Kanye West Debuts "Love Lockdown" Video on "Ellen"

Kanye West premiered his new video for "Love Lockdown" today on Ellen. Like the three "Flashing Lights" videos before it, "Lockdown" makes for a strange viewing, with a despondent West loafing around depressed in a white room surrounded by a bunch of African tribes and 15-foot women covered in Day-Glo paint. That's essentially the plot. At the halfway mark, a spaceship inexplicably makes an appearance, but the highlight of the whole thing is at the 1:09 when the guy with the spear breaks through the aspect ratio for a too-brief 3D feel. Still, the weirdest part this whole thing is that West premiered this clip on Ellen DeGeneres' show — maybe we can look forward to premiere of the "Heartless" video on The View. Kanye isn't the only one not using MTV to premiere new videos this week, however, as Britney Spears will debut her "Womanizer" on 20/20 Friday while Weezer unveiled their "Troublemaker" video on Yahoo!

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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