3 hours of MTV

Captured during the early hours of Sunday, when they actually show music videos.

Red means it was my first exposure to the music. It's pretty much all my first exposure to the videos.

Not a lot to say about The Darkness, They continue to appear to enjoy themselves, and I continue to enjoy watching them. Love Is Just A Feeling is yet another cliche - rocking on the top of a mountain / in caves / down the rushy glen. I won't pretend that there's great evangelical power in this one - if you like the Darkness, you will like this video and if not, not.

Interlude: Celebrity Deathmatch. CD has started creating its own mythology, and the results are predictably rubbish.

Reptilia is a well made and executed song that I just don't care for. Have The Strokes made a video yet which isn't just "Hey hey, we're the Strokes"?

Say what you like, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers always seem to be having fun in their videos. Fortune Faded is a bit tougher than usual, to the point where you realise that a joint RHCP - Foo Fighter supergroup is only a matter of time.

Sugababes' standard but still pretty likeable In The Middle gets one of those videos where each of the band gets a section where they have their own outfit, their own atmosphere and their name written on the screen - like S Club 7 or Steps used to do on their first few videos. No need for that sort of thing now, I'd have thought.

I thought Big Boi was ... bigger. The Way You Move is from his side of the album, and clearly the sort of thing that we assumed was entirely Andre 3000's doing. Bootytastic video, full of complicated and interesting situations, all sexy. And a slightly fruity agile man,

Is anyone buying N.E.R.D. as stars in their own right? She Wants To Move is a fantastic oppressive take-your-woman track, but watching these (yeah, yeah) nerds yelling "She's Sexy!" is the weak link in the post-apocalyptic after thunderdome video.

There's somethihng to be said for recognising when someone has already claimed your schtick and moving on, or at least not releasing it as a single. I've heard Keane's Somewhere Only We Know a dozen times without realising thast it wasn't a subpar Travis track, and the video, wherein they travel into the wild to play their music, maan, does them no favours in this respect either.

Evanescence will have some real problems if the lady is the only permanent vocalist: she has a fine voice, and they make a fine noise, but the boy-girl thing is what really nails Bring Me To Life. The video is over-the-top gothistry, and brings out the pseudo-Anne-Rice touches in the song nicely.

Blink-182 have made a quiet Cure-ish song with a "complicated" beat, and a Victorian Suicide Girls video. May the lord have mercy on us all.

Keane : Travis :: Kylie Minogue's Red-Blooded Woman : Sugababes. Not that Kylie should be forbidden from dabbling, by any means, but this really isn't any cop. The reference to Dead Or Alive is particularly strange, being as she is a walking eighties reference point herself.

Dip It Low starts with Christina Milian writhing about like Kylie used to in the olden days (okay, also every female pop singer for the last 15 years), and then continues in that vein, crossing handily the line between "I am a foxy lady" and "I'm the star of a stag night". The track is interesting, a tripping oriental medlody and her light Beyonceish vocals disguising the fact that the lyrical content is pure filth.

Arrgh, Nickelback! Fuck off! Chad Kroeger still sounds like every single line is the money shot. Even the ones that go "doo-doo-doo-doo". An attitude of overcompensation which is also reflected in the song being titled Feeling Way(!) Too(!) Damn(!) Good

Maroon 5 - Harder To Breath. Wow, this is interesting, funky white rock that sounds familiar for a lot of the way through, until the harmony voice in the chorus suggests that it might just be a bunch of chancers who bought up the notebooks of Terence Trent D'Arby. The video's not much cop, mind, just the boys in a room.

My views on Toxic are fairly typical, and so I'd love it even if the video looked like Maroon 5. Fortunately the video is a nuanced and powerful vehicle for a contemporary message - Britney Spears want to make it with you. Now. If you have State Secrets for her to rob, so much the better.

Jamelia's Thank You is a strange Bond-titles type video for a great R&B number (lyrical content- approximately Christina 's Fighter)

They still make Nelly Furtado, then. Try is basically the same schtick as her first album, and I don't know if anyone has been as comprehensively left in the dust by everyone between albums 1 and 2.

The video for the remix of Blu Cantrell's Breathe (which I don't think orignally featured Sean Paul) has a fantastic color scheme and filter applied to it that makes the whole thing seem cell shaded. I don't know why noone's thought of it before. The track itself is simple but fun. Sean Paul's Blackness Quotient seems to be varying wildly from video to another (though filters can't be ruled out here, of course).

The Darkness again.

Britney again.

Jesus, Dee-lite should sue The Black Eyed Peas. For the video to Hey Mama, rather than the pretty uptempo ode to getting down/it on. Actually, No Doubt might have a case as well, as might the Fugees. Ah, never mind then.

Yeeees, this is what I'm talking about. Christina Aguilera's video for Fighter is completely batshit, and couldn't stick more symbolism in with a trowel. The actual track itself is not quite up to it, but I don't know if She Wants To Move could come correct in this context.

I have heard much of this Wayne, and his Fountains. The song is perfectly good Rick Springfield territory, but the video is just WRONG.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers again, with a video for the title track of By The Way, which would probably be better if I recognised the guest star (is it that arrested guy from Mr Show?)

Keane again.

Sugababes again.

Jesus, do they still make Usher? The song + the video for Yeah gives the amusing impression that he's makes these smooth moves on the ladeez with L'il Jon yelling "encouragement" at him from across the room. also note: just because you're all doing the dancing at the same time, doesn't make it any good.

The Strokes again, with 12:51. The song is both short and catchy (sucker for handclaps in rock, me), but the video is a masterpiece of Tron-worship. Shame they just do their old "looking bored" routine over it.

I am a fickle god, and I don't have to tolerate The Vines' Nirvana worship just because I liked it last time. Off with you!

A note to Fefe Dobson - if many lyrics of your first single (and most of the lysics of the first verse) are of the Edie Brickell "lahdidah lo-de-do" variety, then people will assume that you're some sort of talentless fool. This is also the case if you're a talentless fool. Being from the soundtrack of The Perfect Score won't help you here.

Blink-182 again. Somewhere a fairy has dropped down dead.

Travis live! Though not by much. This is slowpaced half-hearted mulch by Travis standards, and whoever is responsible for the urban cowboy/indian quest video should be shot.

I wonder how Pink's doing? She's still a little bit off the wall, a little bit in your face, but in startling non-cover God is a DJ, the worlds allright for a chance, and the video is full of fellow freaks having a good time. I still reckon she's Gwen Stefani.

Snow Patrol - Chocolate. A song about making a start again, and something that could see the wee tykes well, if people are looking for a smaller, more uncertain version of Doves (wiv harmonies). The video has a lovely gimmick at the end.

The Darkness again.

Sugababes again.

Outkast again.

George Michael - Amazing is pretty back-to-basics, nothing that would look out of place on whatever album Fast Love was off. The video clearly harks back to Faith era while keeping it in a post-modern stylee.

It's gratifying from a retention of cool points viewpoint to find out that I don't think Coldplay's The Scientist is great like Clocks. Closer nervous inspection reveals that it's a close-run thing: it only just outstays the misery and introspection. The video has one idea, and it wasn't that clever when Pharcyde did it at least 6 years ago.

The Strokes - Reptilia again

Blink-182 again

Keane again

N.E.R.D. again