" Queens of the Stone Age developed a style of riff-oriented, heavy music. Their sound has since evolved to incorporate a variety of different styles and influences, including working with ZZ Top member Billy Gibbons and steady contributor Mark Lanegan, both of whom have contributed influences from genres such as blues and grunge. The band began with Josh Homme in 1996. The band's first release was Gamma Ray, a two-track EP featuring the songs "Born to Hula" and "If Only Everything" released in January 1996. The band's first live appearance was probably November 20, 1997, at OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington. In December of the same year, the band released a split EP, Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age, which was the first official release by the band under the name Queens of the Stone Age. The band released their self-titled debut, Queens of the Stone Age (1998) on Loose Groove records. Songs for the Deaf was a critical and commercial success and its popularity peaked when the album reached gold status in 2003, with sales peaking at over 900,000 copies. The singles "No One Knows" and "Go with the Flow" became hits on radio and MTV. "No One Knows" received heavy rotation on music video channels culminating in a nomination for the MTV2 Award at 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, "Go With The Flow" won Best Special Effects and was nominated for Best Art Direction."
Music video by Queens Of The Stone Age performing The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret. (C) 2000 Interscope Records
Their first music video "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret" is a combination performance/concept/narrative music video. The dark atmopshere of music combined with seedy sexual themes (sleazy motel) and projected performances leads to a very ambiguous narrative shrouded in mystery (Highlighted in the chorus). Performance/lyrical-wise suggesting that this sort of act (sex in a motel is something best kept behind closed doors with possible links to prostitution.
Music video by Queens Of The Stone Age performing No One Knows. (C) 2002 Interscope Geffen (A&M) Records A Division of UMG Recordings Inc. Directed by Dean Karr and Michel Gondry
It was the first single and second track from their third album, Songs for the Deaf, and was released on November 26, 2002. "No One Knows" was a chart success, becoming the band's only single to top the US Modern Rock charts. Sticking to their performance/narratve routes the video is split into two, your general performance filmed on tri-caster and a narrative played out in the woods. They seem to be branching off their tradtional mysteriously atmospheric music videos to a more dark comedy style. I call it "Dark comedy" because the general narrative is funny but the song is a sort of juxtapostion. The audience would laugh as much as they would if the song was up-beat or more use of lighter, attractive colours.
Music video by Queens Of The Stone Age performing Go With The Flow. (C) 2002 Interscope Geffen (A&M) Records A Division of UMG Recordings Inc
This is where we see the band really explore with their style now. Their song - more heavy and up-beat, their video - fast paced. Probably now they want to be labelled a one style band and are showing off what they're capable of. The video shows sexual themes such as a metaphor of two cars colliding with each other; symbolizing intercourse and an image of a trident showing some erotic attributes. Filmed entirely in greenscreen/tri-caster the video is now labelled a performance/concept with more emphasis on the concept of sex which links to their first video "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret"
Music video by Queens Of The Stone Age performing Make It Wit Chu. (C) 2007 Interscope Records - Directed by Rio Hackford
Finally, their most recent music video "Make It Wit Chu" which is a mixture of both performance and narrative. The video begins with Joshua Homme driving to Rancho De La Luna and the band setting up their musical instruments. They then start to perform the song. The video shows footage of the band performing along with shots of several couples making out and talking. The band appear to be performing for the couples. The sex theme arises again with the band suggesting they are influeced on sexual suggestives. The video/song is more light-hearted and warm (yellow/golden tint to the video, slower tempo) than the bands previous work implying they are branching off from their traditional dark/heavy rock for and opting for a more mellow style. This is perhaps how they recieved their dubbed genre of desert rock, psychedelic rock or stoner rock for being a bit more "out there" than most rock bands.
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