ROCKIN’ ROUND THE FLAG

Is it too late to reschedule the Bicentennial? Now that rock ‘n’ rollers finally are getting into the American spirit en masse, about a decade too late, the MTV channel is starting to look more like something that could be called the USA Network.

This “New Patriotism” takes many forms. There’s Jackson Browne singing that he wished these United States were in the right (“For America”), and then there’s the America-right-or-wrong flavor of novelties like the collaboration between wrestling heavyweight Hulk Hogan and rock lightweight Rick Derringer (“Real American”). Neither vision of the red, white and blue way is very compelling, unfortunately--at least not in the video translation.

There is something uniquely American, though, in the fact that the bottom of this barrel of current video clips is scraped by a bad actor taking on a new career. Ratings are based on a scale of 0-100.

Vid clips picked to click:

Oingo Boingo’s “Stay.” Director: David Hogan. Would you believe Danny Elfman & Co. as a sort of ghostly bumpkin band, transforming a country tavern into a hillbilly version of Disneyland’s haunted mansion? It may not make much sense, but this incongruous mixture of hoedown and hologram imagery--set to one of Oingo’s more subdued offerings, a plaintive lover’s plea--achieves a brightly hued and remarkably resonant eeriness. 71