Katy Perry. I’m over a week late posting this glam meets ecstasy meets space hallucination video. Whatever. Perry really elevated her fucking usual bratty candy-land videography status. Props go to director Floria Sigismondi who continues to amaze people with her silent skill. Sigismondi continues to create her usual gothic alien-like world with hard-edge, but still fits with mainstream music like what she did with Aguilera’s Fighter. I just find it truly special when a female has this genius quality. We live in a creative music world dominated by testosterone, but when a female can actually elevate this world it just marks a history in the making moment.
The story line stays true to the song itself. Nothing special here considering that it referenced James Cameron’s Avatar heavily except for that fucking stupid Vogue sunglasses endorsement. That really killed the perfection mark for this video. However, I must applaud that they kept it 5 minutes long. With this sort of visual, Gaga would have made a mini-movie out of it, but an epic one that is. Also giving Kanye limit screen time was great. We wanted to focus on Katy and we got it.
We see Perry in amazing flowly queen alien dresses made by world renowned couture fashion houses. Her make-up is running for drag queens’ money and Perry is probably ready to endorse a full-blown MAC VIVA GLAM campaign.
Even though I’m going to hand it to Mrs. Brand for really pulling out all the stops with this video and is probably the most groundbreaking so far for 2011, but after watching it on repeat I kind of lost fait in its magic. I feel there’s so much reference in this video from Bjork, Boy George and Madonna that Katy didn’t really bring something culturally new to the table. It was more imitating something with flawless results. Maybe Katy should have Sigismondi use 100% of her vision and transformed Perry even more to the extreme. I feel in this video Sigismondi was pressured by major recording label heads wanting Perry to continue to fit into the top 40 mould, but why? The song is mainstream enough. Look at what Gaga did with the Born This Way video. At the end of the day, this was an okay risk for Perry and it push boundaries for her. Still, I want Katy to go back to her usual roots of being this hilarious Betty Bop character. She doesn’t need to prove herself and go all performance arts to get the validation Gaga gets. Stay in your lane and just enjoy the success. Rihanna never tries to go Gaga or Gaga never goes Rihanna because who wants to be a world where a cup of tea tastes the same?
No comments:
Post a Comment