April 21, 2025 • 21 mins
We dance over treadmills and hop across phone screens to discuss two decades of mind-blowing music videos from the creative maniacs of OK Go.
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #SmallBiz #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #art #Brands #Taglines #OKGO #Movies #Trivia #Band
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #SmallBiz #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #art #Brands #Taglines #OKGO #Movies #Trivia #Band
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaking Human.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today I Speaking Human. We dance over treadmills and hop
across phone screens to discuss two decades of mind blowing
music videos from the creative maniacs of Okay Go.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Specking Human.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
marketing for humans. I'm Shad Calmly and with me is
my co host Patrick Jebber.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
What's up, Shad?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
What's going on? Patrick? Are you ready to dive right
into some trivia today?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Trivia is my favorite thing to do. It's my favorite pastime.
I'm doing trivia NonStop twenty four to seven now.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Just banging out the answers to trivia questions, trying to
get some reps in so you're ready for all these
questions when they come up.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, I'm two hundred percent prepared for this podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Sounds a little over prepared if you asked.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Me, well, you know, I always say if you if
you don't go two hundred percent, don't go.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
You do say that a lot. Yeah, some people are like, God,
is he gonna say it again?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So you got trivia for me? Yeah? I love that.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I got a few questions for you related to the
topic of today's show. So let's jump off the diving
board here with question number one.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay Go.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So, the band Okay Go came on the radar for
most of us when their video for Here It Goes Again,
featuring the band members doing a synchronized dance on treadmills,
became a sensation back in two thousand and six, Patrick,
do you know how many attempts did it take them
to film the one take video? Multiple choice?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Here?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Thank you for that?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Was it thirteen? Was it seventeen? Was it twenty four?
Or was it thirty eight?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'm gonna say thirty eight.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
That is incorrect, But what a great guess.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I mean, I thought it was a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't blame you for going with the one that's
the most these guys put in the work. But it
was actually seventeen.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Oh it's still a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It got it quicker than I would Yeah, I mean
it would take us thirty eight exactly. So you're over one.
I think these next two you could probably get. Okay
let's see so over Okay goes nearly twenty year career
making creative and often viral videos. What award has the
band not won? Your choices are a clio Award, an
(02:42):
Academy Award, a Grammy Award, or a YouTube award.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm gonna say an Academy award.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
That is correct. They've also won an MTV Video Music
Award in multiple cans, Lion and Webby awards.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's believable.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's just cleaning up, all right, last question, You're one
for two, so fifty percent. Let's see if you can
end in the positive. Okay first for this podcast?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All right.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
The band has also had a number of corporate sponsors
for its videos over the years. What brand has not
sponsored an Okay Go video? Your choices are Google, Chevrolet,
Morton Salt, and State Farm.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Chevrolet ooh no, State Farm, ooh?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Google?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Google is correct.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
The only one I knew definitively was Morton Salt. I
knew that one for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, that one's a clear cut in the video. The
other one's less so yeah. Yeah, not bad though, Yeah,
not bad though.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I like when I just keep guessing until I get
to the last option on the multiple choice.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Well, you know, collectively, our bar is pretty low on
how we do on trivia, so getting one right out
of three pretty sod. Thirty three percent.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it where I can
get it. But, as the listeners may have figured out
either by clicking on the podcast, tapping on the podcast always.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
A good clue, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, we don't really hide too often the topic within
the subject unless you're talking about with further ado shameless
plug for our other podcast, so you know it's pretty
obvious what we're talking about okay Go. To give you
a little bit of background about okay Go, I assembled
a little history lesson which I thought would be pertinent
(04:43):
to tonight's discussion, today's discussion, this episode's discussion, take your pick.
So really, honestly, if you're listening to this podcast episode,
you probably like okay Go or you might know of
okay Go. But for those who don't, they just stumbled
on the podcast, I'll give you a little bit of
introduction to who they are. They're an American rock band
originally formed in Chicago in ninety eight and later relocated
(05:07):
to Los Angeles. Because you know that they're rock band,
they're going to go to Los Angeles where all the
rock bands go. They have a group of core members.
