Welcome to the Machine is one of my favorite songs of all time. As someone who's indecisive on all time favorites, I can say with certainty this is a favorite I can call off the top of my head.
Pink Floyd and their artistic visions need no introduction, it's common knowledge how deep they go, but I imagine we're smart enough to see the point behind The Wall. You may think at this point I'm gonna deride the band here, but I'm not, and I do bring up The Wall because the director of it comes here, well director of key segments anyhow.
Enter Gerald Scarfe, a cartoonist who stands as one of the still standing old greats. He is primarily known for directing the animated segments on The Wall, as well as handling the art direction on the initial album. He had also directed a music video for Welcome to the Machine.
This is interesting as music videos wouldn't become prevalent until the 80s, most you see are short films and The Beatles' visualizers. What this was meant to be was a visualizer for the band's live performance during the In the Flesh tour. As something in the background for a live show, it's a fitting combination, action occurs on all fronts, but on its own... is kinda basic.
My biggest issue with the video is how slow it feels. The most build-up we get is with that giant metallic creature at the start, but afterwards we have imagery that's somehow both too vague and too obvious. We get the idea they're telling us something in relation to, I dunno, fragility? I get the point behind the entire song, but I feel it's not best reflected here, perhaps if the metallic creature was behind a majority of the happenings in this I can put it to some clear meaning.
In terms of it being too obvious and too vague, we can come up with our own ideas, but we don't know for sure what the initial intention was. I'm just saying, if The Wall is anything to go by they make their intentions clear. This feels more like a feast for the eyes, but it's so slow you'd feel yourself going in and out of focus most of the time.
I did say it works with the live shows, but when you just have the video, the visuals don't do the song justice.
Welcome to the Machine uses synths to simulate machinery noises, the kinds of noises you'd picture in your head, but with how slow the imagery is, as well as its lack of a punch most of the time, it doesn't fit that well. It doesn't help that the lyrics are mostly specific, and the imagery contrasts with it.
Welcome to the Machine is either a discussion on the futility of rebellion, or a rockstar's slow descent into the corporate music industry, no longer about them but what the higher ups want them to be. I hardly got that from this video.
The video is still very well animated, and for something that might've been done with a deadline attached, I think it'd be better to see as a backdrop to a live performance.
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