a GUESS Jeans ad, and a guy in a leather jacket. How original.
Besides "White Knuckles" being an infinitely better song (it's still stuck in my head), OK GO was on the Colbert Report. Nuff' said. (Oh yeah, and why were Leather Jacket and Double Denim just randomly in a city all by themselves?  And what was with the car stunt? It was like a bad Die Hard movie. You were just missing something.....oh wait. EXCITEMENT.  For real, I think I fell asleep twice watching that video.)

"I'm Sort of on the Fence" Entry:

Captain Skippy: I love OK Go, I really do. But this isn't their best work. The song was kind of meh for me. To much artistic-y 'fuzz', not enough actual rocking. I originally got hooked on this band for their slightly amped, quirky-but-classic rock sound, but I feel like they've been drifting toward the angsty black hole of whiney rock lately. THIS SHALL NOT DO! Too many bands bend the rules just because right now it's popular to be weird, but very few can pull it off. Older OK Go combined a good solid sound with just enough strangeness to keep things interesting, but I feel like this song is trying waaay too hard.
OK Go got their popularity for one thing and one thing only: their awesomesauce videos. They have a knack for taking your wildest dreams, multiplying them by a billion, and then MAKING THEM HAPPEN!!! It's incredible! Although this video was another exceptional sample of spot-on choreography and out-there concept, it just wasn't as... epic. Rearranging furniture while dogs run in circles around you kind of pales in comparison to treadmill acrobatics and warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg machines. And what was up with them staring awkwardly off into the distance the whole time?
Now, onward to Maroon 5. This song was a great pop song, nice and... poppy. I like the bright keyboards and slightly funky groove running underneath it all, but it didn't match the lyrics at all. Who writes a uber-trendy, bouncy pop song titled 'Misery'?!?! What's more, the entire song is about how this guy's in pain, but it's set against a nice perky musical backdrop. Not just the title, but the WHOLE ENCHILADA! Um, mixed messages much? Other than this incongruity, I really liked this song. It's not as soulful R&B as other Maroon 5 songs, but it kind of makes me want to chew some bubblegum.
But hark! The video follows the same mismatched theme of the song! A fairly innocuous urban setting with greaser-like characters? Okay, sure. That's cool. Domestic violence? Not so much. BEING HAPPY ABOUT IT?! What the deuce?! And it doesn't even look real! I can't tell if the effects are supposed to look fake on purpose, for a 'camp' feel, or if Maroon 5 just got slapped with some budget cuts just like the rest of us mortals. And normally, this video would win some points for Adam Levine's insane bad-boy hotness, but unfortunately, his scary girl friend cancels him out. Too bad!

Totally Illegal Wild-Card Entry:

prsprosdaughter: Can I vote for "Start Me Up?" Whatever, I'm voting for "Start Me Up." It's on the page.

OKAY. We hope you've made up your own mind, because we've tallied all the votes in the comments, we've combed our email submissions, and we've painstakingly calculated this week's FINAL VIDEO WAR SCORE:

Ok Go: 23
Maroon 5: 4
Start Me Up: 2

And there you have it: Ok GO took round 1 of Video War by STORM. Well, technically, by dog. The important thing to realize is that even if your band got VICIOUSLY CREAMED, there's always next week! Here are the contestants for the upcoming round of Video War:

In the "Wildly Popular" corner, we have Dynamite by Taio Cruz:

And in the "Under the Radar" corner, we've got The Cave by Mumford and Sons:

In case you've forgotten how this works, here's a refresher: pick your favorite video and tell us why, either in the comments or by emailing caaron[at]book.com, it deserves to win Video War. Our favorite submissions will be published on the next post!