videoclips

[Alicja]

Hello,

Like I said in class, I'd like you to choose a videoclip to a hit song, post it here and comment on it (why this one? why is it interesting? how did it contribute to the success of this song?)

See you next week!

[Caroline Dubois]

This week I would like to talk about an Anna Kendrick’s song: Cups. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmSbXsFE3l8)

This female singer was especially known as an actress in Twilight. But, in 2012 in the film Pitch Perfect, Anna Kendrick appeared in the role of a young university student who wants to be part of a chorus. She sings this song for her audition. This one became popularized thanks to the cup game as percussion beat. In reality, this song was born in 1931 with Carter Family and this cup percussion in 2009 thanks to Lulu and the Lampshades. The earliest known creation of the Cup Game was in 1987 by the musician Rich Mullins who crated it to be played as a rhythm for his song “Screen Door” for a singing acapella. I think that this video is interesting by manual dexterity of the singer. The mixture between rhythms and music is very impressive. This technical rhythm became a recent trend like we can see on you tube: many people try to realize this song. I feel this is a good way to share knowledge, experience throughout music.

[Célia Hérou]

Today, I will speak about Lady Gaga and her song "Alejandro" : www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ujpdCJd0jg

I chose a videoclip to Lady Gaga called « Alejandro », came out in 2010. I decide to take this videoclip because we heard a lot of things about this song when it was released because of the provocation and the violence which are omnipresent throughout these eight minutes.
Indeed, a climate of violence is established from the beginning of the clip with a military choregraphy. After that, there is a scene where the dancers drop their partners on the ground: this represents a violent love and this shows the nature of Lady Gaga as “sado-masochist”. After that, the videoclip shows the artist in very explicit positions, and diverts religious elements. Moreover, the clip makes the object of deep criticisms; the American Catholic League denounces its anti religious contents and is outraged about some sequences like the scene where Lady Gaga appears as nun dressed in a red latex dress swallowing a rosary.
I think this videoclip contribute of the success of this song because there was a big polemic about this one, if I remember well. And as we know, when something goes out of the standard, people are always interesting about that, sometimes just to look what it is or sometimes it can be a provocation as the clip is too. So in both cases I think this videoclip allowed the song to be well known even if it is for bad reasons.

[Fabien Virot]

I chose Smells Like Teen Spirit extract from the 2nd album (Nervermind) of nirvana www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg ).
Nirvana is an american hard-rock,grunge,underground band famous for his singer Kurt Cobain. This song speaks about our apathetic generation who dreams of revolution. This song is emblematic from Nirvana because it representes all the idea of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement.
The clip is interessant because Nirvana was an underground band who reject the commercial music and the succes but they become very famous. In this clip we found many details specific to metal/rock scene : -the anarchy sign on clothing for cheerleaders
-the dark and dusty building
-the head roll and the slam
-pogo stick
-Close on instruments and destruction oh them at the end
I think this videoclip contribute to the succes of this song because it is a communication tool that allowed Smells Like a Teen Spirit to become the song of the Nirvana's generation.

[Guillaume]

I have choosen to speak about U2's song "Every Breaking Wave": www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYVEik7Lvc4

This videoclip from U2 is more a short film than a classic videoclip. This videoclip shows us a young Irish couple during the Troubles in Dublin. At this period there were fights between Protestant Unionists and Catholic republicans. So the videoclip shows this couple, who try to live their lives between all those violences. So if the videoclip begin with a party where everybody look like to be happy, it become more and more violents, with a scene where we can see young people fight against policemen. And so the love story ends i tragedy for the two young people.
I have found ths videoclp very interresting because it shows us what could be the life of a young people in Ireland at those times. And so I think that this song wouldn't have had the same success without this videoclip.

[Charlotte Voisard]

I chose a song from the album "V" of Maroon 5. I love their new album so I chose a song from this album.
Maroon 5 is a pop band. This band was born in Los Angeles in 1997.

I chose the song "animal". The link for the clip :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpgTC9MDx1o

I hate this clip but I chose this because it reflects exactly the lyrics. "Animals" talks about a man who is focus on a girl. He hunts the girl as prey "Baby, I'm preying on you tonight"

I think it is a successful clip because it shocks: meat and blood put man in the animal state: men are like animals.

I never saw a clip with this kind of staging, so I think this is his particularity that made it successful.