Only one of them was replaced the original guitarist in
that time period. As you mentioned They first gained attention
with their self titled debut album in two thousand and two,
and then their creative, low budget music videos are what
(05:31):
really catapulted them to fame. Their two thousand and six
treadmill choreograph video Here It Goes Again, went viral on
YouTube and really cemented their reputation for visual innovation. This
is what they do. Then they continue to explore that
visual storytelling with videos like this too, Shell Pass, where
they had this Rube Goldberg machine, the Writings on the Wall,
(05:53):
which has an optical illusion extravaganza. But they're known to
collaborate with engineers and scientists and artists, so they blend
this tech with performance are visual storytelling aspect, which is
what everyone knows them for.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, it's interesting what they've sort of become. You know,
I'm sure they just started out as, hey, we're a band,
let's do what bands do, get some videos on MTV,
get famous for being a band, and instead they've sort
of evolved into this other thing, which is pretty interesting.
In many ways, they're kind of like the godfathers of
(06:30):
viral videos, or they fall into that kind of you know,
Mount Rushmore two thousand and five YouTube launches two thousand
and six, they do the here It Goes Again video,
which is kind of one of these early videos that
becomes big on the site. To this day has like
sixty five million views or something like that. I think
it won an award in two thousand and six or
two thousand and seven from YouTube. And I don't know
(06:52):
if early in their career they necessarily wanted to be
this band who's just like all about these interesting videos
they're pulling off these stunts, but at some point they
obviously have embraced that, you know, and then we get
the kind of marketing piece of this where brand sponsorships
come in, you know, and they're getting money for that,
and they say, you know, hey, we couldn't do a
lot of these things we do without the money coming
(07:13):
in from brands like as I mentioned, Chevrolet and State
Farm and more insult so having these big brands come
in and get behind them, it's an interesting evolution this
band has gone through. And even when I was talking
about him with my son, he only knows of them
because he's seen them on the Simpsons. And when they
appeared on the Simpsons, the joke was something wasn't working
(07:36):
They're like, we can't make videos anymore, and now we're
gonna have to actually work on the merit of our
music or something like that. You know. That was kind
of the comedy of The Simpsons.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I think about all of these instances that we know of,
like in Hollywood and stuff, where an artists might not
have really intended to be known for something, but they
find themselves like sort of stuck in this niche, you know,
of this is what people expect from me. You know,
some people really embrace it, and I think they have
whether or not they intended it to be that from
(08:06):
the beginning, they have embraced it. And you could really
tell too they're passionate about what they do. They wouldn't
make these amazingly well crafted videos if they didn't enjoy it,
and you could see that they're having fun doing it.
That makes a huge difference.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
It shows you're right, they're not throwing out like five
of these a year. When they come out with them.
They're putting like hundreds of hours of time into like
pulling these things off and like thinking them through. It's
not just slap dash. We're just doing it for the money,
you know, cashing a check. So let's talk about you know,
the reason we're doing this show, the reason it came
(08:42):
up is they just in January released a new video
for their song A Stone Only Rolls down Hill That
came out January fifteenth, twenty twenty five. So that marks
almost twenty years these guys have been doing. You know,
if you go back to the Here It Goes Again
video two thousand and six, right at nineteen years of
(09:06):
them kind of creating these videos. So this video uses
sixty four mobile phones to create a mosaic of sixty
four different videos, which, when combined together, seamlessly create one
giant image. It's pretty interesting video, you know, definitely worth
a watch if you haven't seen it already. To date,
(09:28):
it's got two point five million views. What did you
think of this video?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Patrick?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I think of this video from a technical perspective, you know,
being something that we do, and I would just say
my brain melts thinking about the choreography to make it happen. Man,
So good.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know, as someone who's spent a significant portion of
the past week watching okay Go videos, you pick up
on a few of the trends what makes an okay
Go video? And I think this one delivers a lot
of the things I've come to want and expect from
an okay Go video. Part of me is like watching
it and I'm like, is that cgi? Did they fake that?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You know?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
That's what my brain is like almost trained to think
because it seems so impossible what they're doing. That's the
first thing that blows me away. The second thing this
is in a lot of their videos is this I'll
call it an imperfect synchronicity, where things are clearly designed
and lined up to be done in sync. But there's
also this factor of real humans pulling off a trick
(10:31):
where you can see, you know, there's moments where faces
don't quite line up or hands are like just a
little bit off, and that shows you it's authentic, you know,
and it's not one hundred percent, and there's actually people
who are doing this, not machines. And that's what makes
these videos I think, so enjoyable. And the last thing is,
you know, there's they always use like bold colors, they
(10:51):
like illusions a lot. These are kind of just staples
of okay Go, you notice throughout their videos. I think
of them they're like part musician, part magician, part marketer.
