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Tag: hauntology

  • Madison Beer Retreats to the “Sweet Relief” of the 2000s, Corroborating That There’s Little Relief in the Present

    Madison Beer Retreats to the “Sweet Relief” of the 2000s, Corroborating That There’s Little Relief in the Present

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    As is the case with most of “Gen Z pop culture,” it’s usually grafted from the 2000s. The latest addition to that truism comes in the form of Madison Beer’s “Sweet Relief” video (marking the sixth single from Silence Between Songs). In many ways, it picks up where “Spinnin” left off, in terms of offering viewers a suburban milieu that Beer inhabits/generally frolics through. This time around, however, things are much brighter (and less desolate) than they are in “Spinnin.” For a start, the sun is actually shining for most of the video, save for during the “requisite” shower scenes of Beer (who seems to want to channel a bit of Miley Cyrus in “Flowers”), which serve no real purpose other than for her to memorex her “hotness” for future generations. 

    However, when she’s not parading her soaped-up body for the camera, she’s actually playing the part of a “nerdy” shy girl. Which, of course, per “2000s law,” simply means donning a pair of glasses. And, if anyone had a doubt that this “little narrative” wasn’t meant to be set in the 00s, one of Beer’s besties proceeds to take photos of the group in Beer’s room with her Canon digital camera. The fact that Beer and her friends are just hanging out in her room together also harkens back to videos of the 00s, when “room culture” was at a peak (see also: Mandy Moore’s “Candy,” Britney Spears’ “From the Bottom of My Broken Heart” and Jennifer Lopez’s “If You Had My Love”—all released on the brink of Y2K). Not to mention that just about the only thing to do in suburbia is hang out in your room…unless you have a car, in which case, you can proceed to do donuts in an empty parking lot. 

    So it is that Beer and her friends, often inexplicably holding stuffed animals (like a teenage Britney for her 1999 Rolling Stone shoot), keep taking “prehistoric selfies” with each other, employing what would later be called a “MySpace angle.” Trying on clothes and putting on makeup—the usual “girlie things” that women in their teens (and beyond) are supposed to do when they congregate—it seems they grow bored enough of that to switch locations to another classic suburban backdrop: the yard. Complete with a trampoline and tire swing. And also—gasp!—boys. Some of them even smoking—double gasp!—cigarettes. And that’s also how you know this is supposed to be the 00s: no one is vaping. In fact, Beer has her “dweebish” eyes on the smoking dude as they all sit in a circle in front of the white picket fence (here, again, the Del Rey influence on Beer is present). And this is where the chorus of “Sweet Relief” applies to the “secret” glances being made as she sings, “It’s just something only we know/Baby, I can’t help myself/I’m seein’ you everywhere I go/I don’t dream of anyone else/All I need, sweet relief [obviously, a sexual euphemism]/It’s just somethin’ only we know/Something only we know.”

    Or so they would like to believe. But at the next cliche suburban location change—the parking lot of a mall—the two are talking in such an obvious “I like you” way that it would be hard not to notice the attraction. Plus, Beer has taken her glasses off so that he can suddenly “really” see her. The moments of fucking around in the parking lot (including Beer being pushed along on a skateboard) channel many a 90s video (see: The Smashing Pumpkins’ repertoire). Not to mention the parking lot driving scenes from Lana Del Rey’s “Bartender” portion of the “Norman Fucking Rockwell” video. And then there’s even a dash of Madonna’s 1983 “Borderline” video as the two talk in front of a sign post together…except that Beer has more luck than Madonna at endearing her love interest to her in this particular scene. 

    The picturesqueness of it all stems from the simplicity of a group of youths actually doing things together, however seemingly banal, that don’t involve the distracting prop of a phone. Because sure, plenty of teens had cell phones “back in the day,” but never used so pervasively as they are now. After all, there weren’t even enough options on a phone to warrant being sucked into it so readily (unless you count playing Snake on a Nokia).  

    And yet, beneath the surface of this being a “quaint” town in the middle of nowhere, the reality is that the group is roaming the streets of North Hollywood. Getting ice cream as night falls, the innocence of that act is mitigated, to the trained eye, by the fact that they walk past a dance studio called Ararat. Conveniently located just across the street from VIP Gentlemen’s Club…which makes for a perfect transition for the little girl taking “dignified” dance lessons to eventually transition into the nearby strip club. Because, as David Lynch has taught us repeatedly, anything “innocent” is always belied by a seedy underbelly. Especially in California. 

    Getting slurpees at a convenience store and “messing around” at a car wash then serve as the precursor to the “grand finale” of the video: jumping into someone’s pool while fully clothed. All of these “millennial” activities (though the latter trio of scenes smacks more decidedly of Gen X) seem to further emphasize that maybe Gen Z kind of hates it here, in this era. Even in spite of constantly mocking those who are even five years older than them for being “boomer.” Sure, every generation tends to romanticize the time period of the one that came before it, but something about this feels different. As though Gen Z inherently knows they got the fuzzy end of the lollipop with regard to experiencing youth. Like, actually experiencing it…instead of just seeing it acted out on their phones. 

