Who doesn't love a bit of Felix Jaehn? He's one of the rising DJs that we have all become addicted to. This one track is one of our favourites because it is spreading the message of how we all need to be ourselves in this world. This was released officially on 9 February 2018, the date I have backdated this blog post to, making this a new release. I am so far behind on my blog that I am not happy about it, but I plan to put in the work and catch myself up. It will happen, even though it does feel like an impossible task. This music video isn't as great as the song itself, though. Watch Marc E. Bassy perform this track to the camera as various shots show off people being themselves in this music video for Felix Jaehn's song "Cool" that also features Gucci Mane.
Felix Jaehn, real name Feliz Jähn, launched onto the music scene with a cover and has since managed to build up his profile within the DJ world as well as the music world. This is his first release of 2018 and was followed up with his album - which was released the following week. It's a great promotional lead single, but it didn't help to promote his album more than any of his previous single releases. It just lacked promotion that this song really needed since the content is exactly what we need out in the world. The song features Marc E. Bassy, real name Marc Griffin, who has been building up his career in the past couple of years. He has collaborated with G-Eazy a few times and has had one hit international single. He's definitely got this potential around him which suggests that a few bigger hit singles will be released by him, no doubt. There's also a feature from Gucci Mane, real name Radric Davis, who is definitely the American rapper we're all keeping our eyes on. He launched internationally as the feature on Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles" and has ever since made his name known globally. He continues to be a prominent force in music, so this team-up should've been a worldwide hit, it just wasn't. "Cool" was written by Felix Jaehn, Scott Harris, Rick Markowitz, Micah Premnath, Radric Davis, and Jonas Jeberg.
Directed by Drew Kirsch, this music video doesn't go anywhere. It's a pure performance piece that attempts to showcase Marc E. Bassy, but it's so disappointing as a complete whole. There are scenes of Felix Jaehn in the background, but the focus is on Marc E. Bassy.
Now, this wouldn't normally get on my nerves, I'm all for artists promoting themselves, but they really need to be comfortable in front of a camera and be able to send their performance vibes to the audience at home. No matter if it's a dance song, a country song, a rap song, a jazz song, a classical song, a metal song, an instrumental song, or a pop ballad. Marc E. Bassy is lacking performance. There's nothing that interests me into watching him sing the song.
The music video starts off with Felix Jaehn talking in his own language, with English subtitles at the bottom, which says: "It is so important to be authentic and just to be true to yourself. It does not matter who you are how you look or what clothes you wear as long as you are authentic. The moment you are acting and trying to be someone else is when you really aren't cool." What a way to open a video, especially one that has a brilliant song with a deep meaning, like this one; well, until the video fails to do or go anywhere.
There are various characters in this, which suggests that maybe there's a bigger music video behind this and it has been stripped back or the narrative has been edited out; as these stories aren't something that we are capable of following in this visual. Marc E. Bassy takes up the majority of the scenes and his presence isn't addicting or engaging. He loses most of the audience.
Overall, this music video could've been a hell of a lot better, if it had been done right. Instead, it just fails overall. Felix Jaehn may have stated that this is his favourite music video yet, and we stand by his opinion as the song and visual does suggest that people should be authentic to themselves and be who they really are, yet at the same time it's completely lacking and just isn't something we want to watch again and again.
Wow, what a music video for me to choose for my Thursday Revisit. I remember adoring this song when I first bought the album - because, yes, I was a Justin Timberlake fan at the time. Now, I'm not, and this music video practically explains why - well it doesn't really, I just lost interest in Justin Timberlake as an artist overall. This music video shows how little interest I had in him at this point since this visual is just that, a visual. It's something I could've gotten out of Visualisations from Windows Media Player (remember those days?) only with Justin Timberlake thrown into the midst. Watch Justin Timberlake sort of perform to this song as we see blue visualisations and then see him literally in a trance in a futuristic white room in this music video for "LoveStoned / I Think She Knows (Interlude)".
Justin Timberlake is one of the top male artists in the music industry. He was originally a member of *NSYNC and he's the only one who has had a successful career since the group has split. It does seem like his former bandmates are never going to succeed. He continues to show off his prominence in the industry and it's amazing to see how he can keep getting chart hits. The one thing I can't fault him on is his promotion, he sure knows how to work for those chart positions. This one did pretty well, average at the time of the release, all things considered. The song was written by Justin Timberlake, Tim Mosley, and Nate "Danja" Hills.
The music video was directed by Robert Hales and was filmed in Salford, England, UK. It is beyond basic, and certainly one of these music videos that no one will remember after watching it on the music channels, mixed with plenty of other videos.
