"some things cost more than you realise"

December 27, 2008 1:48 PM

Radiohead's music video for All I Need.

"With the ('All I Need') video, their lawyers had to beg to make sure there wasn't a single white trainer with a logo on it because the implication would be a little too close. But the implication is still there." - Thom Yorke

Inside: A Wal-Mart Sweatshop Christmas

posted by ageispolis (35 comments total)

Also, a fan edits the video with footage from the 1996 French documentary Microcosmos.
posted by ageispolis at 1:49 PM on December 27, 2008

And to save you the trouble, Noel Gallagher on Thom Yorke:
"Who wants to sing the news? No matter how much you sit there twiddling, going, 'We're all doomed,' at the end of the day people will always want to hear you play 'Creep'. Get over it."
posted by ageispolis at 1:51 PM on December 27, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Subtle.

Thanks Radioguardian!
posted by fire&wings at 1:55 PM on December 27, 2008

Noel Gallagher, and Oasis, can go fuck themselves.
posted by Diskeater at 1:55 PM on December 27, 2008 [8 favorites has favorites]

PLAY CREEP THOM I LOVE YOU!!!!!2!
posted by Joseph Gurl at 2:01 PM on December 27, 2008

http://www.nosweat.org.uk/category/companies-and-brands
posted by nthdegx at 2:17 PM on December 27, 2008

I was in an internet cafe in Bangladesh, and I saw a poster that said "Don't use labor laws to starve us to death."

The problem there is complicated. While I was there workers died in a factory fire, other people starved because they couldn't get jobs in those factories.

Would laws requiring minimum standards for labor in the manufacture of US sold goods work? How would we enforce that?

As a high paid computer consultant I will always be able to buy shoes, even at 5 times the price. Would the lower class in the US be fucked if the (way lower) lower class in other countries were allowed to live in sane conditions?
posted by poe at 2:19 PM on December 27, 2008

I like how the sweatshop side is shot at a low aperture/almost monochrome, while the other side had more range to further make the point.

But, I ask, why didn't Bono make a cameo?
posted by captainsohler at 2:20 PM on December 27, 2008

The difference between Bono/Thom and Noel Gallagher is that U2 and Radiohead paid their dues to be preachy by actually making good music.

They may be wankers sometimes, but they've earned the right.
posted by cmoj at 2:21 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's weird how most of the fairtrade/sweatfree producers are in the US. WTF?
posted by Xurando at 2:28 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Noel Gallagher isn't bitter at all. Shut up and play Wonderwall!
posted by Artw at 2:48 PM on December 27, 2008

The child on the left has a tube television. Horrifying!

But really, I don't really feel to hot on multi-millionaire musicians telling me how to behave. When I see them paddle across the Atlantic for their next tour, then I will be all ears.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 2:51 PM on December 27, 2008

The end *would* be better with a white trainer with a logo on it, still it ties it together pretty nicely.
posted by Artw at 2:57 PM on December 27, 2008

we bitch when rock stars try to educate

we bitch when rock stars live a life of excess

ahhhh... to be shamelessly judgmental and anonymous
posted by slapshot57 at 3:14 PM on December 27, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Typical. Overweight, lazy western kid bums around at school all day.

Asian kid, gets up early, learning valuable hands-on skills that will pay dividends when he reaches the adult workplace.
posted by davemee at 3:20 PM on December 27, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

All I need is new shoes.
posted by monospace at 3:22 PM on December 27, 2008

Fuck Creep; if this is the news I want to hear the news. Hey Noel: anyone can play guitar.
posted by penduluum at 3:30 PM on December 27, 2008

At the end of the video for Just the man lying on the floor tells the crowd that metafilter is just the Armold White of the internets. The crowd all fall over, paralysed by the horror of it all.
posted by Artw at 3:42 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

i need a better music.
posted by Substrata at 3:54 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The problem there is complicated. While I was there workers died in a factory fire, other people starved because they couldn't get jobs in those factories.

I suspect that people involved in the video understand that the situation is complicated. But a music video isn't really the medium to evoke a subtle and nuanced position on this.

