7.12.11

boy bands in space: the sci-fi obsession




Backstreet Boys - Larger than Life (1999) and g.o.d - Observation (2000)
(Note: Youtube doesn't have the music video for Larger Than Life; wonder why?)

What was up with the sci-fi theme? Was it an overgrown post-obsession from the 80s in which the world was fascinated with galaxy adventure and universe expansion discovery? Or was it just the ideal staple for all things laughable, crazy, and unexplainable?

Take Korean boy band, g.o.d's video (acronym for Groove Over Dose) for Observation, which is definitely a low-cost production. It starts with all of the boys hopping and bopping in space with a mission to take down some anonymous villain who may or may not be after a beautiful anonymous woman. They pop into the Earth's ozone and hop and bop around to save beautiful anonymous woman (includes a great mannequin scene that reminded me of N'SYNC in It's Gotta Be Me...) After some stalking and obtuse spying, the boys discover that the anonymous villain was just a crossdresser! Oh my! Devastated, the boys return to their spaceship, which promptly runs into Santa Claus and his host of reindeers and explodes, leaving their wiggly bodies floating in the wide expanse.

Larger than Life in comparison, was more of a high-cost production with all of the insanely intricate yet ugly robot suits, huge spaceship model, detailed tech gadgets imitating an early protocol of Tony Spark's work interface, and hover boards. Everybody in the group starts out in their little sleep pods and then float around in their own sphere (Ken in the control pod, Nick with his army of dancing robots, Brian playing racquet ball with a virtual person on the hover board, AJ in a dark room connected to pipes, and Howie, the only one not in a spacesuit of some sort) until the dance ensemble. In which AJ rocks out the tiniest midriff cut-off. Then Kevin is fighting off missiles that is coming from a woman invader but all are successfully avoided and the boys all return to their sleep pods.

It's not about the possibility of comprehension and belief in any of these videos--only and purely all-out crazy fun shenanigans, super catchy music, great funky dance moves, and the excuse to 'be' in the wide expanse of the universe, the unknown frontier, the unmarked territory, doing whatever you want with hardly any consequences. Unless you happen to run into Santa Claus that is. :)

If anybody has any other space/sci-fi music video with another boy or girl band, please let me know. Britney Spears not including.

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