Tag: #YouTube

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“when the party’s over”

Emerging alternative-pop artist Billie Eilish has written many songs that describe loss and heartbreak. With over 2.5 billion overall combined streams globally, one of her most popular songs, “when the party’s over” describes the ups and downs of a toxic relationship.

“when the party’s over” was written by Billie’s own brother, Finneas O’Connell, who had claimed he had just “wrote this crazy f*cking song.” The lyrics allude to an unhealthy relationship, as she confronts her partner about their relationship, but it is hard to let go.

“Don’t you know I’m no good for you
I’ve learned to lose you, can’t afford to
Tore my shirt to stop you bleedin’
But nothin’ ever stops you leavin’”

lyrics from http://storyofsong.com/story/when-the-partys-over/

The chorus repeats “And I’ll call you when the party’s over” alluding to the two meeting up after a party because they need each other, even though Billie is trying to move on away from them. This concept is relatable to many people, as unhealthy relationships can tend to spiral out of control.

The meaning of the title can also have another meaning, other than toxic relationships with other people. It can also allude to the anxieties that people encounter when they go to a social event with other people around. Many people can appear to be fine at a big social gathering, but what happens to them after? It may be a huge sigh of relief that it’s over, because it can be overwhelming to some.

One of Billie’s main inspirations is Tyler the Creator. The two seem to have a thing for merging traditional body horror with the psychological torture of social anxiety in their music videos.

“when the party’s over” video was inspired by one of Billie’s own fans, where they drew a picture of her with black eyes and black dripping down her face. She was immediately star-struck by the image, and wanted to recreate it in this video.

Billie Eilish’s “when the party’s over” music video

When the video released, fans went nuts over it and curiosity struck as to how these effects were created. The video shows Billie alone in an empty room, dressed in all white. She forcefully drinks an entire glassful of a pure black liquid. As she is finished, the same black liquid oozes out of both her eyes. This is not the average “girl crying and mascara dripping down her face” kind of vibe, but more of a gruesome yet beautiful image.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqBZGBlFGVH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Billie’s instagram (post now deleted) of how the effects were made in “when the party’s over”

As Billie drinks the liquid, it seems as if she is forcefully finishing all of it. Since so many of her songs are about toxic relationships, the black substance alludes to an unhealthy relationship

YouTuber “Cherry Pie” comments: “My interpretation of the video: Her sitting in an all white room with white clothing means that she is in a place of mind where she pure and happy. Even though many bad things have happened (which is kept in the cup) she is trying to rethink it to make herself a happier person. That’s why if you think about it she looks like she is hesitating to drink the cup of black liquid because she knows it will hurt her, but she can’t help herself so she gives into the pain. She drinks it and then the black tears come out of her eyes to show that she is suffering from not letting go on the darkness in her mind. Before the end, you can see she isn’t moving from her seat, she stays silent and still while this pain goes inside of her, and because she didn’t say anything and no one came to help, the sadness ripped her apart to death. I think this video represents that if there is sadness in your heart and everyday it gets heavier, do not stay silent about it. Heartbreaks and other things in life can be terrible, but do not hold it in, or else it will find it’s way out one way or another. Find someone to talk to your pain about. Don’t stay silent about it “

This comment stood out the most, as it also had 3.6k likes on it. Although most of the time, YouTube comments focus more on the negative aspects of a video, Cherry Pie’s comment is an example that now and then, there are people on the internet trying to spread love and awareness. I would agree/stand by this interpretation, as it describes a lot of pain that Billie is experiencing, and by drinking the entire glass of black liquid, she is giving in to the pain because she can’t help it. In an interview about the music video, Billie even stated that she enjoys pain and being uncomfortable: “Dude, I bring the most miserable things onto myself. I just do, I don’t know why I do it, but I do it. I just love pain. I’ve always loved pain. I love being uncomfortable.”

For the majority of the comments on this video, many focus on the positive and humerous aspects of Billie’s video. Jordan Alana comments a funny, “when you accidentally get liquid eyeliner in your eye 😩😩” while Madison Mitchell uses a popular meme “Me: Billie stop crying ink Billie Eilish: i said i like it like that”

Although not all the comments are as deep and emotional like Cherry Pie’s, there are fewer negative comments than one expects to see on the Internet. Rather than slamming on the artist, many YouTube comments commend her on the powerful message she is sending to her audience.

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KNOWER and The New Age of Shock in Art

More and more our modern society seems to be catering itself towards the attributes of shock value. Los Angeles based electro-funk duo “KNOWER” is no exception to this. The band consists of vocalist Genevieve Artadi along with drummer and keyboardist Louis Cole, who create a sound which borrows elements of uptempo funk music and pairs it with complex jazz harmony and bold EDM production techniques. Sam Ribakoff sums up the effects of their music, “If you’ve heard any of Knower’s music, you can imagine how losing one’s mind can be a possible side effect.”

