To follow up “Call Me Maybe”, here’s another really fantastic video that’s been running through my head. This is really the first song from Selena Gomez that I remember hearing - and I don’t know if it’s because it’s a dancier tune or if it’s a temporary pitstop for her style - but I like it. This is one Top 40, Disney machine song that I was never ashamed to admit I love.

First, Selena Gomez is totes gorge. The first 20 seconds of this video kind of creep me out, but when she looks up at :21, I’m hooked. Then there’s the series of chin-thrust-sly-glance-head-tilt at :24 / :27 / and :32.

Then, my friend tells me this video references a bunch of other music videos from songs of years past - but even missing all of those references, you can still totally get the sense of humor Gomez has here. The tongue-in-cheek wink.

Finally, I still just get a kick out of imagining this song being sung about JB. And I just love the two together and that’s just made even stronger by watching her have fun in this video.

Bonus: I recommend following this up with “Boyfriend” (by, duh, JB) because it really makes a great pair. JUST LIKE THEY DO.

Honorable mention: The whole chorus sequence at 2:02 until about 2:35. Also, I don’t follow enough gossip to know if Selena Gomez usually wears her hair big or flat, but I hope big. The big hair on her is killer.

wicked-grin:

The Maroon 5 video has got great dancers, but whenever I see Adam Levine I’m overcome by the need to punch him. I find his voice irritating. Kollaboration NY 2011 kills it. A great song.

I’m a fan of this song, but haven’t seen the Maroon 5 version yet. Seeing this cover, I’m not sure I have any reason to. I’m not a fan of performance based music videos, but I couldn’t turn away from this one.

This is my new favorite Anne-Hathaway-thing. And I love Anne Hathaway.

(via dannielle via the daily what)

(Source: thedailywhat)

wicked-grin:

alliterate:

[video is the music video for Beyonce’s “Run the World (Girls)”]

inkstone:

squintyoureyes:

hopesichord:

I’m sorry, but the fact that there exists any progressive human being who thinks this song is inappropriate in its politics is unfathomable to me.

#THE MEN HAVE FUCKING BODY SHIELDS #YOU CAN ALL GO HOME #did you all sleep through the girl power movement or #god damn #actually my biggest issue with the girl power movement is that it was always very white and very thin and very peppy and very safe. so i will happily take this WOC-filled music video about militaristic feminism any day of the fucking week

check out those tags

hadn’t seen this yet. had been avoiding the commentary because i figured it would all be coded in racist and slut shaming language - or just plain overt fucked-uped-ness.

but this is fucking badass

When I wasn’t looking, Beyonce became one of the most fascinating people for me to pay attention to.

(Source: demarches)

I’ve been listening to this song for two months non-stop, but it wasn’t until yesterday when prompted by my BFF did I see the music video.

My whole life, when I’ve been really frustrated, it would want to boil out in some destructive manner. As a kid, this meant when my sister annoyed me I punched her arm. As a teenager, it meant that I would just stomp my feet and yell into my pillow - much less effective, but eventually tire out. In college this meant one time my friend and I hung a sheet on her fence, filled balloons with paint, turned on the Beastie Boys, and ran at the sheet popping the balloons and spreading the paint. That was probably the most fun/effective way to release my tension that made me want to smash guitars and TVs.

What I’m saying is: Dude, I can relate.

Caragh’s description of what this song did to her below is pretty spot on for my first listen-through.

whydoihaveablog:

I’m like, “fuck you and fuck her too.”

I can’t explain what this song did to me, because I didn’t like it for the first 5 seconds, and then I kind of liked it, and then I really liked it, and then I was chair dancing, and then I started it from the beginning and got up and danced around the room while picking up my dirty laundry.

This song will be great for two months and come around again in some summer comedy in 2050 about the summer of 2010.

New video from @JanelleMonae (for the fantastic track, “Cold War”). Watch and prepare to feel human again at 1:37 through the end. While her expressiveness is enough to keep your attention, it also forces you to really listen to the lyrics. As many times as this track has cycled through my playlists this was the first time I really sat and absorbed what she was singing. There were too many for me to quote each one here, so just digest it at your own pace.

Relatedly, you can see similar range in Monae’s twitter account. Many celebrities are typically one note - they either promote themselves, promote their causes, or offer some glimpses into their own lives/personality. (Though if they are the last, they may also include any of the former - but not usually the other way around). All with varying degrees of engaging with fans. The more they shut out their own lives from their feeds, the less they engage usually.

Monae does a lot of tweeting about her work and creative community (Wondaland), but in a great twist will often through out questions or asks for inspiration and motivation. Then she’ll re-tweet many of the replies. It may be quotes, or links, or today when she asked fans how this video made them feel. Thus giving a platform not just for herself and her collaborators, but also her fans who otherwise may be left unheard. (@SophiaBush does similar to help promote her political/environmental causes and as fans send her new ideas and resources she’ll share them out).

