I’ve already gushed about the innovative, creative energy that defined LEGO Club TV and how no other era of The LEGO Group’s marketing has been able to replicate its grassroots and authentic sensibilities.
SOURCE: YOUTUBE
The LEGO Club Show pioneered a lot of segments and concepts that marketing for LEGO would later take and evolve through concepts like “Rebrickulous,” an online series focused around challenges using LEGO bricks in the vein of YouTube channels like Dude Perfect.
Inspired by trendy challenge videos on TikTok and YouTube, “LEGO Sabotage” “traps” several influencers inside the LEGO House for 24 hours who then have to escape solving challenges using LEGO bricks, but with a twist: one team member sabotages each of the challenges. Other current marketing on the official LEGO YouTube channel includes small building segments, how-to videos, and clips from TV shows like Ninjago and DreamZzz.
I can’t say this thumbnail sells me on the video…
Missing from the contemporary line-up of marketing and promotional material for LEGO is one that remains exclusive to the The LEGO Club Show and the marketing of its era: stop motion music videos.
A shot from the LEGO Club Show music video “LEGO, Let’s Go!” - Source: YouTube
Brickfilms and Music Videos - They’ve Always Been Around
Music videos created using LEGO bricks were by no means a concept pioneered by the company. As a kid, I watched several Brickfilms recreating Weird Al’s parodies. Brickfilmer Oblong Studios made several LEGO music videos, including two that I hold in high regard as some of my favorite stop motion films to this day: “Changes (for 6 Music)” and “Brick It.” The White Stripes used LEGO bricks in a stop-motion music video for their song “Fell in Love with a Girl.” I also can’t forget the spectacular interpretation of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” by creator Dylan Woodley, who would also create music videos of songs by both Foster the People and Ed Sheeran.
But I wanted to know more about the brickfilms specifically from LEGO Club TV. I chatted about their origins with the producer, Roger Cameron, then Creative Director for The LEGO Group, and David Pagano, founder of the animation studio Paganomation.
Roger Cameron: I think Scott [Decoteau] and I were just talking about different ideas for segments and “music video” was something that we both saw the potential in. One of the first songs I wrote was the theme song for the LEGO Club Show. It was animated by a super talented director out of LA, Jared Eberhard, who also did work for snowboard companies and then later on for brands like Puma. So once we decided to build out the LEGO Music Video segment idea we naturally explored all different genres of music to do.
Several animators were commissioned for LEGO Club TV’s music videos, most notably David Pagano, who also worked on many of “The Adventures of Max” shorts that would also be featured on The LEGO Club Show. David Pagano, head of Paganomation, began working with The LEGO Group after he was interviewed by Scott for LEGO Club TV on the process of stop motion animation.
It’s All About the Brick
The music videos for The LEGO Club Show were extremely varied in genre, covering pop, heavy metal, hip hop and country. As with the rest of the content found on The LEGO Club Show, the core idea behind the music videos was highlighting the creative potential found in building with the brick. “Build,” a heavy metal song, has only one line in the entire song: “build,” as a dwarf rebuilds medieval vehicles and homes into creations out of a death metal album cover. If that doesn’t get the message of the value of the brick across I don’t know what could. A remake of the 80s ad jingle “Zack the LEGO Maniac” was also created for the series of music videos.
“This One Brick” much like “Build” is very straightforward in its lyrical content with the sole line of the song being “This one brick / You can build anything.” The music video consists of a 2x4 yellow brick hopping across an urban street seemingly generating cool creations that come to life across the city.
Country Buildin’ - The Best Country Music Has Been in a Long Time
Roger Cameron: I am not a fan of country music at all, but one day Scott and I went out to lunch at Subway and the radio was playing a country song. I was laughing at the lyrics and the southern drawl and at times the words were almost indiscernible. I thought, that’s it, we gotta do a ridiculous country song.
One day we were both at a sound studio recording some cool creations voiceovers and the producer reminded us that we still needed to record the country song. We were totally not prepared so I asked the producer to pull up a stock country track to listen to. I flipped over the piece of paper and started to write down the lyrics that came to my head. Five minutes later we were back in the sound studio singing and recording. Did I mention I’m not a singer?
David Pagano: The video for “Country Buildin’” was completely developed by the Paganomation team. Roger and Scott at TLG wrote and recorded the song. Once I heard it, I immediately knew that the best way to execute the video was to use our brick-built PaganoPuppets, and they agreed!
David’s PaganoPuppets were pioneered in Paganomation’s “Little Guys” animation, a prolific animation in the Brickfilm community of the early 2000s. The use of these puppets gives a distinct look to “Country Buildin’” (or “I Love Buildin’”) that the rest of the music videos don’t have.
