A couple of decades ago, scholarly commentary on music video was gaining commonplace status in popular culture studies, and a few theologians even got into the act. But with the waning influence of music video in popular culture, an effect of the changes in music culture (such as MTV showing fewer videos and losing its once strong hold on the musical consciousness of the broad, and especially youthful, public), that scholarly engagement has dropped off considerably in the last several years.

But now music video is making a comeback through YouTube and other video-sharing sites. No doubt it is a different kind of cultural practice this time around, through the Internet and not television, and theologians will benefit from learning how this intense relationship to video positions people to believe, feel, or do certain things in and with their lives. I look forward to learning from such research.

But in the spirit of the old (not-so-distant) days of commentary on video, I wanted to provide a few brief thoughts on this one by Sevendust for their song “Licking Cream.”

What I notice most of all is what looks like blood coursing from the instruments, through the patch cords, which become intravenous-style tubes, and end up being ingested and enjoyed by the people walking around the house. The “blood” ends up flooding the floor, and people are celebrating.

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