In today’s society, is anything even about ingenuity or is it just about making something aesthetically pleasing without any context?
With the rise of pink lighting and colourful bubble-gum aesthetics in modern music videos, from the likes of hip hop’s alpha male Drake, Ariana Grande, pop music’s new princess – move over Britney Spears – and band The 1975, who are a force of rock-pop/alternative royalty… what’s left for artists to do to make their work trendy, appealing AND maintain a deep level of meaning with the help of the visuals?
The 1975’s music is a reminisce of 80’s sounds but takes a modern twist with the lyrics – to make comments on society’s representation of love and the power the media has in influencing this, featured in their song Loving Someone – and uses bright, neon-pink aesthetics and cinematography to juxtapose the heavy, slightly dark, content of their lyrics. Whereas with pop /hip hop artists like Ariana Grande (Into You) and Drake (Hotline Bling), the use of pink lighting in their music videos is a way to appeal to audiences who don’t necessarily consider a song’s deeper meaning …. which is absent in both Drake and Grande’s songs.
No surprise there, both these songs are so bland and conform to mainstream ideologies within music. The pink aesthetic distracts people from the horrible and repetitive lyrics, proving that mainstream artists do indeed lack originality and creativeness. Whereas with The 1975, they highlighted their creative skills with a sudden twist of rejection from their formerly black and white aesthetics – from their EPs and first album – and lightened fans lives with a splatter of pink and white visuals, which worked harmoniously well with their new album’s splash of 80’s inspired sounds.
The album set a record for being the ‘longest title of a Billboard number-one album’ … so without further ado, here is the name of album: I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It –yes, it’s a mouthful.
The 1975 self-tiled first album and I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It.
Of course originality can be subjective, especially in today’s society. Some people are not really bothered if their favourite artist isn’t creative with their music videos, it’s all about the music itself, some would say. But all in all, ingenuity does matters.