Shocking ones audience is nothing new in music or any sort of art. In a New York Times poll, readers were asked what they thought was the most shocking piece of art from the past century. While Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” placed 3rd in the poll, it is noted that the recent performance of the work by the New York Philharmonic did not cause any stir. This is testimony of the fact that our culture has desensitized itself to things that were once surprising. Naturally, catching the attention of an audience with music and visual is immensely more difficult for Artadi and Cole today than it was for Stravinsky approximately a century before.

Excerpt from Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” which shocked audiences for its outlandish dance routines in 1913

Louis Cole discusses his own mentality when writing music for KNOWER in an interview. To emphasize that he writes for the sake of listener’s reactions, he states that he tries to write “A chord progression that makes you feel like you’re happy but also like getting stung by bees”

It doesn’t stop there. Knower is notorious for sporting a wardrobe that matches the level of absurdity in their music. Here we can see Louis Cole dressed in an absurdly oversized corn t-shirt that could double as a Halloween costume, while Genevieve sports a rain poncho and her hair put up in a style that matches the size of her own head.

Perhaps the best example to demonstrate just how intense KNOWER’s work can be is the music video for the song BUTTS T**S MONEY.

The concept of the song is simple, “Butts and tits and money, Cause I’m broke and ugly.” The lyric seems to note a reliance on sexuality to promote music. Vocalist Genevieve Artadi demonstrates this within the video. She is shown thrusting with hands on her hips and even riding an inflatable swan while wearing a bathing suit. These visuals bring the lyrics to life and make the subject matter a very real thing.

Sonically, the song has an intense impact, featuring Cole’s strong and funky drum beats, a fat sounding bass synth, and Artadi’s screaming line “GIVE IT TO ME NOW.” The music video only further emphasizes this powerful sound; at the start of the chorus, a CGI visual is used to show two penis shaped rockets shooting through Cole and Artadi’s heads. This is followed by flashing lights of the word, “SEARING,” aggressive dancing from the band, and a multitude of green screened Genevieve Artadi’s. When questioned on this creative concept, Cole responded, “We just go with what looks cool that has like a off the bat visceral impact.

Seemingly, Cole’s mission is achieved with the video. In the comments section, many reference drugs to stress this impact of the experience. Youtube user Skeepan writes, “Holy fUCK this is not the shit you watch when you’re high. I say this not at all because I was high when watching, but because I had to make sure I wasn’t in the middle of the video.”

KNOWER has a message and is set on being heard. By implementing such extreme visuals to a song that is already so vivid in its message and its sound quality, Cole and Artadi create an experience that is heard through all the noise of the modern world. 

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Think PYNK

So, about a year ago, Janelle Monáe blessed the world with her album Dirty Computer, which contained 14 super amazing tracks, and was also nominated for the Grammy Award Album of the Year . One of the most notable was her song PYNK:

As you can probably guess from the thumbnail, this video blew up the internet and simultaneously summoned the community of internet dwellers to emerge from the deeps of the net and provide Janelle with the worship and praise she deserves:

When discussing the nature of this song, Monáe describes something more of an anthem or manifesto rather than your generic 21st century love song, saying:

“PYNK is a brash celebration of creation. self love. sexuality. and pussy power! PYNK is the color that unites us all, for pink is the color found in the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of humans everywhere… PYNK is where the future is born….”

The idea of the future being born with PYNK is prevalent throughout the entire music video. Right from the start, PNKY creates this futuristic and seemingly unearthly landscape: The floating car seen in the middle of an entirely pink-hued desert shows a different world where the freedom of “sexuality” and “self love” that Monáe describes is a reality, subtly implying that this pink world is what we should strive to have. Throughout the course of the video, the color transitions from the futuristic pink overlay (which symbolizes this new world) to more real world color, which implies that this “pink reality” is attainable and we are on the path towards it (but not quite there yet).

Throughout the piece, there are several visual images that create quite an impact. Most notably perhaps are the Vagina pants. These pants, whose coloring resembles the two tones that make up the labia majora and the labia minora, provide a powerful (and in the eyes of some commenters, “graphic”) visual representation of the “pink” she is singing about. It is also worth noting that everyone’s vagina pants look different: they are all different widths and sizes with different ratios of light pink to dark pink, showing that there is no one “correct” way a woman’s vagina, and by extension, a woman should look.

But, it’s not all about vagina. Like most of Monáe’s songs, the lyrics of PYNK are packed with multiple meanings. Monáe sings: “Pink like the inside of your…baby / Pink like the walls and the doors…maybe / Pink like your fingers in my…maybe / Pink is the truth you can’t hide / Pink like your tongue going round, baby” while the backup vocals reminds us that “deep inside, we’re all just pink.” So even though this song talks a lot vaginas and sex, it also focuses on the fact that in the end the other “pink” parts of a person, which Monáe mentions later in the song when she sings “Pink like the folds of your brain, crazy” and “Pynk, like the holes of your heart,” are equally as important and valued.

