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Say Hello to the Future of Music Videos

Arcade Fire creates an interactive experience

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 1, 2010 1:24 PM CDT

(Newser) – The Arcade Fire’s music video-slash-website is a harbinger of things to come. The Wilderness Downtown is an interactive experience that combines video of a kid running through a suburb, animated birds, satellite views of the neighborhood where you grew up (you provide the address), and an invitation to write a postcard to yourself as a child, all as the band’s “We Used to Wait” plays.

“Say what you will about the indie-goth aesthetics and the irritating, aggrandizing treatment of histrionic middle-class teen angst, The Wilderness Downtown works amazingly well as an Internet ‘piece’—part video, part interactive project, part regular old website,” writes Max Read on Gawker. “And as music videos appeared to have moved off your television permanently, with the exception of various esoteric MTV channels, it's not too hard to see a future where ‘interactive films’ like this replace the standard clip.” Click here for an even more positive reaction at The Frisky.

The Arcade Fire launched The Wilderness Downtown website with its latest single.
The Arcade Fire launched "The Wilderness Downtown" website with its latest single.   (The Wilderness Downtown)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 8 comments
thudson
Sep 2, 2010 8:33 AM CDT
it's brilliant. poignantly nostalgic and deeply intimate.
dawnarun
Sep 1, 2010 9:21 PM CDT
Saw this a few days ago, it's really fantastic and engaging. It has a "stop doing everything else and watch THIS" quality to it which may or may not be right for the internet in the end. Still, I think it's going to be inspiring to a lot of web development. As for Arcade Fire... I've liked the new album so far, but more for the music than the lyrics. My bf said it best "Their lyrics are so undergraduate. Children aren't inherently good or pure - they're just small people who don't know stuff. They can be just as selfish and thoughtless as adults." Basically... Arcade Fire's lyrics have a reoccurring romance with the concept of childhood purity. Still, the style is worth checking out if you want some surprisingly good alt rock.
jbcorny
Sep 1, 2010 3:59 PM CDT
arcade fire @ chicago theatre was one of the best shows ever.

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