[Santiago Fernández]

I have chosen the video "Thriller" by Michael Jackson: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

Thriller is a music video created to promote the song of the same name by American artist Michael Jackson. The video was directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Jackson. It was released on December 2, 1983.
Dance choreography, costumes and music make Thriller resembles a musical horror when the classic monsters of the genre appear, as the werewolf and zombies. Thriller takes a closer structure to the short film than music video and this is a parody of the genre of zombies and horror movies in general.
With a duration of 14 minutes, it was the longest music video until then. The cost was $ 800 000 (equivalent to 1.4 million in 2007).
Thriller is often regarded as the best video of the history and redefined music videos. It is also considered the most important pop culture video, besides being the music video seen by more people (more than 4000 million) so far.
Voted as the most influential pop music video of all time, Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture, and was named "a watershed moment for the music industry" for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over nine million copies. In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. The track was also listed at number one on "The Top 10 Halloween Songs" by Billboard.

[Matthieu]

I chose the video of the song "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharell Williams : www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU

This song was a huge hit when it was released in 2013 but it was also very controversial. Actually, the lyrics and the music video gives a very degrading image of women. In the orginal clip, the featuring top models were topless but a censored version is now available on youtube. Moreover, the girls are treated like objects in the clip. Thus, the song was accused of being misogynistic and to promote rape. I think that it's a good example of a song which is really catchy because of the rhythm but can be shocking when you focus on the lyrics. There are lots of songs in that case such as "Talk dirty" by Jason Derulo which was also a hit. I think that such songs are less shocking if the lyrics aren't in your first language ; I probably would never have listened to such songs if they were in French. Finally, I think that a controversy is an enormous publicity for a song because lots of people talk about it. Nowadays, video clips are one of the best tool for the promotion of songs and some artist use it to make people talk about them. The more shocking it is, the more people are attracted.

[Floriane Houillon]

The video clip I chose is Chandelier by Sia www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM
It was released in 2014 . It became famous because of the amazing performance of Maddie Ziegler, the 12 years old dancer who is alone and dance during the entire video clip.
She is well known in the USA for having participated to a dance TV show called Dance Moms ( her mom is a choreographer) .

[Lauranne Spiers]

I chose the song “criminal” of Britney Spears. In the song, Spears is in love with a bad boy and outlaw, and pleads to her mother to not worry about their relationship. "Criminal" had critical acclaim, because the song is more refreshing than others of the album. We can see in the clip passionate kisses and demonstrations of tenderness with her boyfriend.

[Darío Hernán Rosell]

I have chosen the video clip of the song “November rain” by Guns N’ Roses.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbUC-UaAxE
This song is one of the most famous of this American band, occupying the top positions in all the lists of the history of Rock. At the time of its launch in 1992, it was the most expensive video that had been done, The total cost was $ 1.5 million (10 percent of the production budget came from the construction of a chapel in the desert and also a theater was rented in Los Angeles with 1,500 extras for the audience).
"November Rain" is part of a trilogy, along with the videos "Estranged" and "Do not Cry", it is interesting because it has a lot of conceptual video, so each person finds different meanings of the artistic work. The guitarist Slash is starring in some of the most memorable scenes, including an epic sequence with a sweep from a helicopter while playing the first guitar solo.
I believe that have not been returned to perform such spectacular productions with video clips, The song is excellent, and the video so is, both aspects were necessary to be one of the biggest hits in the history of Rock N 'roll.

[Rim Qassimi]

i have chosen the videoclip of "get lucky" by daft punk.
you can see it using this link : www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0
this is one of the most recognisable songs of daft punk. It was in their fourth album called "random access memory" that was released in 2013.
it was a really big hit : everybody was talking about it and comparing it to their other work.
you can see that the videoclip is really simple. you only see Daft punk playing in the back and Parell singing in front of them.
i think it was made that way so that it couldn't distract us from the music.

[Hugo LUCAS]

The link of videoclip -> www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4isv_Fylg

I chose this videoclip because I'm hypnotized when I watch it. The elephant represent the character dreaming by the girl. We see its journey from a zoo of London until somewhere in Africa. I think this videoclip are contribute to its success because it’s not a classic videoclip where we can see the band playing. This clip tells a story like a mini movie. Even if Coldplay have a big renown they always looking for new performances.