I think this boils down to whether OK Go is focusing too much on video rather than the songs, as Mark suggests.  Who knows? I do know that the band went with a producer with an R & B bent, to take their sound in new directions. I'm not sure how I feel about the song. The video overwhelms the song on first viewing.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Carpenter <stagefright@msn.com.au>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 22:06:09 
To: <audities@smoe.org>
Subject: Re: OK/Go does it again

the talented and handsome Mark Bacino wrote..
 >
 > The treadmill thing (& even the dancing one they did before that) was
 > kind of fun but this new vid and the one they did of the same song with
 > the camouflaged marching bands, all seem a little too much, like they're
 > trying too hard.  I start worrying when bands begin to care way more
 > about making videos, "going viral", Op Ed pieces and moving units,
 > rather than the music.  And sadly I believe it's beginning to show with
 > OKGO.  Haven't heard the new record but this single is terrible compared
 > to the band's previous work - what a repetitive, un-hooky, 4 chord
 > exercise.
 
 I've been a bit obsessed by this OK Go thing the last week. The first vid i 
 saw was the marching band one, and i thought it was amazing. Clever. Brave 
 (who records the audio live in videos anymore). Really creative, and a lot 
 of fun. I really liked the song too from that version. Then i saw the 
 version that everyone is talking about, and it really blew my mind. And i 
 still thought the song was great. The video continues to kill me... it's 
 like a new benchmark to me of creativity in this context.. and again, is a 
 LOT of fun. There's a lot of really funny things going on in it. I've been 
 really surprised more people have been complaining about the song. I 
 actually listened to the song the other day without the video, and i really 
 liked it. I thought it was catchy. Had a huge bass drum thing going on, 
 which i always love. Big guitars. Tiny belly things. And it's pop music and 
 people are talking about it. THAT makes me happy...
 
 And now to read the posted link about the band's issues with EMI, and how 
 they've self funded all their videos, and are being hamstrung by it all. It 
 was well written.. articulate, honest, and you could feel the sense of 
 conflicted frustration by the writer. It's worked for me. I'd been curious 
 about Ok Go in the past, but not enough to buy the records. Today, i'm going 
 to go and buy them. It is important that good creative people who understand 
 the way the 'system' now works, and are trying to be creative and have some 
 fun while trying to get themselves out there need to be supported more than 
 ever.
 
 And it sounds like pop music to me.
 
 MC