Anything Like You

 

Not so long ago, it was Kelis’ milkshakes that used to bring all the boys to the yard. Now it’s her collab withwill.i.am, dubbed ‘Anything Like You,’ that’ll magnetically attract club hoppers.

While the singer built her rep on that anthem to womanhood, she’s certainly evolved and has gone in a more dance-oriented route as of late. She stays that course on her latest song, which is a heavily synthesized, electro-pop tune with a hint of disco melody, which lives alongside crunchy, chunky, computerized nuances.

“I’ll get you anything you want” is the lyrical hook that is repeated in a monotone, even-keel voice that hides any emotion of Kelis’ part. But we actually like her when she shows off this stiff, robotic side. It proves her ability to be dynamic. will’s contributions are heavily processed, as he is begging her to “tell me what you like.” She answers, “Hot damn / This boy got me spending / My Benjamin Franklin.” It’s all quite mechanized, so what should be sexed up vocal interplay and lyrical content is a bit muted by the way the message is delivered.

It’s a decent dance song featuring two crucial pop music players. We just wish there was a little more heat.

New Video ‘Ours’

Taylor Swift shows us another side of herself in her new ‘Ours’ video. Here, Swift plays a frumpy, office-dwelling working stiff who is incredibly sad and utterly “meh.” The only thing that perks her up? Love — or thinking about it, of course.

Just like the Academy Awards voters love when a gorgeous actress gets ‘plain’ for a role and plays a part that isn’t pretty or glamorous, Swift does exactly that in ‘Ours.’ She wears a bland suit — paired with sensible, if unfashionable, sneakers — and her hair is unkempt and in dire need of some conditioner. She is stuck in the office tower’s elevator with other sad-eyed and frowning working stiffs, none of whom are interacting with each other. The rat race can be a miserable experience.

Office cliches — fluorescent lighting, drab paint, out-of-paper-and-toner copy machines and an annoying coworker throwing paper planes in the direction of her cubicle — surround Swift. Everything that can go wrong does. It’s not her day, nor is it her life. She starts to flash her smile when she takes a break to surf the web and views a home video of her beloved, watching herself frolic with him and play with their kitten.

She bounces from the office, makes an effort to wave to a fellow tenant and high-fives the janitor. It goes to show you that a smile and a wave can go a long, long way. She hops a bus, looks at more video memories on her iPad and hits the airport, where she reunites with her man. It turns out that he’s in the military and returning home. They share a hug, and she comes alive again.

The overarching theme of the ‘Ours’ video is that deep down, we’re all looking to connect with people, be it on the surface, in a fleeting moment or something deeper. It makes you think about engaging in conversation with that guy you ignore in the elevator every morning or making eye contact with that person on the bus and sharing a smile.

Fashion Video Review: Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris

Gil is a successful Hollywood screenwriter. Which is pretty good, right? I mean, not everyone can make a living in the movie biz. And it's a pretty decent living at that. But … for him it's an empty accomplishment. What he really wants is to be a successful writer. Not a Hollywood hack. And that's what his trip to Paris in the company of his fiancée is really all about.

Sure, sure, Inez and her parents are visiting the City of Light as a vacation/shopping trip before the wedding. And that's fine. But for Gil it's about connecting with the soul of this ancient place. He wants to dig into the rich artistic past of the city. After all, greats like Hemingway and Fitzgerald walked these same beautiful streets. If only he could see, hear, feel the fabulous Paris that they knew. Surely that would help him fix the holes in his latest stab at a novel.

All he's feeling when he gets there, though, is his soon-to-be-wife's impatience with all of his creative angst. Not to mention his soon-to-be-in-laws' disappointment over their daughter's poor choice. (Sigh.) The whole trip feels like it's going to be a bust.

But then, on a late-night walk down a quaint Paris street, a clock tower strikes midnight. A vintage Peugeot putters up. A gaggle of French partiers in the backseat beckon Gil to join in. And whoosh, the would-be novelist is transported back to a Paris of days gone by. A Paris of flappers, all-night parties and oh so many classic writers. It's a Paris of the '20s, packed to the brim with dreams—and wouldn't you know it, it's home to a beguiling girl, too.

