Charli XCX's "Famous" is track #9 off her album 'Sucker'.
The lyrics at first sound like any other contemporary sexpot-as-pop-star whining about alcohol over-consumption yet making it sound absolutely glamorous. So had I heard the song on the radio, I would have never taken the time to look-up the masterful art piece which is the music video for "Famous" as directed by Eric Wareheim. Luckily I was exposed to the music video prior to the lyrics--albeit the lyrics themselves aren't too bad (once read)-- and my mind was effectively blown.
Dark satire and a black mirror effectively drive extremely complicated social issues home and harken upon a time when music videos could actually, you know, mean something. Most articles on the internet are not dissecting this music video the way it deserves. Disappointed by the lack of examination or meaningful critique I'm going to muster up some courage today and provide an analysis, but all of my philosophies pale next to the original inspiration and brilliance of "Famous".
Short and potent, the music video opens on a carefree maybe teenager, maybe 'tween, maybe 9 year old girl bee-bopping around her bedroom. She's got pigtails and a--let's be clear here--S&M choker necklace on. Everything in her life is magical. Her enchanted objects, i.e. cell phone and tablet, distract her from the real ills and evil in the world. She is purposely sheltered. Embalmed in pink. Emotions as emojis. The enchanted objects loose power twice, each time they do she looses the protection they lent from the shadows in the closet and the monsters under the bed. They come at her as gangsta ghouls of men and kidnap her.
The media she was engaged in watching before getting snatched wasn't so very enlightening however, she was completely in rapture of celebrity worship, granted in this instance for Charli XCX, but it easily could have been supplemented by any star popular among the youth. She was taking a bunch of selfies, posting them on public online networking sites, probably oblivious of security settings emulating her star. Being famous vicariously. Through her chosen decor and few shallow texts, it becomes obvious these are her only interests, being sexy and being famous.
Sound familiar or like anyone you know? If you can say yes, then you should be sad. For at least a little bit. If you have a daughter and recognize these symptoms, please stop this Princess Bitchface from fully devolving for the sake of all humanity. Some of you may think I am joking. But I most certainly am not. Stop it. Stop. It.
Anywho she gets kidnapped by humanoids that look like a vanilla geriatric version of the Insane Clown Posse. These must be the moguls of industries: the music industry, the advertising industry, the fashion industry, the sex industry, even the banking industry. They all have a S&M tinge to them and are pretty creepy. Our girl really isn't that thrilled to be there in this completely white room, where a music video of her star is playing. This music video is composed of lies and illusions. The skulls are glamoured into smiley faces, the exorcist looking chick is her beloved star, in reality, not looking so lovely:
But the girl needs her fix. Her very literal reality fix. Most American's quality of life is so low we escape into entertainment, drugs, booze, sex, the internet, gaming. We find unreality so much more appetizing then reality because we are in so much fucking psychic pain. Many of us in physical pain as well. We celebrate our lies. We bask in our sins. We're the boys that turn into donkeys in Pinocchio. We're ostriches that stick our heads in our smartphones instead of the soil. We engage in the abstract inner-space because the physical real outer-space, the IRL, feels like it's falling apart. But I digress.
Our chick finally gets in this pink partially phallic type of room and this scary looking fat satanic dude with selfie stick fingers is screaming at her, but he's got an electrical outlet for a belly button and you see her go internally, "ah fuck it, if this is what I have to do" and she finally plugs her phone in to get some power. This electrocutes her. She dies with a smile on her face and emoji blood pools behind her head. The onlookers take photos of her and upload her image with hashtags. She's just another way for them to get famous vicariously.
So what does all this mean?! It means our culture sucks, that is what all of this means. It means Andy Warhol's prediction on everyone in the future getting 15 minutes of fame has finally come true but we should wonder at what cost.
We don't have a council of philosopher kings debating the effects of new tech on the individual soul or collective society.
We just use it blindly, worse, we let our children use it blindly more often then not. Our kids don't seem to get taught proper online security or etiquette very well. Which duh, most kids are teaching their parents how to use new tech. I can only imagine what it's like to raise a daughter in this age. Wanting to protect her from online threats, and cyber stalkers, and ex-boyfriends hellbent on posting revenge porn and taking over her laptop with a remote access trojan. That's seriously got to be terrifying!
And everyone trying to be YouTube famous. As fame was the best thing ever. Nothing is wrong with not being famous. If you're not famous, you're something better--you are part of the glorious sonder. Rejoice in that.