This song also isn’t all about female sex, from the opening line “Pink like the inside of your…baby” and when it is sung again in the second verse as “Pink like the inside of your…maybe,” Janelle Monáe acknowledges the fact that not all women have vaginas, therefore making the song about more about gender than a women’s sex. Monáe extends “pynk”-ness outside of physical genitalia, showing that being a woman and being “pynk” don’t have biological limitations. This is not only hinted at in within the lyrics, but also shown visually as two of the women are not wearing vagina pants; which really shows the incredibly amount of detail that went into crafting the subtleties of the song.

One of the most important things that PYNK does is find a way to display and celebrate female sexuality without trying to appeal to the male gaze. The male gaze, for those who are unfamiliar, is an artistic term coined by film critic Laura Mulvey to describe the depiction of women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer from the masculine, heterosexual perspective. Monáe’s depiction of women visually comes out of a desire to celebrate the beauty of all women. This idea culminates visually during the second chorus when Monáe is sporting this number:

First the pubic hair, a direct act of rebellion against the male gaze, which bolsters the ridiculous idea that in order for a woman to be most pleasing or attractive to a man she must be hairless or she is considered unattractive or undesirable. The bold hands-on-hips confident stance that Monáe has in this moment is incredibly empowering; shattering the notion that only a person who looks a certain way can be confident. Then there is the “sex cells,” a fun play on words, with “sex cells” like reproductive organs and also the fact that sex sells. Of course, last but certainly not least, their is the pink background which emcompasses the video at all times.

Like any racy and progressive music video, PYNK received its fair share of negative reactions. Some were pretty outrageous and made some outlandish accusations:

It’s definitely the growth hormones in our food, they’re turning everyone gay and making them aware of the people around them. Better watch out, Tony.
Wow. Couldn’t the way the society you live in, TheyLive YouSleep, be considered a fascists suppressing a person’s ability to express themselves freely by imposing your preconceived notions of morality and decency on everyone and calling it “morally correct?”

However, some people did express some alternate points of view that were more…earthly:

Although it is understandable why some people may have viewed PYNK in this way, there are several holes in these arguments that show a lack of understand of the entire concept of the video. The “too styled” and “too obvious” nature of PYNK that lisa evers complains about was the Monáe’s intent. By creating a highly stylized and obvious cinematic world, Monáe is more successfully able to exaggerate how crazy it is that we need to have music designed specifically to empower women in the first place (shouldn’t female empowerment be a given in our society?). By creating an obvious overlay, Monáe is also able to more effectively include the hidden meanings and double entendres throughout the entire piece, making them more understandable by a broader range of people (did you catch the “I grab back” @ to Donald Trump at 2:26 or all the trophies showing female athletes at 2:51?).

In response to TheBlackBird WhoAnnoyedPoe; the song and video, solely based on the fact that there is so much symbolism and is so well constructed verbally, makes it impossible for it to be “dumb,” regardless of whether or not you like the music or not. You can disagree with the concept and the execution of the video, but it technically isn’t “dumb” due to the sheer amount of intelligence needed to create symbolism in language. The point of how “men don’t going around empowering themselves in dick costumes” is a rather interesting one. Yes, that doesn’t happen in modern society, but perhaps it’s because we in exist in a world where men are born into a position of empowerment automatically and therefore these drastic measures of reclaiming the power behind their genitalia is unnecessary? This comment also highlights the stigma around genitalia that Janelle Monáe addressed through the use of her vagina pants: Why is it that a vagina is only viewed positively when it is associated with sex and male pleasure (especially in heteronormative culture)?

That is part of the beauty of Janelle Monáe’s PYNK; it addresses all of these unanswerable questions in some way shape or form. PYNK highlights powerful message of self-love, acceptance, and the embrace of female sexuality in a way that is playful and a little outlandish while still having incredible meaning and symbolism behind every choice. PYNK is an anthem for empowerment, an song to inspire and celebrate women in modern day society.

PYNK Fun Fact courtesy of the internet:

Here’s the link from the comment (beware, it’s in Dutch): https://www.ad.nl/utrecht/centraal-museum-utrecht-koopt-beroemde-vaginabroek~a84e666d/

#1 Best PYNK Video Comment:

…(edited)
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4 Friends and 8 Treadmills

In today’s culture, a music video is much more than just a video of the artist singing their song in a well designed set. A music video is a representation of who the artist is and what they want to portray. Whether it be a short story, an animation, or even a comedy short, these are playful, artistic choices that make them unique. They become original to their sound but as well as what they like to create and portray. One band that is a perfect example of this is the band Ok Go.