This one does have a Windows Media Player Visualisations theme to it, as we watch waves of music get sculpted into Justin Timberlake - who performs with his dance ability and stage presence. However, we don't feel any of his energy as it gets lost in the constant changing of the musical waves.
And don't get me started on that ending. What was that? After building up our anticipated energy, hoping that Justin Timberlake gives us something to receive, we see him in a trance-like state - or should I say LoveStoned-state? - where he just stands there looking at the camera with no emotion or anything.
Overall, this music video just fails on every aspect, level, and wave. What Justin Timberlake is known for, is stripped away as we are continually distracted by these musical waves visuals. It just doesn't work at all.
Once again, I feel like I'm filling up my blog with female solo artists, so I thought I'd choose a male artist to review for this backdated blog, and this one came into my head. I used to be a fan of Justin Timberlake when I was younger, which probably explains why this song popped into my head, but I really don't remember this music video being so bad quality. It's definitely a colourful music video, and I used to adore this song. Watch Justin Timberlake dance and fly and do all sorts of things in this music video for his song "Rock Your Body".
Justin Timberlake was previously in *NSYNC before he became this hot shot male solo artist, who is at the height of his career. He constantly brings out hits after hits, but following in the footsteps of his co-stars in the Mickey Mouse Club - way back when he was a child - Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, his recent material hasn't bagged him high chart positions globally. Promotion is key nowadays for these big artists, and Justin Timberlake sure knows how to promote, which is why he's done pretty well chart-wise, although not completely brilliantly as he did in the early days of his career; such as this track. This was a global success, giving him his first Australian number one. In the UK it hit number two, and in the US it hit number five. It was written by Justin Timberlake, Chad Hugo, and Pharrell Williams. As for the female vocals, they were provided by Vanessa Marquez.
Directed by Francis Lawrence, this music video is a pure performance visual, that sees him perform in a cube-like room where multi-coloured lights make up the walls; they transition light effects bringing focus on the walls more than Justin Timberlake. It's a total distraction; not only that but the lights transform the artist, to the extent, throwing light in various ways in the shot, making it less appealing.
The dancing is on point in every section of this, which we totally expect from Justin Timberlake. He can dance and totally nail choreography in every way. It's good that he's in-sync with the backing dancers at certain points, and he nails the solos.
What I do not like is the fact that Vanessa Marquez, who provides the female vocals in the song, does not appear in the visual; instead, we have Staci Flood lip-syncing to the lyrics. She's been featured in a few music videos and was once a part of The Pussycat Dolls when they were a burlesque troupe.
Overall, this music video was stylish and cool back in the day. Nowadays, it comes off not-so-great. The dancing is on-point, although I swear we all thought Justin Timberlake was hot back then, but now we're wondering if our judgement was correct. I love the light room and wish there was a club that was fitted with those light walls, that would seriously be a brilliant dancefloor.
I had planned to review this weeks ago, and then I noticed it would appear in the UK Top 10 in the future - no I did not foresee this with some magical power, I've been so far behind on this blog that I've been backdating every post for the past few months and that's how I saw that I would be reviewing this music video as a Chart Mondays review. Currently, Drake is at number one (and has been for many weeks after) with the song "God's Plan", the music video, of which, dropped a few weeks after this backdated date - so expect that music video review in the future. This opened the UK Top 10 to my review, and at number 10 is this song! I have not seen this music video before today and I believe Sigrid does her best with what she is given. Watch Sigrid move and dance around a set that looks like it's for a movie in this music video for her hit single "Strangers".
Sigrid, full name Sigrid Raabe, is a singer-songwriter from Norway. She's been globalising on her career for a few years, allowing her songs and music videos to go viral. She knows how to build up and it's certainly working for her. This song is her biggest hit to date, although her previous track "Don't Kill My Vibe" also managed to gain traction around the world. The big question is whether she'll be able to keep her popularity and release even more hits. This is something that a lot of rising stars are struggling with, and I'm guessing that Sigrid is going to be another one for us to add to that list. This song is written by Sigrid Raabe and Martin Sjølie.
Directed by Ivana Bobic for Riff Raff Films, the music video is a pure performance visual. We watch Sigrid interpret the song for the camera as she moves around a set.
The song mentions something to do with a film, so it feels like she's appearing on a film set and she's just using the props and the camera work for her own music video. It feels really unrelated to the song as a whole.
As for the performance side of things, Sigrid really works as much as she can. She does her best and that's all we can ask of her. However, I'm not sure if it is all that good as a whole. It just feels like it doesn't connect with the audience at home and it's missing some major things. It's just not all that interesting to watch. Kudos to Sigrid, though, because she works with what she's been given.
