Saturday, May 9, 2009

Two Worlds

One of things that I love most about my life is the amazing assortment of friends that I have. I come from two different worlds, musical and literal. Being an opera singer, I've got my over the top, knowledgeable of all music genres, drama filled yet lovable friends, but I've also got an entirely different set of much more relaxed, cerebral, yet somehow still extremely fun friends as a writer. The worlds collide sometimes and this is the result.

I put out messages yesterday on facebook and twitter asking for suggestions for my next videos to blog about. A writer friend had been listening to The Ting Tings. Take a good close listen to Katie White's leads vocals. Sound familiar?

The video itself is a simple one, but really lends itself to the song. The drum beat is pounding and Jules De Martino (the second half of the group) definitely pounds it well in the video. Katie has a great vocal ability that sets her apart from the pop queens that usually rule the roost, but the blond hair, spunky outfits, and slightly too cute hat make this perfect pop fodder. The use of such intense colors is an explosion of sight equal to the sound we hear, but to be honest though, it looks like a complete rip off of the new marketing campaign for iPod (like the link I posted above).

I have a burning question though. What exactly is Jules saying in between the lyrics that Katie is singing? He's definitely mouthing something, but I have no idea what.




One of my singer friends suggested something much more classic, a video very dear to my own heart, Take On Me. Being a child of the 80's, I followed A-ha religiously. Morten Harket was one of my first celebrity crushes (followed by the likes of Jordan Knight, Corey Feldman, Anthony Michael Hall, and did I mention Jordan Knight?) The video won six awards at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, one of which included Most Exprimental Video for the pencil-sketch animation/live-action combination called rotoscoping, in which the live-action footage is traced over frame by frame to give the characters realistic movements.

However, what I found on my musical quest today is that it is not the original video for the song. There is an earlier version of both the song and the video that did not fare well in UK pop rotation in 1984. Warner Brothers decided to give the song a try in the US and the video we all know and love was brought to life. It soared to the top of the pop charts and another one hit wonder was added to the history books. So without further ado, the original version for Aha's Take On Me.

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