Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Fernand Leger Influence on modern music video?

Every time we talk about artists and their works in class, we mention how they started something new and changed the direction of art, but rarely do I see these influences in modern art or humanities. This very well could be because I have minimal exposure to modern arts (other than music), or that I just fail to make connections. Today was the exception to that though, when we watched Fernand Leger's Ballet Mecanique, the style instantly reminded me of a music video by the band Underoath. I could be crazy and seeing connections that someone more knowledgeable in humanities would say have nothing in common, but in my mind I could totally see multiple commonalities between this music video and Ballet Mecanique.
The video is not on youtube so I can't embed it into the blog, so here is a link. The video is for the song Writing on the Walls by the band Underoath. http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/Underoath/Writing+on+the+Walls--50971016

     The first thing most people probably will notice is that music is loud and chaotic, and for some that have not been exposed to this genre, it probably seems a little bit overwhelming. There are some sections of the song that are more melodic, but there are also portions that consist of screaming, odd rhythms, and heavy percussion. This sounds a lot like the way the music in Ballet Mecanique would be described. Although there are not guitars, keyboard, or drumsets, it still has a very chaotic and sometimes uncomfortable feel to it. Neither of the two videos are something most people would consider easy to listen to or watch.
     The other aspect of the videos I found strikingly similar is the way they were filmed. I know nothing about film, so there could be a name for this style of video/movie, but I am unaware if there is. One of the first things I noticed about Ballet Mecanique was how random and short each of the clips were. It never stayed focused on one object/scene very long. It constantly is changing images, which adds feeling of chaos that the music is giving off. The scenes were random, and I was unable to pull a meaning or theme from the movie. This is exactly what I got from the Underoath music video as well. It never stayed focused on one scene/image for very long, it was constantly changing to the other things going on in the video. I didn't see any specific meaning in the music video. It was random, chaotic, and far from relaxing to listen to, just like Ballet Mecanique . 
  Call me crazy, but I feel like this Underoath music video is the modernized version of Ballet Mecanique. It had many of the same characteristics as Ballet Mecanique, just adapted to the higher technological level of our society (like electric guitars, electronic keyboard, and higher video quality). The fact that these two videos were made over 80 years apart, yet are very similar, shows how no matter how big if a time gap there is, we still draw influences from the artists that were well before our time. 
Do we not always notice connections like this because we are too blind to see them and don't look for them, but really every new art stems from artists before their time? Or do we sometimes feel like some ideas are completely new and original, not pulling influence from people before them?

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