2003 MTV Video Music Awards

It's not often that a 71-year-old is up for six awards at the MTV Video Music Awards. Johnny Cash's poignant "Hurt," a cover of the Nine Inch Nails tune, managed to score nods in the Video of the Year, Best Male Video, and Best Direction in a Video categories as well as three technical categories, including Best Cinematography, the only award it won. (Curiously, MTV opted to relegate the Best Direction award to the pre-show, while Best Choreography was presented in all its bootylicious glory.) It's not surprising Cash was shafted: "Hurt" was never played on the MTV mother station, and he was up against some of today's hottest artists, three of which (Beyoncé, Coldplay, and Justin Timberlake) took home three statues apiece. But what does it mean that the video was even acknowledged at all? Surely it's one of the saddest, most striking clips of the year, but what about Sigur Rós's frighteningly relevant "Vaka (Untitled #1)"? What about Queens of the Stone Age's groundbreaking "Go with the Flow"? The clip lost the Breakthrough Video moon man to Coldplay's slightly overrated "The Scientist" (which employs the same gimmicky backward technique as Pharcyde's "Drop" and "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Amish Paradise," but with a hollow punchline).

So what went right? Three-time host Chris Rock was almost as funny as last time, and Avril Lavigne, who clearly had no idea where she was or who Duran Duran is, helped Kelly Osbourne surprise the reformed '80s Britpop band with the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award. Missy Elliott, who's been nominated 17 times but has never won, finally got her props for the inventive "Work It," co-directed by Elliott and Dave Meyers. The clip won Video of the Year and Best Hip-Hop Video. Christina Aguilera, whose "Dirrty" was disssed, seemed winded during her performance of the non-hit but sufficiently trashed it up with Dave Navarro on "Fighter." Beyoncé got her groove on with a line of Rocket-esque backup dancers for her twin hits "Baby Boy" and "Crazy In Love," but note to Mom: Please lay off the big bows and shiny fabrics. VMA staples Metallica closed out the show with a medley of MTV hits past and present (Michael Jackson's "Beat It," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and the White Stripes's "Seven Nation Army," among others) before breaking out into a song from their new album, St. Anger.

But all of that was upstaged by—who else?—Madonna. The reigning queen of MTV added another notch to her boy-toy belt of greatest VMA performances. The first, of course, was her performance of "Like A Virgin" at the inaugural ceremony 20 years ago (we'll get back to that in a minute), and the second was an elaborate interpretation of her hit "Vogue" in 1990: Madonna and company (her dancers and longtime backup singers, hot off of her Blond Ambition Tour) were dressed in Victorian garb, lip-syncing to the track, and flashing their bloomers. Not only did "Vogue" find Madonna at one of her many creative peaks, but it raised the bar for VMA stage performances and for pop music performance in general. While Madonna is one of the few pop singers who usually refuses to lip-sync, pomp overshadowed vocal technique on that night, but no one seemed to care.

The same can be said for her opening performance at this year's VMAs. Like her very first VMA performance in 1984, a bride emerged from a giant wedding cake singing "Like a Virgin." Judging by the first few squeaky notes, it could very well have been Madonna circa 1984, but after a few not-so-innocent (and not-so-sexy) bars, the bride lifted her veil, revealing a well-publicized non-virgin, Britney Spears. Soon a dirrtier bride, a dark-haired Christina Aguilera, began to warble through the song's chorus. The pair rolled around the stage in vintage Madonna style, which in and of itself was a sight to behold. Of course, the "groom" would soon take the cake (for those who hadn't been tipped off already, both Beyoncé and Jay-Z spilled the beans during the VMA pre-show). Dressed in a black top hat and tuxedo, Madonna began to sing "Hollywood," the second single from her latest album, American Life. The trio strutted the stage arm-in-arm before bringing the spectacle to a climax with two open mouth kisses. (Cue shot of Justin Timberlake, not sure what to make of his famous ex and his current touring partner swapping spit with the most famous woman in the world.)