And while an endless stream of re-tweets and inspirational messages may get tiresome after a little while, Monae will also pepper her stream with jokes and offhand observations. Which in turn let fans know her just a tiny bit more and help strengthen the community she’s fostering outside of her creative goals.

In this case she asked fans to share their own reactions while watching this music video, what Monae aptly calls an “emotion picture”:

Reading through the reactions from fans that Monae shares, they run the gamut and each one can make me reconsider myself.

Basically: no matter the medium, Monae continues to impress me with how she balances her messages, art, and human sides. In this case, human = vulnerability with a touch of laughter.

ETA: Monae has since tweeted that there will be an emotion picture for each track on ArchAndroid (pick the album up now if you haven’t already) and that, “re: “cold war” Initially we planned another treatment, but decided our “minds” shouldn’t get in the way of our honest emotions..this time.” Good choice, Team Monae, good choice.

Marshall, Lorelei Gilmore, and Daniel Faraday are all in a movie together. That takes place in a psychiatric ward. Based on a young-adult coming of age novel.

Basically this movie was made for me.

This is in.sane.

photojojo:

Has your mind yet to be blown today?

WELL NOW IT WILL BE. Watch this INSANE video of a 3-D projection mapping installation set up by Samsung in Amsterdam.

Watch the building crack in half, fall to pieces, and overflow with water…then magically return to normal!

(La Roux, “I’m Not Your Toy”)

“[La Roux lead singer] Elly Jackson cites David Bowie, Annie Lennox and the 80s film star Molly Ringwald as her influences. She wears vintage tailored jackets and winklepickers, topped off by a chopped bob of red hair.” (source)

“Dressed in a green felt trilby, white winkle pickers, drainpipe jeans, and a black-and-white jacket with shoulder pads, La Roux cuts a striking figure. She bemoans the new conservatism – what she calls ‘the Ikea mentality’ – that has led to everyone wearing the same clothes from the same shops: Top Shop, M&S and American Apparel. ‘It’s fucking boring. No one wants to look different.’ With her notorious gravity-defying red hair – held in place this morning, she says, by ‘grease and dirt from not washing, lots of mousse, wax and thickening spray’ - […]

‘One of the most rewarding things was when a couple of girls came up to me in a toilet and said, ‘You’ve made us feel OK about the way we dress and the way we are.’ They had short hair and I don’t know if they were gay, but they were slightly quirky. They were like, ‘There was no one for us to look up to – we like David Bowie but it’s really nice to have a modern role model.”

She acknowledges that she is an oasis of androgyny in a sea of glossy, conventionally feminine popettes. ‘I don’t think I’m like them but if you’re going to put someone in a box for having short hair and being tomboyish, there are some in the public eye like Agyness Deyn and Pixie Geldof … but it’s bollocks when people make out there’s a whole wave of androgynous girls. It’s still fucked.’

[…]

Longing for the days of the gender-bending pop star, she is delighted that not only is fellow female synth siren Ladyhawke openly gay but that Ricky Martin has tentatively admitted to being bisexual. So is La Roux gay? ‘Nope,’ she says, on the Eurostar back to London. Has she swung both ways? ‘I love everything. I’m greedy.’ She is suddenly reticent. ‘Not necessarily in practice. In theory. I wouldn’t say even if I had.’ She takes the comic route out. ‘You can fall in love with vegetables. People have got married to aubergines before. Anyone,’ she declares, ‘is capable of falling in love with anyone.’” (source)

“Baby” by Justin Bieber, My World 2.0 (also NPR’s song of the day on 4/14)

Monkey Sees, an NPR hosted blog, has posted an essay on the tension between high culture and low culture using Justin Bieber as a starting point. This is worth attention, actually, whether you like Bieber or not.

I know in other internet places I’ve confessed my fascination and love for Justin Bieber. Friends and I have discussed at more length than one would probably expect his music, his style, his dance moves, his persona. And I did stay up way past my bedtime last weekend to see him on SNL. (He wasn’t funny. He was 16.)

So imagine how tickled I was Wed morning to hear this story about him on NPR’s Morning Edition. They talk about everything that I’ve mentioned - how his music belies his roots and his age; how he’s wrangled social media and is one of the first pop stars to do so (others who have have done so post-fame, rather than as a road to fame). The summary doesn’t do justice to what’s discussed so I recommend listening to it yourself.

whydoihaveablog:

Are you crying yet?

How the hell is this show not on DVD yet??

This is the only album I’ve been able to listen to all day. I suspect the week will be the same.

This song is the definition of ridiculous.