Still from ‘This is America’ music video
Summer hits around the world
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
Musicians have been releasing music videos that get people talking about a topic or make fans excited for their next album. As more of these videos are released, they get better every time. There has been a surge of exciting music videos released in the past two months and many of them are worth talking about, so here are just a few of those videos.
Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry”
The music video for “No Tears Left to Cry”, Ariana Grande’s first hit single from her highly anticipated next album Sweetener, was released after the terrorist attack that took place during a concert she held in Manchester last year. Before I watched the video, I thought that it would be sad because it would reference the incident, yet it is a positive song. There will be another song on the album that will address the attack.
The music video tried to top the video of the Taylor Swift song Delicate, and Grande did that with 222 million views on YouTube compared to Swift’s 174 million views (take that, Taylor!). “No Tears Left to Cry” has a lot of mind-blowing moments and visual imagery: The world of the video looks like the Paris scene in the film Inception (2010) with Grande going upside down, a moment that looks very 1980s, and a scene reminiscent of the cover of Kings of Leon’s recent album WALLS (2016).
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffxKSjUwKdU
Childish Gambino – “This Is America”
As shown in Donald Glover’s monologue from when he hosted Saturday Night Live this season, he can do anything. He performed this song for the first time on SNL as Childish Gambino, and at the same time the music video of the track was released, which is, to me, the best music video this year so far because it shows the current state of America. It talks about gun violence in the US, with multiple references to recent gun violence throughout. While the scenes where Glover shoots people may shock you, they do make a powerful point. I like that a lot of things are happening at the same time, as well as Glover’s unusual dancing.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY
AKB48 – “Teacher Teacher”
While everyone in North America may be talking about the Childish Gambino music video, everyone in Japan is talking about the “Teacher Teacher” video. AKB48 is one of the most famous groups in Japan and some of their hit singles have a ’60s and ’70s sound. Their recent hit single, which has Yui Oguri taking the lead, is their most electronic song to date. While it looks like K-Pop, it’s not—it’s actually J-Pop, although the most K-Pop moment in the music video is at 2:03 and it reminds me of Moulin Rouge.
The spinning shots in “Teacher Teacher” might make you dizzy, though Japanese boy band Arashi did that better in the music video of “Wild at Heart.” If you are a fan of AKB48, you’ll know that they are doing an election right now to determine who will be in their next hit single, and the beginning of the music video sets this premise up.