When I look at all the kind of content they
put together.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Why we're even talking about this is the videos have
become their marketing tool for their music. Oh you know. Yeah,
and there's no doubt that that has spearheaded them into
Hall of Fame territory.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Would we be talking about Okay Go today if it
wasn't for their music videos?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, I had the same thought, and I think the
clear answer is probably not. They're probably a band who
you know, would have been around for a few years
and then just faded like so many do, right.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And that's no testament to how good their music is
or anything. It's just that's how it is. You've got
to have that something that stands apart, and for them,
it's this. This is where they really excel as this
visual storytelling.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah. All that being said, you know, I think the
I think the new video it's good. It's not my favorite, though,
there's it's funny. There's different kinds of videos they create.
There's some more naturalistic, there's some more artistic. This one
probably not my favorite, but it's good. They're all interesting
in some way. But you know, we're each going to
(12:06):
share what our favorite. Okay Go videos are Patrick, Do
you want to tell me what is your favorite Okay
Go video or what did you pick out? Which one
did you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, it's hard because I really liked a lot
of them. This is the one that I would talk about,
the writings on the wall. But the entire music video
was shot in one continuous take. But what's really wild
is that it took over fifty takes to get it
just right. The video features, for those who haven't seen it,
optical illusions and yeah many and perspective tricks that only
(12:40):
make sense when viewed from like a specific camera angle.
That means the band and the crew had to time
every movement perfectly, and they set up the illusions to
appear seamless from that one viewpoint. So it's a really
fun watch. When you watch, you go, oh, that's really
cool because you know, for a split second, something looks
like one thing and then it looks like another. Fun
(13:02):
side note, they had to paint and repaint the entire
warehouse that they shot in multiple times to prepare each illusion.
It's a masterpiece of precision, patience, and perspective magic. Going
back to that idea of magic that you mentioned, in
which you'll get it when you see it. Well have
you know links to these on the show notes page,
(13:23):
But that's the one I would go with.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That's, I mean, a great one. This one, maybe more
than any of the others, begs to be rewatched after
you finish it, rerun it from the beginning, to watch
it again after you've seen it through to the end.
It also does a thing that they do in a
few of their videos that I really like, where after
the whole thing's done at the end, there's kind of
(13:46):
a lingering moment where they break and you know, you
kind of see the people come out to all put
it together, and the guys who are in the band
are like almost like exhaling and taking your breath, like, yeah,
we got it, we did I can't believe we did.
It adds to this authenticity in this experience where you
feel like you're watching something as it's happening, and you
(14:09):
know there as bewildered and surprised that they were able
to pull it off as you are watching it. The
other thing that's great is the one guy I forget
his name, shaved half his beard for this.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Oh yeah, and hopefully you only have to do that
once so mine.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
The one I went with is actually something you previously
mentioned a little bit, and it's the this two shell pass.
It's the Rube Goldberg machine one. This one similar in
the way that this, you know, is also in like
a warehouse with an elaborate setup. This is where State
Farm Insurance comes in. You see at the beginning there's
a little toy train that sets off the whole Rube
(14:48):
Goldberg thing and printed on the side of that train
in a State Farm That's all I noticed with the
brand in there. But they were a sponsor on this one.
This does everything I kind of associate with. Okay go,
it's you know, DIY taken to epic proportions. They just
made this Route Goldberg machine that is just one inspiring,
it's kind of funny, and it's just next level in
(15:10):
so many ways. We've seen a lot of these Roup
Goldberg videos. I think this one was a little ahead
of its time when it came out, but since then
we've seen a lot. But this one, you know, it
has following pianos, it has sledgehammers, smashing TVs, it has
following umbrellas. It just has a ton of different things
that just keep coming, and you're just continually like, man,
(15:31):
is this thing still going on? The thing I think
when I watch a lot of their videos, the one
you mentioned the writing is on the Wall also has
this too, is how did they coordinate the camera work
so well to get to one thing from another, staying
concentrated on the action that's happening, getting to just the
right spot, because honestly, you have one false move and
(15:54):
you're cooked. The whole thing's kind of done again. You're
kind of starting at the beginning son the planning it
must take to get your camera exactly where it needs
to be to move through these things. When you're going,
you know, throughout a warehouse and you have to follow
this Rube Goldberg machine went three and a half minutes.
