Brooke Candy’s ‘Opulence EP’ Available Now
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/OpulenceEP?IQid=yt
Huffington Post published their Top 30 Videos of 2014 and one of my favorites was ranked #2! I watch YouTube more than I watch TV and I have probably watched Brooke Candy’s Opulence dozens of times. I’ve often fantasized curating a pop music video event at someplace like The Plastic Club featuring the Opulence music video to demonstrate how artistic well crafted music videos can be and how music video is still a viable art form.
So, I curated my own pop music video party right here on DoNArTNeWs. My top three choices for favorite music videos of 2014 also includes Your Makeup is Terrible by Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 and Ugly Boy by Die Antwoord. These three videos represent culture clash, visual disturbance and lyrical interference.
Everything about Brooke Candy is exaggerated and Opulence is all about exaggeration and fascinating style. Steven Klein directs and Nicola Formichetti styles, the music is infectious and the rap is authentic. The lyrics carry the story of decadence and excess, with multiple opportunities for self-effacing overacting by the star, in a world of alien artifacts and atmospheric nostalgia. The fashion and styling are avant garde, a term we don’t use much anymore. The party monster esthetic and lavish adult storyline is next level, creating a world that is creepy like a Francis Bacon painting and beautifully strange like a Yayoi Kusama installation.
Alaska Thunderfuck – Your Makeup Is Terrible [Official Music Video]
shop.alaskathunderfuck.com
Your Makeup is Terrible Production Team
Director: Saša Numić
Producer: Brett Myer
Cinematographer: Kristin Fieldhouse
Editor: Cyndi Trissel
Makeup: Blake Armstrong
My number 2 pic is Your Makeup is Terrible. I adore Alaska! With all the recent talk of Kate Peirson‘s trans anthem Mister Sister, the real trans gender-fuck anthem came out last Summer, ‘Your Makeup is Terrible‘. The story of personal transformation and acceptance is deeply autobiographical. Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 hasn’t released an album yet but her singles and videos are subversively pop, edgy and intelligent. RuGirl was her first solo video introducing the ambiguously beautiful super model from the Planet Glamtron. Your Makeup is Terrible is actually a complement meant to throw shade on someone you respect. The logo and title design is thoughtful and ingenious, the make-up by Mathu Anderson and Blake Armstrong is abstract and literate adding a layer of information to the narrative. But the story of the rise to fame, decline and redemption is the narrative hook that’s as catchy as the disco beat and anthemic insult.
“March of 1966, an unidentified spacecraft crash landed in the Matanuska Valley of the South-Central region of Alaska. Officials from the US Government were able to recover one life-form from the crash — A highly radioactive and severely disfigured alien of unknown species who identified her/itself as Alaska Thunderfuck 5000″
DONKER MAG out now on iTunes: http://bzz.is/donkermag_it + Amazon: http://bzz.is/donkermag_amz.
Website: http://dieantwoord.com
Number 3 is Ugly Boy by Die Aantword. Ninja has directed the last few videos for the group but Ugly Boy finally reaches a level of visual chemistry and directing skill to meet the trippy beats from DJ Hi Tek and tricky rap from Yo-Landi and Ninja. The song is immediately infectious with the Ugly Boy ear-worm pleasantly implanting it’s meme like a sonic virus. Yo-Landi Vi$$er is more beautiful than ever as she choruses the message of acceptance, tolerance and devotion to someone who can be extremely difficult. The video also has brilliant cameos by pop culture icons.
Ugly/beautiful is the main theme of DoN‘s top 3 music video favorites of 2014. Beyond trends and style, these productions are artful, proactive, provocative and culturally influential, offering new neural pathways and viral information loads that are detectable. Lady Gaga said recently in an interview with Howard Stern that music has to find new directions besides streaming to reach audiences. Creating an experience design and implanting meme bombs in the social consciousness through music, fashion and technology is one way to reach and touch audiences in a measurable way.
Written by DoN Brewer, except where noted.
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Thank you– I love the #2 spot. It is my favorite! Much love to you– xoxo Alaska
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