Kendra Brea Cooper
Lorde's first mega-hit "Royals" is nominated for Best Female Video and Best Rock Video and the MTV Video Music Awards. The video starts as something stripped down and simple, and it is, but that simplicity takes the viewer through stages of discovery without all the bells and whistles.
The opening shots of empty streets lined with houses painted with the same bucket, have me feeling like it's another day and another shade of off white. That is the basic colour scheme of this entire video, because any hint of neon might make your heart beat faster.
The boys seem to have an energy about them, but the white walls aren't interested, so they bottle it up. There's a little hope there, and it comes in bursts of laughter and breaks of chaos. There's a feeling of not knowing your place in the world, when it seems like everyone else has an identity they've managed to scramble together.
Somehow, the normal and the plain in this video comfort me. It's almost as if there is still potential left, a blank slate, nothing used or abused. Staring at a white wall can be therapeutic. It's a quiet escape from a world that is screaming at you from every angle.
There are moments where the characters are staring at an object, or off into the distance. It seems like it's much more than a simple day dream. It is seeing the same thing everyday, but looking at it one more time with hope of seeing a different side to it.
I can tell that the characters in this video have a thoughtful inner narrative. The moments where it seems like the only action in the room is coming from the buzz of the fuzzy television, are the ones where the boy is somewhere else entirely, maybe a place in his mind.
The empty streets, rooms filled with unused furniture, and sitting at a table of empty chairs, are all images of loneliness. Being alone isn't always a bad thing, it's a time to contemplate, move thought patterns, and reflect. Being alone with your thoughts is rare. Being alone with your thoughts is painful and frustrating.
There are times when the taste of blood in your mouth is what rebellion tastes like. The characters have tight bonds as friends by pushing the boundaries of their bodies underwater and in sport. Frustrated with the state of their lives, they're stuck in between our culture's push for consumption and call for restraint. Blood is a reminder that you are alive, so go ahead and spit it at the mirror.
Pop culture and all that ideology sitting in the blind spot. Also crafts.