As this thing progresses and you're moving around this entire space,
(16:16):
it just blows my mind. Again, I'm looking for editing cheats.
If they did it, I can't see it, so maybe
it's not in there. But that's the thing about this
video and the best of Okay Goop. You know, it
feels gloriously, giddily chaotic, like the whole thing could just
kind of fall off the track at any minute, but
somehow it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It keeps you entranced. That's the one thing I will say,
it's hard not to watch to just see what's the
outcome and the creativity of like putting all these things together.
Somebody has to spend a lot of time to just
figure out what's the next thing that's going to happen,
you know, and how is that going to affect then
the next thing cascading down the chain. So yeah, I
(16:53):
like this one a lot because of that. Again, the planning,
it can't be understated. All of their videos are like
that one that comes to top of mind that has
an element of that where you just go, how the
hell do you do?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
That?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Is the one moment?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
The thing about that that is so crazy is slowing
down the video so like when he's flipping the book
of the guy singing and making that timed with the
song so it sounds like he's singing at normal speed.
That's the crazy part. Yeah, just amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, now that's a good call it. And I did
put together my top five okay go videos and here's
what that looks like. So, as I mentioned, my number
one was this tooth Shall Pass the Rube Goldberg Machine.
There is another version of this video too. My number
two was here it goes again the original, which is
just it's still a lot of fun. You know, the treadmills.
(17:50):
You're like, these guys just came up with something and
they pulled it off. And I think many people, I'm sure,
have tried to do this and fallen on their faces.
My number three was the upside down and inside out
zero gravity. You know, they did this a whole bunch
of times. There's a behind the scenes video where they
talk about how twenty some people got sick in the
(18:11):
making of this really cool video. Just cool idea there.
Number four I had the one moment which we were
talking about the Morton Salt video, which is just amazingly
executed in a fun watch. And number five I have
White Knuckles, which is another lower budge one, which is
them and a bunch of dogs doing it's almost like
(18:31):
a stupid human tricks like they used to have on
David Letterman.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Whell.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
These dogs are just coming in, They're like grabbing things
and it's all coordinated with them and they dogs doing tricks,
which I thought was pretty impressive to be able to
do that with animals. And I do have one honorable mention.
I didn't think I could include this because it's not
a traditional okay Go video, but it's okay Go in
the Muppets would they do the Muppet Show theme song
(18:55):
and it parodies a lot of okay Go videos in it.
This is actually pretty funny stuff, an amazing ending. I
won't spoil it, but it's a twist on top of
a twist on top of a twist, and it really
got me hollent. I thought it was really good.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Those are good choices.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I like real time and continuous. So when there's more
editing in an okay Go video, I'm like, no, I
wanted to feel like it's just ongoing. Those are the
ones I like gravitate to a little more so I
almost like reject that in some way. I'm like, that's
not okay Go, man, which kind of leads to my
takeaway on this. You know, whole episode on okay Go,
(19:31):
Patrick gets find your lane, you know, even if you
just kind of fall into it, you know, find it
with your marketing as a brand, whatever you have to do.
If you're working on something and you're like this kind
of fits us, or this is getting a response, maybe
we should lean into this a little more. Find your
lane and then roll with it. I mean, honestly, that's
kind of what happened with us, was speaking human to
some extent, and an effort we started that became a
(19:54):
brand ideal, a lane that we fell into and have
gone with for decades since.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, like I said earlier, when you're passionate about whatever
it is that you do and you're in that lane,
things almost gravitate towards you. We do this, we enjoy it,
you know, like even just the podcast and whether or
not you as a listener get enjoyment out of listening
to us, that remains to be seen or heard. But
it's about that passion, and I think that makes it
(20:22):
so worth it, both for you and for others, you know,
for whatever it is that you're doing. In this case,
they're creating music videos and people are enjoying their music
and stuff like that. So it's a pretty easy sell.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
No, that's a good point. The passion piece of it.
Find your lane and then the passion will propel you
forward down that lane.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Right mm hmm, Well, I think it's okay to go now.
