Author: Gracie Cole
I love music videos. I could hear a song ten times and not like it, but the minute I see a good music video attached to it, I fall in love with it. Seeing the song interpreted visually, through playing with rhythmic editing, introducing choreography, and adding faces to characters, transforms the song and gives it more dimensions. I have recently learned, however, that my favorite music videos include collections of random scenes and scenarios, especially when each shot involves a different set, different costumes, or even different styles. To me, this style of high-production music video allows the artist and their team to explore creatively and go out of their comfort zone. Additionally, creative music videos provide exposure to unique directors and encourage them to keep exploring with different styles.
My newfound love for this style of music video came with the release of Sabrina Carpenter’s new single, “Manchild.” The music video follows Carpenter navigating through different experiences with men, with the scenarios becoming increasingly more surreal. Directed by Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, the music video keeps a constant Western theme and follows a classic film trope of female-led road films, such as Thelma and Louise. These films follow women having to deal with the behaviors and actions of men, with the women often resorting to violence. She utilizes a similar theme in previous music videos, such as “Please Please Please” (and the Dolly Parton remix), “Taste,” and “Feather,” where she kills off her love interests.
The music video is littered with absurd scenarios and characters, frequently utilizing animals. While this supports the Western theme of the video, she is also likely using animals to compare to the men in her life. The directors create a surreal and off-putting environment by placing these animals where they shouldn’t be, like a shark in a swimming pool or an elephant in a diner. This style was famously used by David Lynch (I swear I know other directors), who used horses, cats, and rabbits to unsettle the viewer.
Upon the release of “Manchild,” I immediately thought of the music video to “Welcome To My Island” by Caroline Polachek, directed by her and Matt Copson. The video has less of a cohesive theme than “Manchild,” instead opting to create scenes that are very different from each other. Polachek jumps from being in a coffee shop to running through a construction site, before being turned into a volcano and a mythical creature, “God is a Woman” style. She also utilizes different filmmaking techniques, including stop-motion animation, green screen, and found footage.
“Welcome To My Island” also uses animals to signify that something is off about the situation. In one scene, Polachek is holding hands with the camera operator, before it is revealed that they have hooves. In another scene, while not really an animal, Polachek tenderly interacts with circling sperm cells, as if they are butterflies.
While these two music videos are only a small drop in the bucket of great videos to come out in the past few years, I feel as though they are great indicators of the new style that will be popularized. Surrealism is rising, through television shows like Severance or the art pop sound of FKA Twigs’ Eusexua. In the upcoming years, amplifying their creative team and experimenting with different styles is on the rise.
Gracie Cole I KXSU Music & Arts Reporter