I think you can appreciate the delicate nature of all this, while still agreeing with the message of the video which is roughly, 'something here ain't right'.
posted by Alex404 at 4:04 PM on December 27, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

and yes...whitey is still on the moon.
posted by punkfloyd at 4:40 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

British music group releases preachy music video: Film at Eleven.


In related news, the popcorn you're eating has been pissed in. Film at Eleven.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:03 PM on December 27, 2008

I thought it was pretty good. I could have lived without the caption at the end - besides that it was very simple. It was a good reminder for me.
posted by serazin at 5:32 PM on December 27, 2008

Someone uses the "film at eleven" cliche on the internet. Film at eleven.
posted by fungible at 5:40 PM on December 27, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

But really, I don't really feel to hot on multi-millionaire musicians telling me how to behave. When I see them paddle across the Atlantic for their next tour, then I will be all ears.

The music video isn't telling you how to behave. All it says, literally, is "some things cost more than you realize." Which is the truth. The video says nothing about what you should do about that.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 6:09 PM on December 27, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

That was good. Thanks, ageispolis.
posted by homunculus at 7:56 PM on December 27, 2008

I think Radiohead got their music videos mixed up. The line "I'm an animal trapped in your hot car" (from "All I Need") speaks to me of suffocation and being trapped in; to that extent, a video where - say - someone was slowly drowning in a helmet thats permanently stuck on top of their head would make sense to me. Too bad they already made that video for "No Surprises".

Alternately, I'd think that this video of first world children leading the sweet life while poor children are forced to do odious tasks to survive could fit a song called "No Surprises" (both ironically and legitimately, depending on how black your humor is and how much outrage you have left in you.)
posted by Kiablokirk at 9:04 PM on December 27, 2008

Radiohead covers Wonderwall.
posted by onlyconnect at 10:18 PM on December 27, 2008

I have really mixed feelings about In Rainbows. Hated it first listen. Grew on me a little. Started to "get it." But I can't get over a single moment on that disc -- opening of "House of Cards" ("I don't want to be your friend / I just want to be your lover.")

Those two lines pretty much kill the album for me. They kind of kill Radiohead for me.

So the video here is interesting. But fuck me, these guys are just way too fucking sentimental these days.
posted by bardic at 10:24 PM on December 27, 2008

That kid's parents make him walk the 5 blocks to school? Child abuse.

(sadly I know a few parents who would actually agree)
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 12:22 AM on December 28, 2008

Jack Wagner's music video for All I Need.
posted by First Post at 1:46 AM on December 28, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

beautiful, haunting, powerful... but it won't change a fucking thing.
posted by spish at 7:08 AM on December 28, 2008

You are not required to have any solution handy before you can point out a problem.

Or: I wonder if Noel Gallagher wants to quit being reminded of the need for change so he can continue to bask, guilt-free, in his laziness.

Or: Thom and Noel speeding down the road in Noel's newest car (take 1):
T: Bugger, there's a semi just entered that crossing.
N: Shut up.

Or (take 2):
T: Mind the semi. I recommend you cross the street illegally, bump onto the pavement for a stretch, swerve back across the street while braking, and slide into that alley just past the cafe so we can catch our breath and have a nervous breakdown. Then we can go have a cup of tea and a sit down.
N: I hate that cafe.
posted by johnofjack at 6:46 AM on December 29, 2008

That kid isn't working fast enough. How's he going to make his quota working like it's some sort of preschool craft project? And what's up with him waking up with other kids, that boy would be expected to fetch water for his family before heading off to work.

Seriously though, sweatshops like the one portrayed produce knockoffs mostly for the local market. The big multinationals are more into the gleaming white, chain the worker to the bench type operations (actually they only "chain" workers to the bench in electronics operations because the chain grounds them should they make a circuit and nothing slows production like a clean-up on aisle three). Not that the big multinational, gleaming white operations aren't exploiting cheap labor, its just that filthy back alley operations aren't efficient enough and the workers are too prone to "human issues" rather than robotic production quotas.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:15 AM on December 29, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

What do personal trainers, regardless of race, have to do with this video?
posted by Eideteker at 11:18 AM on December 30, 2008