Criminal

1997

Artist: Fiona Apple

Director: Mark Romanek

Before A&F Quarterly sold woodsy, frolicking sex in the early 00s, Calvin Klein dominated the 90s market with slinky, heroin chic. Fiona Apple released the controversial music video for “Criminal” at nineteen and the height of the CK era; years later, the video serves as a poster child for it.

Banned 1995 Calvin Klein ad (left); Apple in “Criminal” mv (right)

Director Mark Romanek’s music video career spans three decades and a range of productions, from “Closer” to “Shake It Off.” He’s directed two films: One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go. The latter is a personal favorite and a scenic adaptation of a haunting novel.

Apple said that “Criminal” is about ‘feeling bad for getting something so easily by using your sexuality’ (Blender). A dirty glamor glosses the video with implicit and explicit sexual images: half-naked bodies overlapping on the floor (:29), in the tub (:46), and on the bed (3:17); booze and cigarettes (:39); a suggestive stuffed animal (:14); silk lingerie peeling away (1:36); a smutty home video in the making (2:55). It’s the kind of party you’d feel FOMO for if you didn’t go and regret if you did.

The setting meets expectations and amplifies the video’s seedy ambiance. The scene develops in a basement decorated in 70s style with wood paneling, mid-century modern furniture, and shag carpet fouled by bodily fluids. There are no windows in the setting, apart from those that look into a swimming pool (1:53). Throughout the video, Apple’s pained eyes search for reprieve from the sex dungeon. At one point a fellow partygoer exposes her hiding place in a closet (1:05).

Apple among the headless

The poor lighting heightens basement’s eeriness. Unlike in “She Will Be Loved,” the darkened edges work here, though at times (1:30) the effect looks like it may have been created post-production.

Additionally, Romenek’s intentional use of redeye on Apple shatters the fourth wall with discomforting force (:24). To present-day audiences, the redeye evokes nostalgia corroborated by Apple’s camera (:01) and the tv rising from the table (2:37). MTV’s Cribs, anyone?

Though Apple interacts with a slew of scantily clad people, her face is the only one shown. This technique is often used in advertisements. By omitting the actors’ faces, Romanek presents these people as anonymous bodies, and moreover, sexual objects. The sex den is purely a physical realm. Of these headless shots, the most powerful is the Jacuzzi shot, in which Apple sings between a pair of caressing male feet (1:45).

The video not only matches the song’s lyrical content but also its musicality. Romanek opens the scenario for a beat before Apple takes a photo and the music enters, syncing cymbal crash with camera flash – a perfect visual representation. The shooting motion syncs with the music, moving in slow passes before coming to a complete stop at the end of a musical phrase.

The CGI shot of Apple squeezing a stream of liquid soap into the air (4:02) is inconsistent with the video’s prior effects but functions within the party’s drug atmosphere. The visual aptly embodies the instrumental sound it accompanies.

“I’ve got to cleanse myself of all these lies ’till I’m good enough for him”

Overall, the video’s message is murky: a feeling furthered by the present water motif (appropriate for an album titled Tidal). From her expressions it’s difficult to tell whether Apple feels remorse for participating in this sordid life or enjoys it. Here, water represents sexuality. Apple lurks in a pool (2:32), shivers in the shallows (3:56), and basks in a shared bath (1:39). The scenes demonstrate Apple’s love/hate relationship with the power of her sexuality and the toll it takes on her.

Love or hate the video, you don’t forget it.

 

Do Re Mi

2017

Artist: blackbear ft. Gucci Mane

Director: Megan Park

Megan Park is better known as an actress than a director, appearing on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I can’t vouch for her talent in front of the camera, but after watching the five music videos she’s directed since 2016, I can confirm she holds prowess behind it.

Tributes breathe life into old works, and the mv for blackbear’s “Do Re Mi” modernizes and scandalizes a children’s classic with minor casualties. The notes sung to “do re mi” are not, in fact, do re mi. “Mi fa so fucking done with you” however, forms a seamless transition from note names to lyrics.

The plot unfolds at a mansion, largely in one room; keeping the action contained adds intimacy to the setting. The style parallels Park’s work in Elohim’s “Hallucinating” and “Rich White Girls” by Mansionz – blackbear’s project with Mike Posner.

