I�ve been thinking lately that one of the more distressing signs that the music video scene has gotten itself stuck in neutral gear is the fact that the medium has, to date, produced so few real stylists. What I mean by this is that there seems to be a distinct paucity of artists whose clips convey a discernible, and ongoing, sense of that performer or group�s individual nature. Now understand that I�m not speaking here about music per se; there is always enough good music to go around (well, almost always), and we like different singers and bands precisely because they each give us something a bit different in the way of sound, or point of view, or just plain panache. It is the style that separates them, and it is the appreciation (or rejection) of that style that enables us, as listeners, to define our tastes and preferences, our likes and dislikes.

When it comes to watching groups or singers in their video clips, though, it�s a different story. In general, the most successful video peformers are those �blessed� with either outrageous personalities (say, David Lee Roth or Cyndi Lauper), high-concept attitudes (one clenched Billy Idol fist is worth a thousand chords), or some strong extra-musical sense, be it visually inclined (mid-to-late �70s David Bowie) or comedically inclined (Cheech and Chong, �Weird� Al Yankovic). We�ve previously discussed in this space the stamp that particular directors like Zbigniew Rybczynski or Stephen Johnson can put on a video, but that�s an entirely different matter altogether.