Well played, So that's it for today's episode. You can
find current and past episodes of the podcast on Speaking
human dot com.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
We'll be back into weeks with another episode of Speaking Human.
Catch You, then
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Humans Speaking Human
Speaking Human.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today I Speaking Human. We dance over treadmills and hop
across phone screens to discuss two decades of mind blowing
music videos from the creative maniacs of Okay Go.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Specking Human.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
marketing for humans. I'm Shad Calmly and with me is
my co host Patrick Jebber.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
What's up, Shad?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
What's going on? Patrick? Are you ready to dive right
into some trivia today?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Trivia is my favorite thing to do. It's my favorite pastime.
I'm doing trivia NonStop twenty four to seven now.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Just banging out the answers to trivia questions, trying to
get some reps in so you're ready for all these
questions when they come up.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, I'm two hundred percent prepared for this podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Sounds a little over prepared if you asked.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Me, well, you know, I always say if you if
you don't go two hundred percent, don't go.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
You do say that a lot. Yeah, some people are like, God,
is he gonna say it again?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So you got trivia for me? Yeah? I love that.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I got a few questions for you related to the
topic of today's show. So let's jump off the diving
board here with question number one.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay Go.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So, the band Okay Go came on the radar for
most of us when their video for Here It Goes Again,
featuring the band members doing a synchronized dance on treadmills,
became a sensation back in two thousand and six, Patrick,
do you know how many attempts did it take them
to film the one take video? Multiple choice?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Here?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Thank you for that?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Was it thirteen? Was it seventeen? Was it twenty four?
Or was it thirty eight?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'm gonna say thirty eight.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
That is incorrect, But what a great guess.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I mean, I thought it was a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't blame you for going with the one that's
the most these guys put in the work. But it
was actually seventeen.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Oh it's still a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It got it quicker than I would Yeah, I mean
it would take us thirty eight exactly. So you're over one.
I think these next two you could probably get. Okay
let's see so over Okay goes nearly twenty year career
making creative and often viral videos. What award has the
band not won? Your choices are a clio Award, an
(02:42):
Academy Award, a Grammy Award, or a YouTube award.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm gonna say an Academy award.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
That is correct. They've also won an MTV Video Music
Award in multiple cans, Lion and Webby awards.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's believable.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's just cleaning up, all right, last question, You're one
for two, so fifty percent. Let's see if you can
end in the positive. Okay first for this podcast?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All right.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
The band has also had a number of corporate sponsors
for its videos over the years. What brand has not
sponsored an Okay Go video? Your choices are Google, Chevrolet,
Morton Salt, and State Farm.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Chevrolet ooh no, State Farm, ooh?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Google?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Google is correct.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
The only one I knew definitively was Morton Salt. I
knew that one for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, that one's a clear cut in the video. The
other one's less so yeah. Yeah, not bad though, Yeah,
not bad though.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I like when I just keep guessing until I get
to the last option on the multiple choice.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Well, you know, collectively, our bar is pretty low on
how we do on trivia, so getting one right out
of three pretty sod. Thirty three percent.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it where I can
get it. But, as the listeners may have figured out
either by clicking on the podcast, tapping on the podcast always.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
A good clue, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, we don't really hide too often the topic within
the subject unless you're talking about with further ado shameless
plug for our other podcast, so you know it's pretty
obvious what we're talking about okay Go. To give you
a little bit of background about okay Go, I assembled
a little history lesson which I thought would be pertinent
(04:43):
to tonight's discussion, today's discussion, this episode's discussion, take your pick.
So really, honestly, if you're listening to this podcast episode,
you probably like okay Go or you might know of
okay Go. But for those who don't, they just stumbled
on the podcast, I'll give you a little bit of
introduction to who they are. They're an American rock band
originally formed in Chicago in ninety eight and later relocated
(05:07):
to Los Angeles. Because you know that they're rock band,
they're going to go to Los Angeles where all the
rock bands go. They have a group of core members.
