History Main / InactionVideo

* "Leave It" by {{Yes}}. The band members in suits... just standing there and singing. (Oh yeah, [[InvertedPortrait upside down]], too.) The [[http://youtu.be/WspCZe7ve58 video that most often got played]] put all sorts of special effects on the figures, but many other versions were made, [[http://youtu.be/9IRUpFxqLKo which were variations on... the five guys standing there.]]
* LCD Soundsystem's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdRaf3-OEh4 video for "Drunk Girls"]] [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this trope. A low budget was given to a bunch of people to buy whatever costumes and props they wanted in order to use any means necessary to distract and make the band screw up while they were calmly performing, a notable difference from the usual Inaction Video where the band doesn't acknowledge their surroundings.

* [[http://youtu.be/AueGN0b_dGo "Plan A"]] by the Dandy Warhols. The band members sing, play and walk around while they LeaveTheCameraRunning.

* A sort of example would be {{Weezer}}'s video for "Undone (The Sweater Song)", where the band calmly play the song while a bunch of dogs start running around the room. This required many takes to get right, since the video itself was filmed at a faster speed and then slowed down to match the song. Also, during filming, one of the dogs shat on Patrick Wilson's kick pedal.
* TomPetty's "You Don't Know How It Feels".
* In VampireWeekend's video for "Giving Up the Gun" whenever the band appears, they ignore the (increasingly weird) tennis tournament taking place in front of them. They also ignore the guy in the background with the "Go on" sign. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccKotFwzoY Here it is]].
* What about TheVerve's iconic [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3m4e45bTo ''Bittersweet Symphony'']] music video? It shows the singer, Richard Ashcroft, walking down the street and singing/miming the lyrics while completely ignoring everything around him.

* Another example: The Replacements' "Bastards of Young". There are no background events, nor is there any more than part of a leg of a band member. There's [[LeaveTheCameraRunning just the camera, trained on a speaker with records leaning against it]]. The only "thing" that happens is when the guy gets up off the couch and kicks the speaker. Truly inaction at its most inactiony. To top it all off, the song is being played at the wrong speed, and is slightly sped up from the normal recording.
* EltonJohn's "I Want Love". The video consists solely of Robert Downey Jr. lip-synching the entire song. (According to reports, they filmed a whole bunch of takes, and for the final take - the one that was finally used - RDJ was just too exhausted to do any emoting whatsoever, which was what the director apparently wanted all along.)

* {{Perfume}}'s "I Still Love U" is just a close shot of the group singing [[MindScrew ...at least]] [[HilariousOuttakes at first.]]

* [[{{OFWGTA}} Tyler, the Creator]]'s "Yonkers" video is just him sat on a stool performing the song. And coming uncomfortably close to the camera at points whilst doing so. And [[{{Squick}} eating a cockroach]].

* [[OFWGTA Tyler, the Creator]]'s "Yonkers" video is just him sat on a stool performing the song. And coming uncomfortably close to the camera at points whilst doing so. And [[{{Squick}} eating a cockroach]].

* "Leave It" by Yes. The band members in suits... just standing there and singing. (Oh yeah, [[InvertedPortrait upside down]], too.) The [[http://youtu.be/WspCZe7ve58 video that most often got played]] put all sorts of special effects on the figures, but many other versions were made, [[http://youtu.be/9IRUpFxqLKo which were variations on... the five guys standing there.]]

Times like this call for the Inaction Video. The concept behind such a video is remarkably simple: the band or the FaceOfTheBand stand around motionless or calmly perform their song while the background's dedicated to either {{Funny Background Event}}s or a [[WildTeenParty wild party]] with lots of people. The key here being that the band never acknowledges their surroundings and just does their own thing independent of what's going on while looking completely bored/disinterested/high. May involve an extreme WeirdnessCensor.

* Possibly the UrExample: "Leave It" by Yes. The band members in suits... just standing there and singing. (Oh yeah, [[InvertedPortrait upside down]], too.) The [[http://youtu.be/WspCZe7ve58 video that most often got played]] put all sorts of special effects on the figures, but many other versions were made, [[http://youtu.be/9IRUpFxqLKo which were variations on... the five guys standing there.]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMD7Ezp3gWc "I Wanna Be Sedated"]] by TheRamones. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky sit around eating cornflakes and reading while a bunch of people enter the room and go wild. Includes a blink-and-you-miss it cameo from {{Courtney Love}}. Almost the TropeNamer before being rejected for obscurity.

* Possibly the UrExample: "Leave It" by Yes. The band members in suits... just standing there and singing. (Oh yeah, [[InvertedPortrait upside down]], too.) The [[http://youtu.be/WspCZe7ve58 video that most often got played]] put all sorts of special effects on the figures, but many other versions were made, which were variations on... the five guys standing there.