    And so, like most Olivia Rodrigo videos, Beer’s “Sweet Relief” offers yet another clear case of hauntology in pop culture. Not just because capitalism creates the conditions in which nothing can ever be new, but because it’s never been more apparent that, as Francis Fukuyama would say, we’ve reached “the end of history.” Or, perhaps more accurately, the end of human history, with nothing new left to say or do, as made increasingly evident by offerings like “Sweet Relief.” Yet even with the AI infusion that’s been infiltrating (and likely to infiltrate all the more) art, the “bots” are only repurposing (e.g., getting AI versions of singer’s voices to sing songs by other musicians) just as much as Madison Beer, or anyone else of her generation. Those who are caught between showing contempt for the narrow-mindedness of the past while still romanticizing it because the present is so utterly dystopian.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Better Off With No “Alone” Video

    Better Off With No “Alone” Video

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    As though the song itself weren’t disappointing enough, Kim Petras and Nicki Minaj teamed up again to bring listeners a visual for “Alone”—their poor adaptation of Alice Deejay’s signature track, “Better Off Alone.” The video, unsurprisingly, doesn’t do too much to enhance the single, apart from serving as an apparent opportunity for Petras’ love of cosplay. A love that quickly comes to light when a lone man sitting in front of a TV turns it on to reveal a channel with Petras dressed in drum major attire, along with the rest of her backup dancers. Of course, with Petras being likely aware of both Gwen Stefani and Madonna’s previous use of drum major uniforms in their own work (Gwen with the video for “Hollaback Girl” and Madonna with a segment during her MDNA Tour), perhaps those giving her the benefit of the doubt would call this “homage” rather than totally hackneyed visuals.

    Maybe if some of her other costumes were slightly more original, one could excuse the drum major attempt. And since costumes are really the only thing to focus on during this no-frills video that has little in the way of any plot relating to the song, the chance to critique them grows tenfold. Set against a purple backdrop with a half-circle shape resembling a rising (or setting, depending on your outlook) sun in bright pink, the 80s aesthetic might be comforting for a brief period were it not for Petras quickly spotlighting her promotion deal with Bose as the camera zooms in on one of her earbuds prominently displaying the brand’s name. Wonder if she’s trying to tell us something?

    Of course, there’s not much room for anything resembling “subtlety” in a song that touts, “I could ride it, ride it, ride it, ride it all night.” In the video, this is said while Petras and co. hump some “workout balls.” Indeed, much of the video can be seen as part wannabe exercise instructional, part wannabe advertisement for Spirit Halloween store. As for catering to the former category, Petras and her fellow dancers lie on yoga mats and engage in the standard hip thrust maneuver (again, “subtle” is not the keyword here). And so, at this juncture in the video, there’s little to note in the way of Petras being concerned about getting the object of her affection “alone.”

    But maybe, like Miley (via her sologamist anthem, “Flowers“), Petras is actually more concerned with self-improvement (in Hollywood, that always pertains to the body, not the soul)—which, in turn, allegedly leads to someone else loving you as much as you love yourself. The thing that no one talks about, however, is that other people are just as busy loving themselves these days, and have little time to spread that love to another being. So Petras might be waiting longer than anticipated to get the person in question “by her side.” In the interim, she can keep licking her clarinet with “demure” suggestiveness as the object of her seduction watches with voyeuristic interest. To that point, the only potentially interesting element about this video that could have been highlighted further is the peppered-in scenes of voyeurism. Then again, perhaps Petras knew better than to bother after seeing Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” video, the pièce de résistance (along with “Justify My Love,” for that matter) when it comes to accenting the perverse thrill men get from watching a woman (androgynous or not) from afar rather than actively pursuing her. And if there is eventually a pursuit involved, he’ll also tend to prefer her strutting over to him.

    And yet, for as “erotic” as it should be to watch Petras bounce around on a ball and spout her cliché phrases pandering to the hetero male fantasy, the looming man in the video tries to change the channel before direction from Arrad (who recently brought us Anitta and Missy Elliott’s “Lobby” video) leads us down into the center button of the “clicker.” Alas, rather than showing us something new, the camera briefly focuses in on two people doing yoga poses as the frame moves circularly before transitioning back to Petras in her drum major ensemble. The set then changes to something out of the TLC FanMail era as Petras subsequently appears in an all-black vinyl outfit that hardly compares to the ones Michael and Janet wore in the video for “Scream.” All of which brings us back to the main problem with this song in general: it relies solely on nostalgia for the past without actually doing anything to improve upon it in the present. At least another recent case in point of that—David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray’s “Baby Don’t Hurt Me”—builds on what the original did as opposed to merely sampling the backing track the way Petras does.

    Although Petras assumed Minaj’s appearance on the single would offset any “weak points,” all her presence really does is take the song even further away from the integrity and sense of pure emotion that existed on the original. Dressed in her own dominatrix-y getup upon materializing at the one-minute, forty-eight-second mark, it doesn’t take Minaj long to acquiesce to the white ideal of the Barbie mold by matching Petras with a blonde high ponytail and a form-fitting black vinyl dress with pink heels as she babbles, among other verses, “I send shots, get ready, they may sting/I-I-It’s Barbie and it’s Kim Petras/Main character syndrome, they extras/We-we-we ain’t answerin’ questions/Click on a bitch ‘fore she finish her sentence.” Not exactly words that connote yearning or longing after a breakup. As was the case on “Better Off Alone.”

    As more of the same scenes are interspersed toward the end, Petras saves her most cliché costume for last: a “sexy” nurse. Finally “breaking the fourth wall” by somehow transporting herself through the TV screen to approach the man who has been watching all along, she leans in toward his ear and repeats the part of the chorus that goes, “I’ve been tryna give it to you all night/What’s it gonna take to get you all alone?” Well, for Dr. Luke, who co-produced this abomination, what it took to get Kesha all alone was a “sober pill” to make her “feel better” one night. As it turned out, that pill was GHB, a date rape drug. Hopefully, Petras won’t have to resort to the same (with the syringe she’s probably packing) should the male lead in her video have second thoughts about playing “patient.”

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    Genna Rivieccio

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