Happy, Fancy, and Drunk
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| From "Fancy" |
I've written before about Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball, directed by alleged perv Terry Richardson. Released on the heels of Cyrus' notorious twerking incident at the last awards show, it further cemented her status as pop music's number one provocateur, a former Disney-Channel sweetheart turned into a tongue-thrusting, pot-loving hellion. In this video, Cyrus licks a sledgehammer and rides naked, except for a pair of work boots, on the titular object. Like Madonna and Lady Gaga before her, Cyrus is working that persona, though the song is a standard lament of lost love. The video is somewhat interesting, though the close-ups of her that frame it is a rip-off of Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U."
In discussing these videos with some young people last night I was told that the probable winner is Beyonce for Drunk in Love, directed by Hype Williams. It's a beautiful video to watch--shot in black and white, on a beach with the waves crashing in. Beyonce, wearing lingerie and holding a trophy, stumbles around singing about being drunk and/or horny, and then Jay-Z, wearing a backwards Brooklyn Nets hat and gold chains, does a rap that is completely incoherent:
"Know I sling Clint Eastwood, hope you can handle this curve
Foreplay in the foyer, fucked up my Warhol
Slip the panties right to the side
Ain't got the time to take draws off, on site
Catch a charge I might, beat the box up like Mike
In '97 I bite, I'm Ike, Turner, turn up
Baby no I don't play, now eat the cake, Anna Mae
Said, "Eat the cake, Anna Mae!"
Are the references to Ike Turner and Anna Mae (Tina Turner) a reference to wife-beating? Is he just bragging about owning a Warhol? Is he making a reference to Clint Eastwood's largely forgotten film Trouble With the Curve? This song is a depressing experience to listen to, and I really can't understand either of their popularity.
The nadir of this quintet is Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX doing Fancy. I watched this video slack-jawed, wondering who could possibly like a white girl singing as if she were black. I understand that white people have co-opted black music for over a century now, but this seems particularly egregious, as an Australian raps things like "who dat, who dat?" If I were black I'd feel like my pocket was picked.
But beyond that, it's just a dreadful song, full of obnoxious rap tropes that celebrate bad behavior:
Trash the hotel
Let's get drunk on the mini bar
Make the phone call
Feels so good getting what I want
Yeah, keep on turning it up
Chandelier swinging, we don't give a fuck
Film star, yeah I'm deluxe
Classic, expensive, you don't get to touch
The video itself is visually interesting. Directed by Director X, it's an homage to the film Clueless, with Azalea as Alicia Silverstone. I imagine that the girls who like this video are as probably vapid as Silverstone's character was.
One song I'm well aware of is Pharrell Williams' Happy, which has become ubiquitous. Written for the animated film Despicable Me 2 and nominated for an Oscar for Best Song, it's a peppy positive song that I'm sure was heard at every wedding this summer. The truth though, is not happiness, as the lyric would have it, but that this song is only interesting for about a minute. By the time it gets to four minutes, you're no longer happy and want to kill something. Williams, with his Smoky the Bear hat and bow ties, cuts a dashing figure, and has a lovely voice, but I can take only so much happiness.
The video is credited to We Are From L.A. (I don't know if that's a person or a consortium), and really is just a bunch of people lip-synching to the song, including some far-flung celebrities like Magic Johnson and Steve Carell. It certainly isn't award-worthy.
The outlier in this group is Sia's Chandelier. For one thing, Sia is primarily known as a songwriter, and is (gasp!) almost forty years old. The song has some social significance, as it is about the consequences of underage drinking:
Party girls don't get hurt
Can't feel anything, when will I learn?
I push it down, push it down
I'm the one "for a good time call"
Phone's blowin' up, ringin' my doorbell
I feel the love, feel the love
Despite the use of auto-tune, which should be banned, I found this the best song of the group. As for the video, directed by Sia and Daniel Askill, I would say it's the best as well, with some misgivings. The video features 11-year-old dance prodigy Maggie Ziegler acrobatically bouncing around a dingy apartment. Her leotard is flesh-tone, giving the quick suggestion that she is nude. The whole thing suggests pedophilia, as if she were kidnapped and held there. This makes the video powerful, but the sight of a lithe young girl in a tight leotard might end up fueling the desires of those it is condemning.
Okay, time to put the pith helmet away, I'm back on dry land. To cleanse myself I'll listen to some Pink Floyd or something. Of course, in thirty years this stuff will be known as classic. I will probably be dead by then.
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