I have never been big on Kanye West. No, not because of the incident with Taylor Swift, but because I have always been more of an Eminem or Jay-Z fan and they have conflicting musical styles. But driving in my car one day I heard this song "All of the Lights" on the radio and immediately went home and downloaded it on iTunes. It wasn't just the song either, but the music video (below) that released just a few days ago. The song itself was good but the music video is what I would like to focus on.
Courtesy of KanyeWestVevo
The video was released in early February and, if viewed on Vevo or Youtube, actually has a warning label on it because it has caused people with photosensitive epilepsy to have seizures. The video consists of many different colored, blinking and flashing lights. It makes you feel as though you are at a nightclub or something. There were more than 11 different artists that helped to collaborate for this music video including Elton John, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Rihana, and Cudi. At points I found myself almost getting a headache from watching the video, yet I was so captivated that I couldn't pull myself away from it.
Kanye West, the lead of the song and music video, features the song on his album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". West was born June 8, 1977 and has worked with some of the greatest minds in the music industry in order to create some of the past decades best hits. He has sparked controversy once or twice, doing things like saying on live TV, "George Bush doesn't care about black people", and interupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the VMA's.
Getting back to the music video, I felt that this video is very important to media and the world. It seems to be ushering in a new era of music videos, much like the way 3-D has taken over movies. In the past music video's have been about telling the story behind the song, or showing clips of the artist doing various things behind the scenes or partying. This video, on the other hand, appears to be all about subtle messages and technology.
The video starts out like any normal music video these days. A girl, in black and white, is walking down the street, and then suddenly it happens! A storm of color hits you like a cannon! As Kanye West's name moves towards you it feels almost like Star Wars when the title is coming towards you. Next the lyrics to the song begin to flash brightly on the screen. At this point the headache might begin to set in. This continues on for a bit until finally Kanye makes an appearance in shadow form dancing in an alley with more bright flashing lights. This is pretty much how the rest of the video goes and it might not seem that great to some but if you think about it it is pretty amazing. After watching it I didn't quite understand why it took so many big names to collaborate on something so simple as that. I then realized that, though it seems simple it really isn't because it is a new concept that might take over the music industry, as I fore mentioned. It hit me that the American public appears to be demanding for things to be simpler and easier to understand. This is true with movies, television, and music.
Ten years ago people wanted to see things like soap operas and Law and Order on TV whereas now they want Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. The same can be said for music because years ago music videos were about telling stories and letting the artist express his- or her-self in a way other than just singing. Now though, as shown by the example of this music video, they are becoming more and more simple, especially for the genres of Pop, Hip-Hop, Rock and Rap. As I stated before most of the videos are just the artist partying with women or a behind the scenes look at them. Nothing to special about them.
I did like this music video but that is just because I am from the younger generation that likes the simplicity. I do believe that this is where most music videos are headed and that does upset me to some extent because I do enjoy watching music videos, if I don't understand a song, in order to better grasp hold of the meaning behind it.