I like to research odd topics for fun and one of them of late has been Beta Kitten programming. If I'm going to write about Beta Kitten programming at length, that's better as a separate future blog. But some of the imagery that was used in the music video and even for the album cover really reminded me of the story archs that supposedly reappear in many instances of Beta Kitten programming. Like the Marylin Monroe wannabe, the cheetah print, the appearance of the clownish handlers, the balance of black and white... In a nutshell, Beta Kitten programming is supposedly maybe happening in Hollywood, especially among child actresses and even actors, making them into sex trafficked children among the worldly elite that would pay top dollar for time spent with a famous beautiful child because Hollywood is run by the Illuminati brainwashing these girls that in turn grow up to effectively brain wash your daughters to be food for the sexually perverse and serial killers that roam the grounds that is America. Beta Kitten programming has its roots in CIA Monarch Mind-control, and that's a fun rabbit hole to run down. So I hope I haven't lost you. I'm not saying it's real or that it's not real, I'm just saying the imagery reminded me of this topic and I was surprised it was so heavily alluded to in this medium. Don't think that Eric might have been purposely going for that angle, but it's there all the same.
Which begs to question, why are we letting various industries have control over the minds of our children to the point where they lose touch with reality and have a host of mental, emotional, and behavioral issues? And yes I know this is all anecdotal, because I'm not a scientist and lack facts, but this is what I observe happening. It's like the women's movement never happened. We're loosing our girls to alcohol too. Research that because I'm ruining out of time but more young women are drinking then ever before and it is so much worse when women drink then men because biologically women are completely different. Women have lower levels of water in them and higher concentrations of fat so we can't hold our liquor like men can, no matter how hard we try, we can't drink like a man. If you do, it'll increase your chance of breast cancer.
So I liked this music video, not so much the song. The song is terrible. The lyrics are decent. The lyrics are worth a read if you want to fully appreciate the imagery of the music video, it complements it nicely. The lyrics are about being so fucked up that you don't care if you make a fool out of yourself in public and drunkenly fall downstairs while getting high because you want to party like your famous: "Now we're falling down the stairs, we act so shameless...Just like we're famous."
But bitches you ain't famous, you're just alcoholics.
(Maybe Beta Kitten programming *is* real...).
The lyrics at first sound like any other contemporary sexpot-as-pop-star whining about alcohol over-consumption yet making it sound absolutely glamorous. So had I heard the song on the radio, I would have never taken the time to look-up the masterful art piece which is the music video for "Famous" as directed by Eric Wareheim. Luckily I was exposed to the music video prior to the lyrics--albeit the lyrics themselves aren't too bad (once read)-- and my mind was effectively blown.
Dark satire and a black mirror effectively drive extremely complicated social issues home and harken upon a time when music videos could actually, you know, mean something. Most articles on the internet are not dissecting this music video the way it deserves. Disappointed by the lack of examination or meaningful critique I'm going to muster up some courage today and provide an analysis, but all of my philosophies pale next to the original inspiration and brilliance of "Famous".
Short and potent, the music video opens on a carefree maybe teenager, maybe 'tween, maybe 9 year old girl bee-bopping around her bedroom. She's got pigtails and a--let's be clear here--S&M choker necklace on. Everything in her life is magical. Her enchanted objects, i.e. cell phone and tablet, distract her from the real ills and evil in the world. She is purposely sheltered. Embalmed in pink. Emotions as emojis. The enchanted objects loose power twice, each time they do she looses the protection they lent from the shadows in the closet and the monsters under the bed. They come at her as gangsta ghouls of men and kidnap her.
The media she was engaged in watching before getting snatched wasn't so very enlightening however, she was completely in rapture of celebrity worship, granted in this instance for Charli XCX, but it easily could have been supplemented by any star popular among the youth. She was taking a bunch of selfies, posting them on public online networking sites, probably oblivious of security settings emulating her star. Being famous vicariously. Through her chosen decor and few shallow texts, it becomes obvious these are her only interests, being sexy and being famous.
(Is that a stuffed unicorn on the bed???).
Sound familiar or like anyone you know? If you can say yes, then you should be sad. For at least a little bit. If you have a daughter and recognize these symptoms, please stop this Princess Bitchface from fully devolving for the sake of all humanity. Some of you may think I am joking. But I most certainly am not. Stop it. Stop. It.
Anywho she gets kidnapped by humanoids that look like a vanilla geriatric version of the Insane Clown Posse. These must be the moguls of industries: the music industry, the advertising industry, the fashion industry, the sex industry, even the banking industry. They all have a S&M tinge to them and are pretty creepy. Our girl really isn't that thrilled to be there in this completely white room, where a music video of her star is playing. This music video is composed of lies and illusions. The skulls are glamoured into smiley faces, the exorcist looking chick is her beloved star, in reality, not looking so lovely:
But our chick has a dead battery on her phone, so she can't partake of the glamour. It's here in the white room we see actual little girls, also wearing variants of S&M chokers and you get the feeling they've been kidnapped too. And it is a fairly uncomfortable feeling. You've got a couple of self absorbed freaks in the back ground, where you see the madness that years of celebrity worship and emulation have caused. Chemical bleaching and tanning of the body. Complete denial over the aging process, as if age were merely a state of mind that doesn't necessarily require any dignity. The freaks are taking stupid selfies with stupid selfie sticks completely devoid of the saga of meaning. Emojis decorate their selfies because in order to have emotions, one must first have a soul, but these are trite people that lack substance and therefore soul. These freaks never learned to self-actualize because they're too busy trying to be Marlyin Monroe and George Hamilton.
