Music Video Review

Little Game by Benny

Recently I have been obsessed with this video, Little Game. Not only is the song amazing, and the video incredibly well thought out and created, the message put out by both and the way this message is portrayed make this video truly remarkable. Not to mention the entire thing was the brain child of a fifteen year old from Dallas.

"Don't you think it's funny how they tell us how to live?
Don't you think it's funny how we're all delinquent kids?"

"Gender roles impose control and deceive progressive times.
Welcome to the land of the broken mind."

Benny uses this video to point out the strict stereotypes society places on its people about gender roles and what it deems "appropriate." The stark contrast between the white, representing the lack of other influence, and the blue and pink, representing the forced roles of boys and girls in today's society, displays just how society thinks its youth should present themselves and how there should be no other influence around to possibly "corrupt" a perfectly "obedient"child: boys obsessed with sports and cars and everything manly, and girls

only concerned about their looks on the outside

rather than their thoughts on the inside. The two who are shown going against the others are "glitches" in society, those who don't fit in perfectly with everyone else, even though, in all actuality, they are the ones who have a strong enough grip on their own reality to know how to do things for themselves and not because someone "tells them how to live."

"Hush boy, oh hush boy, don't say a word, throw on a jersey and
no one gets hurt. Hush girl, oh hush girl just bat your eyes."

The video also touches on the bullying that can be experienced by those who dare to break the stereotypes and social norms placed on them by society and enforced by the "broken minds" who see no wrong in the actions they've been programmed to believed are normal. The ones who defy what's considered normal are torn apart and ridiculed by society just for being the slightest bit different.

"Play our little game, play our little game tonight."

The action of mixing the paint on his face, which started with pink and blue both totally separated, shows what happens when the two opposites-- femininity and masculinity-- mash, and the fact that contrary to society's belief that it would end in chaos, it instead ended in the beautiful purple, a symbol that they two sides can, and should, work together in harmony.

The video showcases the power of a mind when it refuses to work how the rest of the world thinks it should, and how strict gender stereotypes amongst the population should cease to exist. The effects presented by the video and the music, and especially how they work together, give a sense of hope that there is a way to break out of the social norm and be who you truly want to be, who you truly are.

Here's the link. Watch it. I think you might like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNr3x1kVVEc

Music Video Review

Animal by Maroon 5

While many disapprove of the message given off in the video for Maroon 5's Animal, in which Adam Levine plays a stalker to a gorgeous woman (played by his real life wife, Behati Prinsloo) who enters his butcher shop and continues to follow her around, eventually making love to her in his mind, I find it very artistic and the story was well portrayed in the allotted time.

I'm particularly intrigued by the symbolism and parallelism between Adam hanging the pictures of her and hanging with the meat in the basement. The purpose of the two is to show how his obsession went from wanting to see her, to wanting to be with her. He was able to control the images, but he wasn't able to control her. He hung on a spot in the basement surrounded by meat, but not containing meat itself. Perhaps he realized his action would make him just as "low" as the dead animals around him. Or perhaps because he had been able to control a copy of her on the clotheslines in his room, he now wanted to control her body and just created a connection to the hanging of the meat. He saw her as a prize.

During the bridge of the song, Adam imagines making love to the girl and between shots of them together, he is seen in the basement somewhat mimicking his actions between him and the girl with the meat: he kisses her, he kisses the meat. This is yet another example of him seeing her as nothing more than a prize, a piece of meat that he can do what he wants with, can control. Before, he had hung with the meat, then he was distant  from it (on the opposite wall) when she was rejecting him, and then finally, when in his mind he was with her, he was all over the hanging meat, arms wrapped tightly around it and caressing it.

That's just some of the symbolism I saw in the video, but overall, I quite enjoyed it. Though I understand the message that some people are getting from it (stalking, raping, and the fact that his character seemed to think she was enjoying the whole thing), and though I absolutely don't support that message (seriously. I want to make that completely clear), I love the art of the video and it definitely expresses his thoughts in a way that makes you feel his same desire for this girl.

Here's the link for the full video if, for whatever reason, you haven't seen it yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpgTC9MDx1o