Only one of them was replaced the original guitarist in
that time period. As you mentioned They first gained attention
with their self titled debut album in two thousand and two,
and then their creative, low budget music videos are what
(05:31):
really catapulted them to fame. Their two thousand and six
treadmill choreograph video Here It Goes Again, went viral on
YouTube and really cemented their reputation for visual innovation. This
is what they do. Then they continue to explore that
visual storytelling with videos like this too, Shell Pass, where
they had this Rube Goldberg machine, the Writings on the Wall,
(05:53):
which has an optical illusion extravaganza. But they're known to
collaborate with engineers and scientists and artists, so they blend
this tech with performance are visual storytelling aspect, which is
what everyone knows them for.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, it's interesting what they've sort of become. You know,
I'm sure they just started out as, hey, we're a band,
let's do what bands do, get some videos on MTV,
get famous for being a band, and instead they've sort
of evolved into this other thing, which is pretty interesting.
In many ways, they're kind of like the godfathers of
(06:30):
viral videos, or they fall into that kind of you know,
Mount Rushmore two thousand and five YouTube launches two thousand
and six, they do the here It Goes Again video,
which is kind of one of these early videos that
becomes big on the site. To this day has like
sixty five million views or something like that. I think
it won an award in two thousand and six or
two thousand and seven from YouTube. And I don't know
(06:52):
if early in their career they necessarily wanted to be
this band who's just like all about these interesting videos
they're pulling off these stunts, but at some point they
obviously have embraced that, you know, and then we get
the kind of marketing piece of this where brand sponsorships
come in, you know, and they're getting money for that,
and they say, you know, hey, we couldn't do a
lot of these things we do without the money coming
(07:13):
in from brands like as I mentioned, Chevrolet and State
Farm and more insult so having these big brands come
in and get behind them, it's an interesting evolution this
band has gone through. And even when I was talking
about him with my son, he only knows of them
because he's seen them on the Simpsons. And when they
appeared on the Simpsons, the joke was something wasn't working
(07:36):
They're like, we can't make videos anymore, and now we're
gonna have to actually work on the merit of our
music or something like that. You know. That was kind
of the comedy of The Simpsons.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I think about all of these instances that we know of,
like in Hollywood and stuff, where an artists might not
have really intended to be known for something, but they
find themselves like sort of stuck in this niche, you know,
of this is what people expect from me. You know,
some people really embrace it, and I think they have
whether or not they intended it to be that from
(08:06):
the beginning, they have embraced it. And you could really
tell too they're passionate about what they do. They wouldn't
make these amazingly well crafted videos if they didn't enjoy it,
and you could see that they're having fun doing it.
That makes a huge difference.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
It shows you're right, they're not throwing out like five
of these a year. When they come out with them.
They're putting like hundreds of hours of time into like
pulling these things off and like thinking them through. It's
not just slap dash. We're just doing it for the money,
you know, cashing a check. So let's talk about you know,
the reason we're doing this show, the reason it came
(08:42):
up is they just in January released a new video
for their song A Stone Only Rolls down Hill That
came out January fifteenth, twenty twenty five. So that marks
almost twenty years these guys have been doing. You know,
if you go back to the Here It Goes Again
video two thousand and six, right at nineteen years of
(09:06):
them kind of creating these videos. So this video uses
sixty four mobile phones to create a mosaic of sixty
four different videos, which, when combined together, seamlessly create one
giant image. It's pretty interesting video, you know, definitely worth
a watch if you haven't seen it already. To date,
(09:28):
it's got two point five million views. What did you
think of this video?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Patrick?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I think of this video from a technical perspective, you know,
being something that we do, and I would just say
my brain melts thinking about the choreography to make it happen. Man,
So good.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know, as someone who's spent a significant portion of
the past week watching okay Go videos, you pick up
on a few of the trends what makes an okay
Go video? And I think this one delivers a lot
of the things I've come to want and expect from
an okay Go video. Part of me is like watching
it and I'm like, is that cgi? Did they fake that?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You know?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
That's what my brain is like almost trained to think
because it seems so impossible what they're doing. That's the
first thing that blows me away. The second thing this
is in a lot of their videos is this I'll
call it an imperfect synchronicity, where things are clearly designed
and lined up to be done in sync. But there's
also this factor of real humans pulling off a trick
(10:31):
where you can see, you know, there's moments where faces
don't quite line up or hands are like just a
little bit off, and that shows you it's authentic, you know,
and it's not one hundred percent, and there's actually people
who are doing this, not machines. And that's what makes
these videos I think, so enjoyable. And the last thing is,
you know, there's they always use like bold colors, they
(10:51):
like illusions a lot. These are kind of just staples
of okay Go, you notice throughout their videos. I think
of them they're like part musician, part magician, part marketer.
