Digital Media Review #2

I will be analyzing "I Feel Better" by Hot Chip. The video starts off by introducing us to some sensational boy band, cutting to a close up of each guy and showing us their name, not unlike the introduction to a concert or a poppish music video. They start to dance, and their performance and the lighting tells us that we are indeed at a concert. It is a simple stage with a name, Hot Chip, behind them. We see and hear the audience of screaming girls lovingly cheering on their idols. The video keeps switching between dance shots, close ups of the guys singing somewhat sensually, and the girls screaming and jumping up and down for about half a minute. Then suddenly a light distracts a few of the girls from the behind, and they turn around. A mysterious floating figure comes out of a foggy door. He is very androgynous and almost sickly, like a cancer patient - very skinny and bald. While the music and singing up to this point has been very autotuned, snythy, and boy band pop, when this guy comes into the picture the music becomes slower and more natural sounding. The lip sync is also slower and a little exaggerated, but it kinda looks pretty. As you get a wider shot you see that he is wearing a glowing white robe and has his hands held out at his side sorta like Jesus. The girls all respond to his presence with horrified looks. He sorta looks back to them almost pitingly, as we jump to the boy band sorta sizing him up as he floats toward them, wondering what kind of punk interrupted their performance. He continues to approach as the girls disgustedly get out of his way, singing and having a peaceful look on his face, almost as if he is enlightened. The boy band realizes he has come to take them on, and it cuts to their faces one by one as they realize this. The first guy decides to take the Jesus guy on with a dance battle, and we can hear the girl's screaming in their support. He seems pretty assured of his victory as he breakdances, Jesus-guy watching completely unimpressed. It goes to a close up of Jesus-guy, and then suddenly a blue laser bursts out of his mouth, making electric noises and hitting the boy band member square in the face, knocking him to the ground. The girls' response is instantaneous, as we hear them screaming in horror. Jesus-guy just looks around amused at their horror. The next boy band member slides in, and the girls are screaming, but this time in support, one clearly yelling out 'I love you!!' He tries to dance off Jesus-guy as well, with Jesus-guy mockingly copying his movements along the way, only to laser blast him in the face when their heads get too close, resulting in more shrieking girls. The next boy comes in, full of support from the audience, tries to dance off and intimidate Jesus-guy until he turns around and gets distracted by his fans, reaching out a hand to them to let them touch him. Jesus-guy is not amused and taps him on his shoulder to get his attention, only to laser him in the face. Enter sad shot of fan horrified here. Finally the last boy band guy comes on stage, slowly taking off his clothes and throwing them off to the audience. Jesus-guy tries to show off his muscles too, but in the end only blasts him in the face like all the rest of his bandmates. Once he has fallen it cuts back to the audience, who are closing their eyes in a weird mock peace look, almost in a trance. Jesus-guy has his eyes closed too, but when he opens them suddenly the bandmates are back with an explosion, except shirtless and all in classy white jackets. Jesus-guy is dressed like them, dancing and singing in the middle while they back him up. The girls go completely crazy, accepting Jesus-guy now and rocking to the music. The audience also has some new members - some men, some of which almost look middle aged, hooting and hollering with all the girls. It continues to show the band dancing, Jesus-guy holding his own with them, and the audience rocking out, mostly focusing on the men in the audience. The band reaches out and lets the audience touch them, even touching Jesus-guy. Everything is going great until its starts to zoom out from the stage, and Jesus-guy notices something in the distance. Its a floating African-American head coming from the same foggy door, bopping up and down to the music! Everyone turns around, though the band sans Jesus-guy keeps dancing like nothing happened. The girls all seem confused, not quite as instant disliking as before. Jesus-guy, however, freaks out and runs off stage, leaving the band to keep on dancing. The head smiles and keeps bopping, only to furrow his brow and emit a red laser beam from his eyes. It hits the band and they disintegrate with a scream of pain. Half of their bodies remain on fire on the stage, and the audience screams in horror and starts running. The head keeps up, hitting a screaming girl and the group of guys in the audience while lip syncing to what Jesus-guy was singing earlier. He keeps bopping and singing as everyone runs out of sight, turning to laser beam the Hot Chip sign on the stage. It blows up, and it cuts back to the head, closing his eyes in peace like Jesus-guy did earlier, only to smile and laugh somewhat maniacally. This video is obviously a critique on the pop industry, specifically those aimed toward young girls, and a critique of the fans that so mindlessly flock to see these works. The words and the video don't correspond much, other than the lyrics when Jesus-guy comes in are more...transcendant and pretty compared to the sorta whatever stuff the band was singing. What I really like about it is that it has the music from the sound, but it also has effect sounds, like screams and laser beam noises, on top of it, almost like it is a real concert with all this crap happening, and that the show keeps going no matter what.