PaganoPuppet from “Little Guys!”, Source: Paganomation
I like “Country Buildin’.” Unlike the majority of mainstream contemporary country on the radio in the 2010s by artists like Florida Georgia Line, “Country Buildin’” lends its sound to the Bluegrass genre which I find to be far, far better than the contemporary works aired on the radio.
As much as I like “Country Buildin’,” there’s one song from LEGO Club TV’s lineup of music videos that stands above all the rest…
Louise the Black Eye Piece - The Coolest MF on the Block
“Black Eye Piece'' is arguably the best music video to come out of LEGO Club TV’s lineup. Outside of “Country Buildin’” it's the most memorable when talking with friends and others who grew up on LEGO Club TV, and is the only song without direct thematic or lyrical connections to the creative potential of the LEGO brick. Instead, it’s about a cool minifigure named Louise who has a black eye piece for a head.
Roger Cameron: I think the idea for that song came from the actual LEGO piece with the eye and how similar that sounds to the hip-hop group “Black Eyed Peas.” I’m definitely not a singer and especially not a rapper but I was able to write and record that song and then the audio producer was able to change the pitch on my voice in post-production so that you couldn’t tell it was me. That song was written and recorded in a hotel room while on a trip for LEGO Club TV. David Pagano did an awesome job with the animation on our music videos, he is super talented!
Source: Bricklink
David Pagano: The music videos were almost always developed in close collaboration with LEGO. I think the phrase “Black Eye Piece” may have been something I threw out at a LEGO Club TV brainstorming session in Enfield (LEGO’s headquarters in the US); thinking about the literal black eye piece. LEGO’s crew then wrote and recorded the song based on that title, and we developed it together into the final video.
Due to the abstract nature of the medium, we almost never receive scripts for music videos. LEGO would simply send us a music track and their rough ideas. Sometimes, they would also send existing music videos to help inspire the tone and style. “Black Eye Piece,” for example, used the videos for “Cappuccino” by MC Lyte (traveling down a city street) and “Mo Money Mo Problems” by The Notorious B.I.G. (the fish-eye lens shots) as reference.
A fish-eye lens shot in “Mo Money Mo Problems” - Source: YouTube
After listening to the inspirations for the tone and style for “Black Eye Piece,” the sound and direction of the video do a really good job of capturing the overall vibe of hip-hop in the 2000s. The lyrics of the song are quite funny too, the best line arguably being, “Normal deuces use glasses / While I just use a monocle / Hey look over there son / I think I see Bionicle” as the camera cuts to a Rakshi dancing to the track. It’s a lot of fun. Do I listen to it in the car and sing along to it to this day? Yes, yes I do.
Beyond the Original Run: Other LEGO Music Videos
Beyond the original run of music videos for LEGO Club TV, there were only two more that followed in this vein that were released after 2011.
To tie in with series eight of the Collectible Minifigures line, a music video promoting the wave of new figures was released titled “Brick of Dawn.”
Source: YouTube
“Brick of Dawn'' is not a stop motion, nor should it be in the same category as works like “Black Eye Piece'' or “Country Buildin’.” All of the minifigures are puppeteered with simple movements hidden to the camera. The video focuses on a house party whose guests are the 16 minifigures found in the CMF series. It’s catchy enough, and its sound is emblematic of the dance and EDM music of the 2010s that I grew up on.
Source: YouTube
The other music video, released in 2015, was “Can’t Stop Building!” This video is far more emblematic of the original run of LEGO Club TV music videos. “Can’t Stop Building!” - directed by Spencer Katz, whose film Egyptian Holiday is a modern classic of the brickfilm community - is about a kid who builds cool creations everywhere he goes. The music is heavily influenced by ska and other punk genres. While it was released years after I had any real investment in what was produced by LEGO Club, it’s just as enjoyable as the music videos I grew up with and exudes “The LEGO Movie” energy long before that film was ever conceived.
LEGO Club TV’s core theme was the value of the brick. And it was very clearly reflected in the imaginative direction and lyrics of their music videos. The energy of these videos can not be replicated today as it was so heavily influenced by the culture of The LEGO Group, the Brickfilm community of the time, and the popular music of the late 2000s and early 2010s. I can only hope that, should any traditional stop motion music videos be created for LEGO moving forward, they’re just as creative and exciting as those developed for LEGO Club TV.
Are you a normal deuce who uses glasses? Or do you use a monocle? What was your favorite music video from LEGO Club TV? Let us know in the comments below!
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