OK Go a Go-Go

There may be more to this OK Go phenom than I grasped (see Notes from the Cultural Treadmill). The video has spawned a bunch of spin-offs. In addition to the Lego version noted by Ann Bartow in the comments, there’s a pretty funny chipmunk style version.

Update: Just noticed that Prof. Grant McCracken has posted a followup on the OK Go video:

The Ok Go video I noted last week continues to tug at me. It is an arresting piece of work, but I can’t say why, exactly, it should exercise fascination. On its face, it’s dorky guys engaged in a dorky project. (Perhaps 90s in this way but still, surely, too dorky actually to fascinate.)

At first, I thought that the power of the video come from the juxtaposition of synchronized dance and a rock band. Rock bands are obliged never to exhibit anything so ordinary as coordination. Cool in our time has been consistently defined by a refusal of anything so individuality-killing as this. For instance, the Beatles were the last band to wear a uniform, and no band in recent times has worn anything coordinated except as a rather good joke.

But no. I think there is something else going, and if you will indulge me I am going to see if I can figure it out.

And then it gets weird. But always interesting.