When I look at all the kind of content they
put together.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Why we're even talking about this is the videos have
become their marketing tool for their music. Oh you know. Yeah,
and there's no doubt that that has spearheaded them into
Hall of Fame territory.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Would we be talking about Okay Go today if it
wasn't for their music videos?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, I had the same thought, and I think the
clear answer is probably not. They're probably a band who
you know, would have been around for a few years
and then just faded like so many do, right.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And that's no testament to how good their music is
or anything. It's just that's how it is. You've got
to have that something that stands apart, and for them,
it's this. This is where they really excel as this
visual storytelling.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah. All that being said, you know, I think the
I think the new video it's good. It's not my favorite, though,
there's it's funny. There's different kinds of videos they create.
There's some more naturalistic, there's some more artistic. This one
probably not my favorite, but it's good. They're all interesting
in some way. But you know, we're each going to
(12:06):
share what our favorite. Okay Go videos are Patrick, Do
you want to tell me what is your favorite Okay
Go video or what did you pick out? Which one
did you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, it's hard because I really liked a lot
of them. This is the one that I would talk about,
the writings on the wall. But the entire music video
was shot in one continuous take. But what's really wild
is that it took over fifty takes to get it
just right. The video features, for those who haven't seen it,
optical illusions and yeah many and perspective tricks that only
(12:40):
make sense when viewed from like a specific camera angle.
That means the band and the crew had to time
every movement perfectly, and they set up the illusions to
appear seamless from that one viewpoint. So it's a really
fun watch. When you watch, you go, oh, that's really
cool because you know, for a split second, something looks
like one thing and then it looks like another. Fun
(13:02):
side note, they had to paint and repaint the entire
warehouse that they shot in multiple times to prepare each illusion.
It's a masterpiece of precision, patience, and perspective magic. Going
back to that idea of magic that you mentioned, in
which you'll get it when you see it. Well have
you know links to these on the show notes page,
(13:23):
But that's the one I would go with.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That's, I mean, a great one. This one, maybe more
than any of the others, begs to be rewatched after
you finish it, rerun it from the beginning, to watch
it again after you've seen it through to the end.
It also does a thing that they do in a
few of their videos that I really like, where after
the whole thing's done at the end, there's kind of
(13:46):
a lingering moment where they break and you know, you
kind of see the people come out to all put
it together, and the guys who are in the band
are like almost like exhaling and taking your breath, like, yeah,
we got it, we did I can't believe we did.
It adds to this authenticity in this experience where you
feel like you're watching something as it's happening, and you
(14:09):
know there as bewildered and surprised that they were able
to pull it off as you are watching it. The
other thing that's great is the one guy I forget
his name, shaved half his beard for this.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Oh yeah, and hopefully you only have to do that
once so mine.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
The one I went with is actually something you previously
mentioned a little bit, and it's the this two shell pass.
It's the Rube Goldberg machine one. This one similar in
the way that this, you know, is also in like
a warehouse with an elaborate setup. This is where State
Farm Insurance comes in. You see at the beginning there's
a little toy train that sets off the whole Rube
(14:48):
Goldberg thing and printed on the side of that train
in a State Farm That's all I noticed with the
brand in there. But they were a sponsor on this one.
This does everything I kind of associate with. Okay go,
it's you know, DIY taken to epic proportions. They just
made this Route Goldberg machine that is just one inspiring,
it's kind of funny, and it's just next level in
(15:10):
so many ways. We've seen a lot of these Roup
Goldberg videos. I think this one was a little ahead
of its time when it came out, but since then
we've seen a lot. But this one, you know, it
has following pianos, it has sledgehammers, smashing TVs, it has
following umbrellas. It just has a ton of different things
that just keep coming, and you're just continually like, man,
(15:31):
is this thing still going on? The thing I think
when I watch a lot of their videos, the one
you mentioned the writing is on the Wall also has
this too, is how did they coordinate the camera work
so well to get to one thing from another, staying
concentrated on the action that's happening, getting to just the
right spot, because honestly, you have one false move and
(15:54):
you're cooked. The whole thing's kind of done again. You're
kind of starting at the beginning son the planning it
must take to get your camera exactly where it needs
to be to move through these things. When you're going,
you know, throughout a warehouse and you have to follow
this Rube Goldberg machine went three and a half minutes.
