But my favorite Youtube search right now is "[Band]+fan+video" because it's just really interesting to see what people come up with for bands that they love. The Hold Steady had a fan-made video contest awhile back, and I'm not going to use your time with them here, but it was really fun to see the teen-made videos and how they capture parking lots and neon signs and exteriors of buildings and interiors of living rooms, all the central locations of suburban teenage living in its peripheral, limited-access glory. While the older fans' videos tended to be more elaborate and also more self-absorbed and meta and dull ("this is a video about us making a Hold Steady video!" "this is a video about us going to a Hold Steady show!"), the Boys and Girls in America are really capturing what it's like out there in the US of '08. They're doing it better than that Hold Steady album does, really...
But the best fan video has to be this one, for the New Pornographers. Teen-made, using a lot of the tropes that are floating around right now in teen movies and such (like, is anyone in the mood for a fantastic, self-aware, mildly ironic happy-dance-montage? I hope so, because there's a great one at the end...) It's so much fun, and the idea of teenagers coopt-ing the culture that is marketed to them and making it their own? I know that they've been doing it forever and ever, that maybe that is exactly what most of teen culture really is, but I still love it. Ok, here:
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