R.E.M.: Pop Screen
Pop Screen, a collection of videos from Document and Green, is the earliest R.E.M. video collection available on DVD. (Succumbs, which collects the videos from the band’s first four albums, is still available as a VHS-only release.) It’s a relatively short disc, and the videos hail from the period where R.E.M. was still turning out videos that often lacked a close connection to the songs - there’s very little performance footage, no lip-syncing at all, and several clips where the band never appears at all.
Some of the band’s most memorable clips are included. There’s “Stand”, of course, whose goofy dance and jumping band members capture the spirit of the song, and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, whose pans around the cluttered floor of a room missing a wall reflects the random stream of references that make up the song’s lyrics. “Pop Song 89″, directed by and featuring Michael Stipe, is probably most notable for its censored MTV form; the video features Stipe and three female dancers, all of them topless. In the televised version, black bars cover all four chests, but the uncensored version is included on this compilation. The nudity’s not really titillating, but it also seems kind of pointless. You could make a solid argument that its pointlessness is its point, as the song and video both seem to be concerned with simultaneously mocking and being part of the pop world. One of the dancers also shows up in “The One I Love”, the band’s first real hit single. And when you figure out what that video’s about, be sure and let me know.
My favorite videos on this disc both come from Green. “Orange Crush” is a black and white clip that juxtaposes images of a child playing with toy weapons with a young man apparently preparing for real battle. The video is shot heavily in shadow, which I think works quite well with the song’s tone. At the opposite end of the spectrum is “Get Up”, whose kaleidoscopic colors and upbeat nature give the compilation a cheery conclusion.
Pop Screen also includes a video for “Talk About the Passion”, an older song that was released as a single on the IRS greatest hits compilation Eponymous. The video is new, and features black and white footage of the homeless with a closing text blurb about the price of a warship in 1987. It’s fairly typical of the kind of social commentary that popped up in videos of the late ’80s and early ’90s but not a bad clip by any means.
It’s hard to recommend this as a purchase because it’s so short, but it’s well worth a rental from services like Netflix.