Liesl suffering the war’s curtain fabric shortage

The video’s dreamy ambiance coincides perfectly with the song’s musicality. The ethereal light and consistent slow-mo complement the low-tempo and reverberant beat. A shot of a Gucci briefcase featuring the video information (:02) provides a tongue-in-cheek start to the scenario.

Lyrically, the song mixes innocence and vulgarity, with references to tic-tac-toe and Xanax tabs. The aural juxtaposition entertains but pales in comparison to its visual portrayal. The children make this mv. Their uncoordinated dancing (:23, :54) endears, and the addition of kittens (:29) intensifies the sentiment. Park keeps the camera close and on the children’s eye level, furthering the video’s intimacy. The girl sneezing on the kitten as blackbear sings, “And you got me thinkin’ lately/ Bitch you crazy” (:46) incapsulates the cute, coarse, and bizarre of the video in one shot.

The children shine brightest during the rap (1:22 – 2:06), where the contrast heightens between music and video. Shots cut between Gucci Mane rapping about balling and a blond kid busting moves, Gucci Mane and a little girl overcoming skepticism to become friends, and blackbear joining the blond kid’s backlit breakdown.

*bffs*

The puppets, another nod to TSOM, advance the blending of childlike and lewd elements and mirror the relationship between blackbear and Liesl (love interest; actress unknown). The puppets open with grinding (2:14) before resorting to violence as Leisl checks blackbear’s phone (2:21).

The naive/coarse combination’s effectiveness stops at blackbear’s interactions with Liesl. Children dancing to dirty lyrics they can’t understand is comical. Children watching a pair of adults tie tongues is gross (1:12), as anyone who had a babysitter invite over his/her creepy S.O. can attest.

Additionally, Liesl’s vengeance underwhelms. She preferably would have taken a bat to the Range Rover as the lyrics suggested. While fittingly bizarre, urine, spray painted dicks, and toilet paper land her actions in a category that fits neither of the video’s age groups: adolescent.

Kids say the darnedest things, and curtailing Liesl’s screams with “just drive” ends this video on a high note.

“Just drive.”

 

New Rules

2017

Artist: Dua Lipa

Director: Henry Scholfield

Feminism at its finest. Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” offers salvation in the age of fuccbois. Set at a swanky Miami hotel, the music video follows Lipa’s time in relationship rehab, where she grows from inpatient to mentor.

Lipa’s creative vision proves she is nothing if not intentional. In perfectly blending aesthetic and choreography with music and lyrics, she achieves the music video’s goal as an artistic medium: an authentic visual representation that adds deeper meaning to a song.

Take the setting – The Confidante. Tropical, urban Miami fits the bouncy, synth beat, and a confidante is a trusted female friend. Throughout the mv, Lipa and the dancers whisper among themselves between spins and poses (1:04, 2:08 – 2:18, 2:51, 3:26 – 3:30).

Because walking in heels isn’t hard enough

The physical display of female solidarity emerges through the mv’s choreography. The photo above inspired Lipa’s vision for the video, and choreographer Teresa Barcelo projected its sentiment onto the dancers’ movements. The dancers hold, caress, and carry one another throughout. The refreshing diversity of the cast conveys the message, “No matter your race, if you’re a woman: you’re with us.” The primping shots (1:27 – 1:51, 3:18, 3:22) drive this theme further. Getting ready is a female ritual, and applying another’s lipstick or brushing her hair feels intimate and feminine.

The most striking formation of female unity occurs toward the video’s end (3:20 – 3:32). A swiveling, aerial shot shows the women tugging each other into an unbreakable circle.

No ex is getting through that phalanx

Scholfield’s direction expounds upon Barcelo’s choreography. There’s pushing and pulling, reflecting Lipa’s struggle to get over her ex. The camera matches these movements, swinging around the hotel in single shots to follow Lipa and the dancers. During the hallway shots (1:09 – 1:26), the camera tilts as Lipa bounces off the walls, creating the effect that the hallway is tilting and Lipa is heeding gravity’s pull.

The pre-chorus scenario, reminiscent of La La Land’s “Someone In The Crowd,” repeats three times (:51 – 1:06, 1:51 – 2:06, 2:43 – 3:01). The changes in each highlight Lipa’s transformation. In the first series, she’s skittish and her friends are forceful in keeping her on the path to recovery. During the second, Lipa appears confident; she’s catching on, and her posse is playful. In the third, she takes on each of her mentors’ roles: stopping her protégée from answering the phone, surprising her at the door, and escorting her to the couch.