Image result for ok go
https://www.npr.org/2011/01/04/132653940/ok-gos-kulash-rewrites-rock-star-rules

Ok Go is a four piece rock band from Chicago that have created their own unique artistry with their music as well as their quirky music videos. From making a Rube Goldberg Machine or filming in zero gravity, Ok Go has created numerous, iconic music videos that push the boundaries of creativity. Some of the most recognizable videos like “Needing/Getting” or “I Won’t Let You Down” have over 40 million hits on YouTube and both music videos are incredibly different.

“Needing/Getting” is the four of them in a car that has been modified with the attachments such as pneumatic arms and devices. They drive around a designed course hitting various instruments or objects that display the same pitch as their song. This is one of their biggest hits to this day with over 40 millions views.

On the other hand, “I Won’t Let You Down” was shot using Honda’s UNI CUBs. These are personal mobility units that is controlled by the rider shifting their weight. It starts off with them doing some choreography with just the four of them and they begin to add more people in the mix. It eventually turns into a bird’s-eye-view shot which creates the effect of a pixelated screen. This was another big production into making a music video.

Ok Go has many other videos that have this high production value to it. They truly try to be as a creative as they can and do something different. The videos are thoroughly planned out and have quality camera work to it. However, they first success was complete opposite. There single “Here It Goes Again” off their second album “Oh No” became an instant classic in both pop culture and the YouTube community.

“Here It Goes Again” is simply the four of them doing a choreographed routine eight treadmills. There are not cuts and no high quality production to it. In an interview with COS, he said the reason for that is they thought their label or manager would shut down their idea so they filmed the whole thing without a budget. But there is something about this low quality aspect that makes it so quirky and funny. It makes it relatable to any 2000’s kids. Anyone can go out create an entertaining video like this one. One does not need a high quality camera or production team. All someone needs is four friends that are willing to do it. In an interview with SNEWS, they talk about the creative process .

In “Here It Goes Again” visual or image is the main center point that makes this video so interesting to watch. The four of them line up perfectly with all the hits or held notes in the song. They choreographed the whole thing that fit perfect with the song. As great as the song is, the visual component takes it to a whole new level. It is light hearted, goofy, funny, but there is also a level of respect. They learned all these moves and synced it up perfectly to the music to create a simple but quirky video.

In the video, the ratio of likes is 350,000 to 6,500 dislikes. That gives the general vibe of how people have reacted to this video. The first comment I found intriguing was written by Cameron C. 5 years ago. He said “Dear Most Musicians who are popular nowadays, Notice How this video had exactly zero shots of: boobs, spending money, drugs, general opulence, how great your life apparently is. Yet, this is still a good video. Did you take notes?” with 460 thumbs up. This comment points out the contributing factor of what many music videos tend to do. They would show this false sense of life where is there is not a worry in the world and just show off the production value. There was no creativity or artistry in those types of music videos at all. Cameron seems to appreciate that fact that Ok Go did not have any sort of money but still made an amazing video.

Pepperoni Playboy said “People don’t realize the most amazing part about this video…it was all in 1 take. No cuts, editing, or mess-ups” 2 weeks ago with 24 thumbs up. He/She wants to remind everyone who watches this video that it is only one take. They cannot cut or edit a part in. They have to nail every move and pull off this video. Pepperoni Playboy seemed to appreciate the dedication Ok Go put into the video.

On the other hand,  Fntime commented “Low Budget, yes. Good music, no.” 4 months ago (no reactions) which was of the few negative comments I found. There was no reaction to it but whoever this person is clearly does not like the music. They recognize it is a low budget production but I guess the music was not clicking with this person. He/She felt the need to say the music was not good but do many other people’s ear, “Here It Goes Again” is quite an enjoyable song.

Ok Go have been able to create these engaging, interesting videos for over 10 years. Whether they a whole production a design team or just a single camera, they are able to make a music video anyone can enjoy. It interests the viewer and really never makes them lose interest in what they are watching. “Here It Goes Again” is a video that has affected millions and will continue to do so. It is clever, witty, and just fun to watch. It adds more to the music and really enhances the experience when listening to it. In the end, Ok Go has created many music videos that continue to put a smile on someone’s face no matter the who they are.

Here is a video of them performing live on MTV in 2006.

Sources https://consequenceofsound.net/2016/08/capturing-wonder-ok-gos-treadmill-video-10-years-later

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/26/ok-go-music-videos-band-interview

https://medium.com/cuepoint/creative-alchemy-an-interview-with-ok-gos-damian-kulash-f07352913678

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1974961_1974925_1970484,00.html

https://www.snewsnet.com/news/snews-talks-to-ok-go-the-genius-behind-here-it-goes-again-treadmill-dance-video