Zombies, monkeys, and kung-fu.
...
Uh, fine.
From the first handful of bars evoking 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly's theme (from which the song's title is derived) in combination with the subtitle lifted from the original (read 'good') Dawn of the Dead's dialogue, the video is playing with the viewer's sensibilities as an intrepid pop-culturenaut.
The bold, clean style of the visuals, pitched roughly halfway between the punk chic of Hewlett's Tank Girl and the hyperactive brightness of a Tartakovsky Saturday-morning cartoon brings a unique style to the table: a world, and consequentially a music video, where anything is possible. As newly created cartoons however, the Gorillaz are to begin with in statis: the white room so often represented by television and film as Limbo. This all changes, of course, when drummer Russel's frazzled id decides to go for a shuffle.
The representation of Del tha Funkee Homosapien as a sputtering, poor-quality television transmission again nudges knowingly at one's cultural awareness, and his joyful awakening of the graveyard introduces another genre trope into the cultural mélange -- the realistic appearance of the cenotaphs giving the whole video a tinge of Gothic pedigree.
Other moments to draw attention to: the hilariously realised dancing zombie gorillas, slamming the kitschy Thriller shtick back into the cartoon world where it belongs; the kung-fu hijinks of the Martial Arts Prodigy in all her technophile otaku-drool-inducing glory; and the Genie-esque manner in which Del is sucked back into Russel's head, owing as much to Disney's Aladdin as Ghostbusters.
As I said, this is my favourite music video because it has zombies, monkeys and kung-fu. The team behind Gorillaz, like us, have grown up on music videos, trashy pop-culture and cartoons. They know what they like, they know what people like and they know what to do with it.
Saturday 20 October 2007
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4 comments:
The repeating of Noodle's kung fu kick before finally landing its target is reminiscent of that 'too expensive to only show once' stunt from so many action films.
I remember seeing this video on mute and deciding that I loved the band regardless of what the song sounded like. I'm not sure what that says about me, but the Gorillaz obviously know their audience too well.
Such a cool video. I love the ending where they introduce all of the characters to the audience. It was a clever marketing ploy by these guys to attempt to keep there identities secret for as long as possible. It kept the audience intrigued and interested in them until they gained a foothole into the mainstream.
To be outright dogmatic about it, the Gorillaz ARE a cartoon. When one thinks of Gorillaz, the images conjured tend to be cartoony in nature. This is really the same of all bands/artists with a high degree of visual exposure in the many facets of contemporary media.
All of us are aware of who the five Spice Girls are, for example. Their gimmick is that each of them embodies their own inherent persona: Posh, Sporty, Baby, Scary, and Ginger. Whilst it can be argued that "Ginger" isn't a personality trait, it's beside the point. It is their image that first enters your head, followed swiftly by the tune of theirs that you would most associate yourself with.
Whilst the band who produce Gorillaz's music exist in the flesh, their respective personas take the form of their animated avatars that convey their music to the masses. The illusion is generated that the band actually are their animated counterparts, and thus their image becomes synonymous with the music, not the musicians themselves.
Alex interestingly draws a comparison between the style of design and animation in the video for 'Clint Eastwood,' and that of Genndy Tartakovsky's signature style that is itself inherent to his animated work ('The Powerpuff Girls', 'Dexter's Laboratory', and 'Star Wars: Clone Wars' are some examples). I can bet that 95% of Tartakovsky's viewers couldn't spot him in an indentity parade, but would recognise his characters from a mile off.
The Gorillaz's gimmick was, I believe, established in this seminal video. This animated "brand identity" is their sales tool, and is the means with which they communicate with their market. If the band were to suddenly come out of hiding they would lose their crux, as it were, of appeal. It is the centre around which their fanbase, and indeed the general music market gathers.
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