Music Videos Get Monstrous
I’ve noticed a recent trend for music videos to revolve heavily around the theme of the monstrous. Now, I’m not speaking of the moral
— By Michael Krimper | December 3, 2009
John Merrick - The Elephant Man
I’ve noticed a recent trend for music videos to revolve heavily around the theme of the monstrous. Now, I’m not speaking of the moral disorder indulged in greasy booty videos or the psychotic mind romanticized in murderous pulp fantasies, but rather, the direct depiction of the monster. I’m talking about human beasts deformed and misaligned into the grotesque; made wretched and disgusting in their crippled bodies; hopelessly tormented creatures of the otherworld that call for our sympathy but to whom we don’t dare give any.
What is most surprising in this surging of pop monsters is the diverse roles that the horrific plays in various forms of musical expression. The pinnacle achievement is certainly MGMT’s hauntingly warm single, “Kids”, something of a cautionary tale to children of all ages. The video in fact begins with an instructive aphorism from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil (attributed for some mysterious reason to Mark Twain).
He who fights against monsters becomes a monster himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Extraordinarily, Lady Gaga managed to not only become just that monster but actually empowers herself within its wretchedness. In Gaga’s Where the Wild Things Are stylized post-apocalyptic fashion masterpiece, “Bad Romance”, she seduces us (as only a succubus can) into her world of ostentatious sensuality and unparalleled decadence. To balance out the score, the Eric Wareheim produced video for Major Lazer’s “Keep It Going Louder” makes a comedy of all this lustful feminine orgasmia through his own hilariously menacing application of the monstrous.
I felt so bad for that little kid. There’s no way he was acting! They tortured him to get that footage. I don’t know how I feel about the Major Lazer video. So fat chicks are monsters?
Oh I’m sure he saw the camera on him! Little kids love monsters.
For the Major Lazer video, I was thinking that their distorted, squished little thumb pressed faces made them monsters. Their thickness just makes them hot predicates luscious onto that monstrous.
kind of awesome that lady gaga can simultaneously reference multiple horror movies and multiple madonna music videos.
[...] I forgot about the video for Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ “Heads Will Roll” when I wrote my blurb about monsters and music videos. This stunning piece of video performance dating back to this year’s excellent full length, [...]
To become a monster is to allow oneself to act outside the realm of humanity and to possibly be oneself, ironically. And being that the malaise of a post-modern existence has rendered everything down to ZERO most people feel monstrous. They see the hyper-edited/enhanced images of what mass media says they should look like and their own hairy, loose flesh renders this sense of being monstrous even further.
Monsters are due on Maple Street