As this thing progresses and you're moving around this entire space,
(16:16):
it just blows my mind. Again, I'm looking for editing cheats.
If they did it, I can't see it, so maybe
it's not in there. But that's the thing about this
video and the best of Okay Goop. You know, it
feels gloriously, giddily chaotic, like the whole thing could just
kind of fall off the track at any minute, but
somehow it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It keeps you entranced. That's the one thing I will say,
it's hard not to watch to just see what's the
outcome and the creativity of like putting all these things together.
Somebody has to spend a lot of time to just
figure out what's the next thing that's going to happen,
you know, and how is that going to affect then
the next thing cascading down the chain. So yeah, I
(16:53):
like this one a lot because of that. Again, the planning,
it can't be understated. All of their videos are like
that one that comes to top of mind that has
an element of that where you just go, how the
hell do you do?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
That?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Is the one moment?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
The thing about that that is so crazy is slowing
down the video so like when he's flipping the book
of the guy singing and making that timed with the
song so it sounds like he's singing at normal speed.
That's the crazy part. Yeah, just amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, now that's a good call it. And I did
put together my top five okay go videos and here's
what that looks like. So, as I mentioned, my number
one was this tooth Shall Pass the Rube Goldberg Machine.
There is another version of this video too. My number
two was here it goes again the original, which is
just it's still a lot of fun. You know, the treadmills.
(17:50):
You're like, these guys just came up with something and
they pulled it off. And I think many people, I'm sure,
have tried to do this and fallen on their faces.
My number three was the upside down and inside out
zero gravity. You know, they did this a whole bunch
of times. There's a behind the scenes video where they
talk about how twenty some people got sick in the
(18:11):
making of this really cool video. Just cool idea there.
Number four I had the one moment which we were
talking about the Morton Salt video, which is just amazingly
executed in a fun watch. And number five I have
White Knuckles, which is another lower budge one, which is
them and a bunch of dogs doing it's almost like
(18:31):
a stupid human tricks like they used to have on
David Letterman.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Whell.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
These dogs are just coming in, They're like grabbing things
and it's all coordinated with them and they dogs doing tricks,
which I thought was pretty impressive to be able to
do that with animals. And I do have one honorable mention.
I didn't think I could include this because it's not
a traditional okay Go video, but it's okay Go in
the Muppets would they do the Muppet Show theme song
(18:55):
and it parodies a lot of okay Go videos in it.
This is actually pretty funny stuff, an amazing ending. I
won't spoil it, but it's a twist on top of
a twist on top of a twist, and it really
got me hollent. I thought it was really good.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Those are good choices.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I like real time and continuous. So when there's more
editing in an okay Go video, I'm like, no, I
wanted to feel like it's just ongoing. Those are the
ones I like gravitate to a little more so I
almost like reject that in some way. I'm like, that's
not okay Go, man, which kind of leads to my
takeaway on this. You know, whole episode on okay Go,
(19:31):
Patrick gets find your lane, you know, even if you
just kind of fall into it, you know, find it
with your marketing as a brand, whatever you have to do.
If you're working on something and you're like this kind
of fits us, or this is getting a response, maybe
we should lean into this a little more. Find your
lane and then roll with it. I mean, honestly, that's
kind of what happened with us, was speaking human to
some extent, and an effort we started that became a
(19:54):
brand ideal, a lane that we fell into and have
gone with for decades since.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, like I said earlier, when you're passionate about whatever
it is that you do and you're in that lane,
things almost gravitate towards you. We do this, we enjoy it,
you know, like even just the podcast and whether or
not you as a listener get enjoyment out of listening
to us, that remains to be seen or heard. But
it's about that passion, and I think that makes it
(20:22):
so worth it, both for you and for others, you know,
for whatever it is that you're doing. In this case,
they're creating music videos and people are enjoying their music
and stuff like that. So it's a pretty easy sell.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
No, that's a good point. The passion piece of it.
Find your lane and then the passion will propel you
forward down that lane.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Right mm hmm, Well, I think it's okay to go now.
Well played, So that's it for today's episode. You can
find current and past episodes of the podcast on Speaking
human dot com.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
We'll be back into weeks with another episode of Speaking Human.
Catch You, then
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Humans Speaking Human
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