* Possibly the UrExample: "Leave It" by Yes. The band members in suits... just standing there and singing. (Oh yeah, upside down, too.) The [[http://youtu.be/WspCZe7ve58 video that most often got played]] put all sorts of special effects on the figures, but many other versions were made, which were variations on... the five guys standing there.

* Possibly the UrExample and one of the most iconic examples, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMD7Ezp3gWc "I Wanna Be Sedated"]] by TheRamones. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky sit around eating cornflakes and reading while a bunch of people enter the room and go wild. Includes a blink-and-you-miss it cameo from {{Courtney Love}}. Almost the TropeNamer before being rejected for obscurity.

* In VampireWeekend's video for "Giving up the gun" whenever the band appears, they ignore the (increasingly weird) tennis tournament taking place in front of them. They also ignore the guy in the background with the "Go on" sign. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccKotFwzoY Here it is]].

* {{Perfume}}'s "I Still Love U" is just a close shot of the group singing [[MindScrew ...at least]][[HilariousOuttakes at first.]]

* {{Perfume}}'s "I Still Love U" is just a close shot of the group singing [[HilariousOuttakes ...at least at first.]]

* Another example: The Replacements' "Bastards of Young". There are no background events, nor is there any more than part of a leg of a band member. There's just the camera, trained on a speaker with records leaning against it. The only "thing" that happens is when the guy gets up off the couch and kicks the speaker. Truly inaction at its most inactiony.

* A sort of example would be {{Weezer}}'s video for "Undone (The Sweater Song)", where the band calmly play the song while a bunch of dogs start running around the room. This required many takes to get right, since the video itself was filmed at a faster speed and then slowed down to match the song. Also, during filming, one of the dogs shat on Patrick Wilson's bass pedal.

* {{Soundgarden}} took this up to eleven with their video for "Spoonman". They're only in the video in a series of photos. The rest of the video is of the titular Artis the Spoonman. Chris Cornell later admitted they did it on purpose:

* {{Korn}}'s "Coming Undone" features the band playing the song in a desert while they ignore the sky falling and the ground collapsing. They do take notice by the end, where they unravel and fade into nothingness themselves leaving a blank white screen at the end of the video.

* The other iconic example, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lbiS1fris "Numb"]] by {{U2}}. The Edge sits and drones the lyrics while random stuff happens to him (the other guys tie him up, somebody [[FanService cuts off his shirt]], a young girl slaps him, a belly dancer appears out of nowhere, also toes if [[RuleThirtySix you're into that sort of thing]]). Aside from being probably their funniest video, the concept perfectly complements the song's lyrics about inability to cope with information overload and withdrawal.

* Spanish singer Bunbury sort of parodies this in his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx1pRhqMxA4 'Hay Muy Poca Gente']] ('Very few people') music video; in it, there is no FunnyBackgroundEvent, and the whole video is comprised of the static faces of random people (with the singer among them) and how they are hit by [[DynamicEntry random objects coming from offscreen.]] Oh, and the entire video is shot in [[RuleOfFunny slow motion]].

* Elton John's "I Want Love". The video consists solely of Robert Downey Jr. lip-synching the entire song. (According to reports, they filmed a whole bunch of takes, and for the final take - the one that was finally used - RDJ was just too exhausted to do any emoting whatsoever, which was what the director apparently wanted all along.)

* Korn's "Coming Undone" features the band playing the song in a desert while they ignore the sky falling and the ground collapsing. They do take notice by the end, where they unravel and fade into nothingness themselves leaving a blank white screen at the end of the video.
* Soundgarden took this up to eleven with their video for ''Spoonman''. They're only in the video in a series of photos. The rest of the video is of the titular Spoonman. Chris Cornell later admitted they just didn't feel like going to shoot a music video at the time.

* Possibly the UrExample and one of the most iconic examples, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMD7Ezp3gWc "I Wanna Be Sedated"]] by TheRamones. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky sit around eating cornflakes and reading while a bunch of people enter the room and go wild. Includes a blink-and-you-miss it cameo from [[{{Hole}} Courtney Love]]. Almost the TropeNamer before being rejected for obscurity.

* Korn's "Coming Undone" feature's the band playing the song in a desert while they ignore the sky falling and the ground collapsing. They do take notice by the end, where they unravel and fade into nothingness themselves leaving a blank white screen at the end of the video.

** Which ''itself'' was inspired by MassiveAttack's video for "Unfinished Sympathy". The difference? Massive Attack's video was filmed live, while The Verve's was staged - Ashcroft tried to do it live the first time and got beaten up.