Here's my confession: I was actually a little bummed with LMFAO announced they were taking a hiatus in 2012. There's always going to be artistic bands making great music and there will always be pop groups making party music, and as far as party music goes, LMFAO knew what they were doing. Thankfully they say they will get back together again one day, but until then we have two albums and some music videos.
I think part of LMFAO's success was due to the all-inclusive party messages in their music. While Pitbull has made a career more or less off of telling us to "enjoy life" with a Bud Light Platinum, the subtext is usually you need to be relatively good looking and well-dressed to ride the enjoy life Bud Light Platinum party train. LMFAO took Andrew W.K.'s "everybody party with me" theme and applied to less abrasive music. And that, my friends, is how you get your songs in both Superbowl commericals and the Superbowl itself.
So today we're watching the video for the lynchpin of LMFAO's catalog, 2011's "Party Rock Anthem", directed by Mickey Finnegan.
The plot of the music video is a good example of the self-deprecating humor that's characteristic of LMFAO: SkyBlu and Redfoo went into comas right before their single "Party Rock Anthem" was released. They awake to an apocalyptic world where the desire to "shuffle" to that single has turned into some sort of disease. When the song comes on, everyone shuffles, and if you don't shuffle, you get turned into a party rock hipster. SkyBlu and Redfoo try to blend in, but they eventually become "infected" with shufflin'.
The premise of the video is, of course, extremely ridiculous - and that's the point. There's also a good amount of self-parody here: The whole reason Sky Blu and Redfoo blend right in to the whole shufflin' scene is because the shufflers turn normal-looking people into people that look like they're in LMFAO.They're even doing a dance that is the polar opposite of twerking - shufflin' is gender neutral and decidedly unsexual. Director Mickey Finnegan and editor Hank Friedmann do a fantastic job of placing and featuring the most interesting dancers and most interesting little moments, making it a video that holds up to repeat viewings.
The video was choreographed by - and heavily features - dancers from Quest Crew, an LA-based hip hop dance crew who were on the show America's Best Dance Crew have also made appearances in several other LMFAO videos. It also continues the LMFAO tradition of including LMFAO friend Andrew Furr as Shuffle Bot, who as you may be able to guess is the one with the cardboard robot head.
The thing that makes this video great is the fact that like LMFAO's music, it knows its ridiculous and plays that up to the nth degree. Things like Redfoo nervously shuffling down a street causally greeting other infected shufflers to blend in is amazingly stupid in the best possible way. While videos like "Sexy and I Know It" are fun in a similar way, I think "Party Rock Anthem" is a great example of what made LMFAO fun and different.
Watch out for a cameo by Colette Carr, who is also signed to Cherrytree Records. Also watch out for Lauren Bennett in one of the most uncomfortable looking outfits ever in a music video.