This song has been stuck in my head after I came home from work the other day (this is a backdated post - it is actually March, and I've been working for a month now). So, I thought I'd see if there was a music video for this song, and once again Eric Saade has come through for me. This is not only a good music video, it's a great music video which relates well to the song and represents his home country perfectly. I'm surprised he didn't attempt Melodifestivalen with this song, as I reckon it would've been a good contender. Watch Eric Saade present his country for the whole world to see, allowing us to see some beautiful sights, some beautiful Swedish people, and this singer-songwriter dancing in this music video for "Girl From Sweden".
Eric Saade is best known for competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with "Popular" where he represented his home country, Sweden, coming third with 185 points. Since then he has released a tonne of music and even returned to Melodifestivalen a few times in the hope to represent Sweden at Eurovision again. I adore this track, and I think the song and its accompanying music video would've been perfect for Eurovision, but it wasn't a part of the competition. It didn't do quite so well chart wise in Sweden, only hitting the heatseekers chart. Regardless the song is a jam and truly shows what Eric Saade is capable of. How he isn't an international star yet, I do not know. He was also originally a part of boy band What's Up! for two years.
Directed by Alexandra Kentsdottir & Silja-Marie Kentsdottir, this music video is a pure performance piece with a narrative that doesn't really go anywhere at all. The location was filmed in various places in Stockholm, including Hornstull, Västerbron, Värmdö, and Levon. There's also a scene filmed in Smedby and Hagen in Leksand.
This really manages to show off Sweden - mainly Stockholm - amazingly and totally makes me want to visit even more one day; no doubt I will. It's a cute narrative showing Eric Saade at a press event by himself before exploring Sweden, clearly going after his "Girl From Sweden"; however a love interest never pops up, and instead three women dressed in Swedish traditional clothing appears beside him at the press event - these women can be seen during the performance pieces.
Finally, we get to see Eric Saade's dance moves, and he can certainly follow choreography. It may be basic but it's definitely one of those sequences that people will copy and perform in the comfort of their own homes or with other people. It's like he's bringing back something we've seen plenty of times from the 90's and the 00's and it really works. We want to be able to pull off those dance moves with his style and flair.
Overall, this music video is really good, it sort of relates to the song, to the extent where it shows off Sweden and the pretty women who live there. However, a love-interest would've certainly upped this music video rating that tiny bit more.
This song is literally everywhere at the minute (it's currently March - this blog is backdated to the end of January) and has been rising in listeners due to the Samsung using it during their Unpacked Live Event which revealed the Samsung Galaxy S9. Not only that, but the song have been used in various other places recently, finally allowing Aston Merrygold to gain attention for this song. It's certainly catchy, although I'm not so keen on the track itself. The hook at the start of the chorus is what draws us in, but the rest just spoils the track, which explains why Samsung only used the first half of the chorus for their live event. Watch Aston Merrygold, from JLS, dance around the shopping mall in his debut music video for the song "Get Stupid".
Aston Merrygold is best known for being a member of British boy band JLS, who came second on the fifth series of The X Factor - which Alexandra Burke won. The group went on to have a number of hits before parting ways and they will forever have established themselves in British music. Aston Merrygold has always been interested in a solo career, so it's not a surprise that he is now going it alone, although his latest releases haven't gained traction, if any at all; not only that, but he also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, so he can only hope that that helps him, music wise. He's always come across arrogant, to me, and I don't think he could shake that from my perception of him, as much as he may try. This song actually managed to chart at number 22 in the UK, number 10 in Australia, number 15 in Scotland, and number 72 in Ireland. "Get Stupid" was written by Aston Merrygold, Karen Poole, and Sonny J Mason.
Directed by James Lees, this music video is set at the Del Amo Fashion Centre in Torrance, California. It has a staring narrative that turns into a performance visual. I certainly can't knock Aston Merrygold's dance ability because it is certainly of a high quality.
The start comes off completely staged, to the extent that it's flat-out uninteresting to watch - where is this singer-songwriter's acting ability? - regardless, it doesn't last for long and we quickly jump into the song. It's clear that Aston Merrygold loves to show his dance ability with backing dancers, which does come across a little like he's still in JLS.
The rest of the music video sees him enjoying himself throughout, with the choreography relating to the song as he performs with a spring in his step. He is loving his life in the shopping mall - I wish I had that sort of energy on a daily basis. The ending sees him walk out. It's bright, it's catchy, it's fun, but does it really relate?