Scholfield also excels with transitions. He synchronizes the cut from inside to outside with the musical break between the second pre-chorus and chorus (2:07). Later, between the bridge and third pre-chorus, he rewinds the action (who doesn’t love reverse splashes?) as the background vocals slow and warp (2:39 – 2:43).

More impressive – the skin tone palette; A+ lip sync moment too

The element that doesn’t fully mesh is the flamingo motif, which toes the “kill your darlings” line. According to The Cut, Lipa incorporated flamingos because they fit Miami, and their social nature reflected female friendship.

Yes, flamingos fit the aesthetic and perform “marches” mimicked at 3:02, but they don’t evoke feelings of female companionship. Leave that to lionesses. Moreover, the stiff poses (2:20, 3:34) don’t jive with the choreography’s loose movements. The cut to the flock at 3:22 disrupts the narrative, and the birds provide an abrupt, bizarre ending inconsistent with the mv.

Flamingos aside, “New Rules” rules.

She Will Be Loved

 

2004

Artist: Maroon 5

Director: Sophie Muller

A quick Googling revealed Sophie Muller has directed several of my favorite music videos: “She Will Be Loved,” “Cool,” “Mr. Brightside,” and “Born To Die,” among others. *Future profile piece to come*

“She Will Be Loved” is a luscious creation: drenched in sepia, Fitzgerald-like in its grandeur and melodrama.

Bonus: there’s a defined storyline (by Johanna Bautista) that works with the song’s lyrics.

The plot follows Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, who’s caught in a love triangle with Girlfriend (Corinne Carrey) and Gf’s Mother (Kelly Preston). It’s The Graduate with a different ending.

Preston’s performance as a fraying cougar sells the video. Her sultry gaze and languid movements, dramatized by well-timed slow-mo and flowing hair and wardrobe, captivate viewers and echo “she will be loved.”

Carrey, an Avril Lavigne double, does well with her limited role. She shines at the end, when Daughter puts the pieces together (more on that below).

Levine, however, maintains the same sulky expression throughout his ample screen time.

The sepia filter saturation dates the video (2000s MVs paved the way for Instagram’s success), but the overall color scheme is lovely. Red accents stand out against a palette of warm beiges and greens.

Preston stealing the show; note the “white” robe #sepiacity

The editing is perfect here too. The play of slow- and fast-mo from 1:00 – 1:28 adds dramatic tension. The contrasting cuts intensify the physical violence suffered by Gf’s Mother at the hands of her husband and paint Levine and Gf’s Mother’s tryst as passionate and ravenous.

Muller masterfully cross-cuts the dance sequence (2:25 – 2:34), switching back and forth between shots of Levine dancing with Girlfriend and Gf’s Mother and mirroring Levine’s vacillating affections.

Levine’s emotions are not the only erratic element of this video. The inconsistent frame shapes, in particular the circular-frame shots (:27, 2:25, 2:42, 4:02, 4:05, 4:14, 4:16, 4:20), serve no purpose.

Nor do the cabaret dancers behind Gf’s Mother (2:55), who don’t match the video’s aesthetic. However, the large painting (2:45) of two women (or mermaids?) fawning over a bare-chested man sprawled on a boat does.

Cropped corners and relevant painting

As is often the case, the lead singer (Levine here) gets the spotlight while his band mates share awkward reactionary shots (:48 – :54, 3:51) and performance shots (1:53 – 3:00). It makes sense to have the lead singer portray the protagonist in videos. Logically, one would think the person vocalizing a first-person story is the protagonist, but it’s a team effort you know?

The ending is a cliff hanger, or isn’t it? A series of flashbacks in rapid-fire succession lays out the truth and provides an overwhelming effect like crashing waves of emotion. The cuts slow to alternating closeups of Levine’s, Gf’s Mother’s, and Girlfriend’s eyes, where recognition is dawning. The scene brings the video, which opened with the same shots, full circle.

Muller nudges our subconscious into the final coupling with color (Levine and Gf’s Mother in black i.e. “we’re a pair” and Girlfriend in white) and shooting technique (Levine and Gf’s Mother share a frame, Girlfriend is given her own).

Nice, symmetrical shot of my dream terrace