Madonna rarely shares the stage with other stars, and for it to be Britney and Christina—who have been compared to and who cite Madonna as a primary influence—was nothing short of surreal. (Rumors abound that J. Lo was to have originally appeared in Christina's place, in which case Madonna would have been the best singer on the stage that night.) Add to that an appearance by Madonna's new Gap pal, Missy Elliott, who has been pegged as one of the greatest video artists since the Material Girl herself, and you've got a PR coup of diva proportions. It begs the question: Who thought this shit up? According to Fight the Good Fight Ministries, Satan did. A post on the nonprofit Christian organization's website chided MTV for "leading millions of impressionable youth down the greased pole to hell." The group claims that Satan is using a "legion of demonic beings" (Madonna, Britney, and Christina, no doubt) to "promote musical terrorism" (read: lesbianism). Of course, like terrorism itself, what would a Christian website be without a little propaganda and fear? The group exhorts: "God's word warns that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God but will be sentenced to the lake of fire." Quite honestly, I would much rather be in the lake of fire with Madonna and Christina than up in heaven with these nut-jobs.

It's been close to a decade since a public appearance by Madonna has caused such a firestorm of controversy. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution apologized to its readers for printing a thumbnail-sized image of Madonna kissing Britney on their front page after a slew of complaints. The newspaper compared the "mistake" to the paper's printing of violent images from the war in Iraq several months ago. Of course, Madonna's message is always about more than just sex. The performance ended with the four women defiantly shouting the musical bridge from "Hollywood": "Music stations always play the same songs, we're bored with the concept of right and wrong!" It's difficult not to view the lyric—along with Madonna's sneering "Flip the station, change the channel"—as a timely indictment of both radio and MTV itself, who have virtually ignored Madonna's single and video. Still, the performance proves once and for all what the M in MTVreally stands for.

Which Is Britney Spears' Best Video Of 2011

Earlier this month, we were swooning all over the place about Britney Spears and her big30th birthday. We even held a weeks-long March Madness-style tournament to find out which of her thirty-plus videos was the fan favorite. Ultimately, after nearly a million votes were cast (thanks again, y'all!) the winner was "I'm A Slave 4 U."

What's not settled is which of her fantastic videos from just this year is your favorite. We decided to dedicate this week to finding out which 2011 videos by MTV Newsroom blog favorite artists were tops. So far we've opened up polling for Katy Perry and Taylor Swift(don't forget to vote! We'll let you know all of the results on Monday!). Now, it's B's turn.

Britney had a big year in 2011. She had yet another No. 1 record, Femme Fatale, which is arguably her best album to date. Fatale has yielded more top ten hits than any album in Spears' 12-year career. (Isn't that kind of an incredible fact, considering she's one of the most successful female artists ever?) She also hit the road for a massive world tour that took her across North America, Europe and South America, and scored a Video Music Award for Best Pop Video. And she should have been nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance Recording for "Till The World Ends" … but what are you gonna do?

Spears released four videos this year for the Femme Fatale singles "Hold It Against Me," "Till The World Ends," "I Wanna Go" and "Criminal." Which was the best of the best?

Kanye West's "All of the Lights"

As the new video for Kanye West's "All of the Lights" begins, you might doubt for a moment that you're watching a Hype Williams clip: A young child wanders down snowy streets, lensed in vérité black and white while somber piano and strings play. Then the strobe effects kick in, the seizure-inducing titles start to flash, and West starts dancing in front of a blank backdrop and we're back on well-trodden ground.

West and Williams take their cues from Gaspar Noé's nihilist afterlife fantasy Enter the Void—not just in its epileptic titles and colorful strobing, but in its snippets of traumatic first-person memory. The song, an allegory about fame, failure, and a quest for redemption, is paired with a stream of frenetic, psychedelic imagery. When the video is actively mimicking the French filmmaker, things work: The song's lyrics and titles pop off the screen, and the bombardment of fonts, colors, and lights all dance on the boundaries of flicker fusion.

But the first-person consciousness is dropped halfway through, and soon we're killing time with Rihanna and Kid Cudi lazily swaying and chest-thumping in front of a spotlight, at which point the enterprise quickly loses steam. And while "cop lights" may be in the song's lyrics, having West dancing on top of a police car is a deflationary easy reach.

The best music videos prove to be skillful adaptations, evoking the intangibles of a song and performing a synesthetic conversion of sound to image—or they use that additional path of sensory access to counterpoint the ideas and emotions washing past our ears. "All of the Lights" does neither, and Williams makes the same mistake he did with Beyoncé's "Video Phone" in confusing visual stimulation for content.

In discussing the choices he made while directing the short film "Runaway," West said that he wanted to give all of the tracks on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a sense of visual identity. "All of the Lights" has its own segment in that film, and I initially accused that display, with its twirling acrobats and giant Michael Jackson effigy, of being self-indulgent. But that kind of expansive, crowded parade of spectacle feels much closer to the identity of the song than the broken confusion of the Williams clip.