This dying of the batteries appears to be a direct allegory for loss of power. Our girl certainly doesn't have any. She is uncertainly and unquestionably navigating the world laid out before her, which turns out to be an un-world. Reality doesn't really exist. Even when she's disgusted by the creepier clowns, she barely shrugs them away in learned compliance. These old white men ghouls seem to run and ruin everything in this music video. In a white room, like your minds are being white-washed. You loose site of universal purpose in lieu of placing an over importance on material appearance. The aspirations of the mind are lost to the baser instincts of the body. The girl with her loss of power, no longer can glamour away her reality, she sees the ugliness and warping of the world.
While stumbling around for an electrical plug she comes upon a door that will not allow her to pass until she's seen the advertisement. This is the most terrifying aspect of the music video because it's real! This already happens! Think of anything you've ever done online that required you to wait until you were subjected to advertising against your will on a topic you have no power over which of choosing. Creepier though is the data mining being done on your browsing habits so advertising can be tailored to your expressed interests via various algorithms, thereby further warping your version of reality!
Our chick finally gets in this pink partially phallic type of room and this scary looking fat satanic dude with selfie stick fingers is screaming at her, but he's got an electrical outlet for a belly button and you see her go internally, "ah fuck it, if this is what I have to do" and she finally plugs her phone in to get some power. This electrocutes her. She dies with a smile on her face and emoji blood pools behind her head. The onlookers take photos of her and upload her image with hashtags. She's just another way for them to get famous vicariously.
So what does all this mean?! It means our culture sucks, that is what all of this means. It means Andy Warhol's prediction on everyone in the future getting 15 minutes of fame has finally come true but we should wonder at what cost.
We don't have a council of philosopher kings debating the effects of new tech on the individual soul or collective society.
We just use it blindly, worse, we let our children use it blindly more often then not. Our kids don't seem to get taught proper online security or etiquette very well. Which duh, most kids are teaching their parents how to use new tech. I can only imagine what it's like to raise a daughter in this age. Wanting to protect her from online threats, and cyber stalkers, and ex-boyfriends hellbent on posting revenge porn and taking over her laptop with a remote access trojan. That's seriously got to be terrifying!
And everyone trying to be YouTube famous. As fame was the best thing ever. Nothing is wrong with not being famous. If you're not famous, you're something better--you are part of the glorious sonder. Rejoice in that.
I like to research odd topics for fun and one of them of late has been Beta Kitten programming. If I'm going to write about Beta Kitten programming at length, that's better as a separate future blog. But some of the imagery that was used in the music video and even for the album cover really reminded me of the story archs that supposedly reappear in many instances of Beta Kitten programming. Like the Marylin Monroe wannabe, the cheetah print, the appearance of the clownish handlers, the balance of black and white... In a nutshell, Beta Kitten programming is supposedly maybe happening in Hollywood, especially among child actresses and even actors, making them into sex trafficked children among the worldly elite that would pay top dollar for time spent with a famous beautiful child because Hollywood is run by the Illuminati brainwashing these girls that in turn grow up to effectively brain wash your daughters to be food for the sexually perverse and serial killers that roam the grounds that is America. Beta Kitten programming has its roots in CIA Monarch Mind-control, and that's a fun rabbit hole to run down. So I hope I haven't lost you. I'm not saying it's real or that it's not real, I'm just saying the imagery reminded me of this topic and I was surprised it was so heavily alluded to in this medium. Don't think that Eric might have been purposely going for that angle, but it's there all the same.
Which begs to question, why are we letting various industries have control over the minds of our children to the point where they lose touch with reality and have a host of mental, emotional, and behavioral issues? And yes I know this is all anecdotal, because I'm not a scientist and lack facts, but this is what I observe happening. It's like the women's movement never happened. We're loosing our girls to alcohol too. Research that because I'm ruining out of time but more young women are drinking then ever before and it is so much worse when women drink then men because biologically women are completely different. Women have lower levels of water in them and higher concentrations of fat so we can't hold our liquor like men can, no matter how hard we try, we can't drink like a man. If you do, it'll increase your chance of breast cancer.
So I liked this music video, not so much the song. The song is terrible. The lyrics are decent. The lyrics are worth a read if you want to fully appreciate the imagery of the music video, it complements it nicely. The lyrics are about being so fucked up that you don't care if you make a fool out of yourself in public and drunkenly fall downstairs while getting high because you want to party like your famous: "Now we're falling down the stairs, we act so shameless...Just like we're famous."
But bitches you ain't famous, you're just alcoholics.
And maybe you're alcoholics....
...because you're not famous.
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