Music videos are sometimes just a good excuse to do some really weird stuff. I'm not talking about the stuff that is overtly and self-conciously odd, I'm more thinking about the stuff that, when you are watching it, you go "wow this is weird".
So since it's Monday, we might as well get weird and watch the video for "Cameo Lover" by Kimbra from 2011, directed by Guy Franklin.
The world knows and loves Kimbra from her painted lady appearance in 2011's "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye. She's sort of styled like Katy Perry in that video, but "Cameo Lover" brings out the true Kimbra - triangle haircut, crazy loud clothing, and lots of sublte camera muggging. And just a hint of the incomprehensible.
The video has a simple premise - Kimbra and a group of young ladies perform "Cameo Lover" to a group of five men in school desks. The five men are in black suits and are also blindfolded. As Kimbra sings and turns up the charm to 11, the men on the ends start to change over to color suits and color painted nails and and start toe tapping along with the beat. The guy in the middle is a tough nut to crack, however, and it takes the entire video to get him in a pink suit and to take his blindfold off. Kimbra and her band of merry young ladies has done it!
I find the premise of this video very, very odd, and not in a bad way. Just the dynamics of Kimbra performing to a row of dudes in suits with blindfolds on is a strange visual and also a little spatially disorienting. We see both sides of the performance head on, putting us in the visual space of both sides pretty equally. I also can't really figure out what is going on here. At one point the four guys on the side and sining to the guy in the middle - why does Kimbra need to get to the outer guys before getting to the inner guy? Why is Kimbra going for the middle guy when she's already converted the side guys? Why do the side guys want to help Kimbra out? Why is the middle guy so stubborn? I know the actual answers to these questions don't really matter, but I'm still curious, especially when the blindfold guys thump their desks with such enthusiam.
Note: There's also the fact that all of Kimbra's dancers look to be around 15 years old and younger, which is definitely an interesting choice.
This is one of those videos that seems like it could only exist in music video format. There is a sort of a plot and a message, but these elements really only exist to hang enticing and memorable images off of. This video does a fantastic job of putting the spotlight on Kimbra and communicating her unique style and appeal that is a big part of her music. So if we need to turn some dudes colors as an excuse to see Kimbra do her thing, that's the way it's gotta be.
