Favorite Music Videos: "Virtual Insanity"

Jamiroquai - "Virtual Insanity"



Before Napoleon Dynamite moon-booted his way across the stage to Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat", a poofy-hatted Jamiroquai dance himself across a room with a moving floor (or moving room frame) in an equally, if not more, iconic dance sequence in his music video for "Virtual Insanity". This was a huge video growing up, because it was basically cashing in on music videos' peak of popularity in the 90s before people would get music leaked from artists online, and before people started choosing fan-made videos set to photos and words rather than wait out the 15 seconds of solitude during the commercials that precede the Vevo and more commercial Youtube videos for artists.

Not only was this the best time to get your face time AND promote your album, this was the time when artists were compelled to make more creative and captivating videos to battle it out in TRL's cheesy studio. Jamiroquai obviously knew exactly what he was doing releasing this, because it contains some of the best music video elements: fixed-camera-angle-in-a-room, awesome clothing, and warped reality. Music videos were the video games of music in that they allowed artists and viewers to go and do whatever they wanted within this little world they created. Finally, Jamiroquai is singing of the pending doom for music videos, for CDs, and for all media outlets for the 90s on the whole - the virtual insanity of an internet-obsessed culture. A prophet with a funny hat and slick moves.

"Futures made of virtual insanity
Now always seem to be governed by this love we have
For useless, twisting of our then new technology
Oh now there is no sound for we all live underground"