Pop Rock Chicago Band Releases Hollow But High Quality Music Video

Nothing pleases us at Appoet more than creative people bringing Chicago to life through art. The Pipe Dreams, a Chicago-based band, does just that with the new video for Dig. The eighth song from their debut album “Take Chicago,” Dig uses footage of city neighborhoods and their eclectic residents as a backdrop for fast cuts and soft focuses, but to what end?

While I consider myself a connoisseur of a wide variety of music, my main love is hip hop, specifically old school hip hop. When I first stumbled upon The Pipe Dreams I kind of blew them off as they don’t  fit my ideal music genre. As I listened, however, it became evident that these talented individuals are not only pursuing their dreams of making music, but they’re also showing their love of Chicago and Chicagoans in this surprisingly upbeat video.

In the video for Dig, the audience is immediately entranced by the inviting setting, which includes a close camera shot of the singer’s smiling face. If this isn’t enough to grab the audience’s attention, the catchy tune and deep melody of the chorus will definitely draw you in. Obviously, happiness would be the best way to describe the feeling The Pipe Dreams aimed for when making this music video. However, and here is where the artistic value of the video comes into play, it is the scenes of iconic Chicago buildings and recognizable locations that really add to the aesthetics. Wall Bug Films deserves a lot of kudos for the wonderfully composed shots and tight editing that went into production. However, there seems to be a lot of joy in a music video for a song about a boy’s love interest being unavailable. Furthermore, the music video traces the path of all the band members as they convene for a show; there’s no taken girlfriend shown, or if there is, she isn’t obvious. It forces the audience to ask itself what story it is watching. Is the music video glossing over the narrative in the lyrics, or is it just a self aggrandizing two minute commercial for the band?  If it’s the later then the video is both high in quality and content; if the former, then we lose the story, and this reviewer loses his interest.

I’m not exactly sure of the motive behind the video for Dig. Perhaps they’re simply aiming to get people to listen to their music via the most-widely used platform for videos. It’s clear that the band strives to make people smile, and I’m not judging them for that, but producing a high quality music video that seems to only spotlight their popularity, may not be direction The Pipe Dreams want to go in. While I appreciate most forms of music and the efforts of any artist, particularly at the indie level, I can’t support the unimaginative attempts of a band like The Pipe Dreams. Tired, boring, and repetitive are the words that instantly popped into my mind when I first watched the Dig video. I consider myself a relatively happy person, so I get the desire for this band to come off cheery and likable, but the ability to construe a melody and craft a clever video takes skills that this band, and many in the music industry today, lack. Overall, I recommend giving Dig a listen, and also suggest you pick up their album “Take Chicago”, but I’d leave the music video alone.

[callout] [three_fourth]

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