You’ll have to forgive us for wondering, in passing, whether the reportage that Madonna is (supposedly) splitting up with husband Guy Ritchie might be in some way a ploy to get people to buy her latest album that no one really cares that much about, Hard Candy. That’s just celebrity fatigue. But it did lead us to a serious question: has a divorce–like an arrest, or a sex scandal–ever really helped a record’s popularity?
At their best, tribute videos–like trailers–are about emotional manipulation. Through a combination of music and carefully selected clips, they twist your senses until you’re almost convinced that you actually care about ER characters or even evil sharks. Given that, it’s no surprise that there’s a bounty of Brokeback Mountain videos that employ aggressive emotional exploitation tactics. Two of these tributes stand above the rest. In a bout of tragic genius someone–with a fondness for anime–came so very close to perfection, but ultimately failed… big time. Join me after the jump for tent sex, Eiffel 65, “Landslide,” and, unfortunately, Billy Corgan.
AskMen.com recently compiled a list of their top ten breakup songs, including the not-really-about-a-break-up “No Woman, No Cry,” “Achy Breaky Heart,” the freaking Cake cover of “I Will Survive,” and the heinous “I (Just) Died in Your Arms” by Cutting Crew. They had the decency to put “Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac at No. 2, but most of the list is pretty dreary–even for breakup songs! So I thought I’d make my own.
