The Rednex Phenomenon & Big Budget Video Awesomeness

So I was getting my records together for a party I was spinning at last weekend, and decided it's finally time to at least *put* this shit in my record bag... just in case i really wanted to set these mother fuckers off on the dance floor... the 12" to one of the most experimental fusion of music genres in history, and one of the biggest crossover smashes of all time: "Cotton Eye Joe" by Rednex.

Actual 12" artwork, original issue:


OG video from 1995*:

Rednex - Cotton Eyed Joe
by valentin73

I'd personally like to go on the record right now and say THANK YOU SWEEDEN for both a) birthing the geniuses who thought up Rednex: Janne Ericsson, Orjan Oberg, and Pat Reiniz and b) cultivating the fine, fine narcotic they all must've been partaking in when coming up with this shit. I mean, country + dancey electronica?? Who could possibly NOT like that combo? Who needs that pussy Jens Lekman when you have something much, much cooler from the same homeland?

Strange though. When I went to pull the video for "Cotton Eye Joe" from Youtube, I noticed something very odd. Aside from a really shitty dub of the video, I found that the video is NOWHERE to be found. Instead, however, there's this:


FUCKING AWESOME. Just when I thought that nothing could top the old school original, I discover that Rednex indeed did that in 2002. (Shit... what the hell was I doing in 2002? How did I miss that? Goddamnit.) As you can tell, they discovered how to improve on perfection. The fiddle has more bite, and the beats are now thick enough that even dj legend Steve Aoki's serato sets would be taken to the next level. In addition, and something that I personally love about country music, is that the budget for the video was obviously upped a shitload. I think that's where Rednex really demonstrates that it is truly on some real country shit---totally overproduced & slick videos (in an awesome way, of course), one of *the* benchmarks of the genre.

It didn't stop there though. Finding the 2002 version of "Cotton Eye Joe" set me on an amazing journey to TONS of other rad Rednex videos that, like much of the other incredible videos that have been posted here, were obviously quite expensive to make:

"Pop In An Oak"


"The Way I Mate"


"Wild and Free"


And the budget for each one of these is clearly through the roof and like I said, these are only a few examples. There are a ton of impressively high budget videos for Rednex floating around out there, really slapping around the concept of the cheaply made, viral indie rock video of today. So lame!

All this talk of big budget video has got me pretty excited though, so much in fact that I want to post one of the most awesome, underrated videos in history---"Congo" by a post-Peter, post-Phil era Genesis. Sure it's not country, but if Ray Wilson knew what was good for him, he'd grab the director of this video and go country. Check the video out though---not only does it look like the film 'Waterworld,' it probably cost even more to make. Brilliant!

"Congo":