"All of the Lights" is an epic track, as this video tries to remind us by blasting the entire list of the song's star collaborators. But that's the extent of it; the rest of the clip seems content to believe that skillful mimicry is an acceptable substitute for a vision.

Fashion Video California Gurls Review

You knew Katy Perry's "California Gurls" video would feature more candy than a lifetime's Halloween haul, whipped-cream bras, ridiculous wigs and Snoop. But what you didn't know the hotly anticipated "California Gurls" video would feature? Dancing Pop-Tart gingerbread men, a Gummi bear army, anthropomorphic Popsicles ... and ... Katy Perry naked! Except for a bow. Hooray!

Snoop Dogg himself possibly predicted a bare-bummed Katy with the line "toned, tanned, fit and ready," and Perry is certainly all four, and then some. Ironically, though the "California Gurls" video is Candy Land come to life -- thanks to the always-brilliant director Mathew Cullen and his production studio, Motion Theory -- Katy Perry looks like she hasn't had sugar in years. Way to rub it in our faces, lady.

"California Gurls" came out of a very simple place: as a response to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' massive hit "Empire State of Mind." While "Empire" was incredibly New York, with a sweeping chorus and plenty of Big Apple references, Perry's ode to her home state was glossy and shiny and featured Cali MC Snoop Dogg.

Perry said the song is just what California needed. "[California girls] are different," she said about Teenage Dream's debut single. "That's why there needed to be a song about them. I felt like there's something in the water. Like, you know the boys always dream about maybe dating a California girl, just because we've got the sun shining through 365 days a year."

According to the song, Cali not only has the sun, it also has palm trees, sun-kissed skin and girls so hot they will well melt your Popsicle. That is pretty scalding! Perry's intent was to conjure up sexy images about her beloved state.

"When I came up with the idea of 'California Gurls,' it was because I was a little bit jealous of all the love that was given to the East Coast, and I thought for sure Tupac was rolling in his grave, and the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson was totally upset ... like, 'What is up with that?' " she said.

Perry took it upon herself to do them proud. "I thought it would be perfect timing for a California anthem, and especially one from a female perspective, because there's never really ever been a female perspective about California," she said. "And everyone wondered about our little state."

Don't get Perry wrong: She means no disrespect to her East Coast counterparts. "I love New York girls," she clarified. "I think they're hot, and I think they have a lot of attitude, but I'm telling you: When it comes wintertime, they're all gonna be singing 'California Gurls.' "

Lady Gaga and Marry the Night

Lady Gaga yearns for matrimony — not with a man, but with the nightlife itself, on ‘Marry the Night,’ a new track from ‘Born This Way.’

Gaga told Ryan Seacrest in February that ‘Marry’ is one of her favorites on the new record, but we’re not feeling this one quite as much. With no instrumental lead-in, Gaga opens the track by singing, “I’m gonna marry the night / I won’t give up on my life / I’m a warrior queen, live passionately tonight.”

The twinkling synth opening leads into a club banger chorus in which she promises to “leave nothing on the street to explore.”

Aside from a cute verse in which Gaga gets drunk, makes out with the bartender and calls herself a “loser,” the song doesn’t tell much of a story and never truly becomes the party-all-night-long anthem the singer might have envisioned.

Though ‘Marry the Night’ is the weakest of the five tracks we’ve heard from ‘Born This Way’ so far, we’re still digging the rest of the new music, including ‘The Edge of Glory‘ and ‘Hair.’

‘Marry the Night’ was revealed in the Gagaville virtual community of FarmVille. The complete ‘Born This Way’ album hits stores on May 23.

‘Alone With You’ Is A Sexy Video By Jake Owen

Poor Jake Owen. He can’t help it that beautiful women, especially drunk ones, throw themselves at him — but easy hookups are just not his style. In his new ‘Alone With You’ video, Owen speaks his mind and talks from the heart because the track he’s been running on has got him singing the blues.

‘Alone With You’ is a sexy, dark video that takes place some time between Saturday night and Sunday morning and shows a softer, lonelier side of the ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’ singer.

When the clip opens, we see the singer asleep on his couch in front of the TV with his bulldog Merle, when a voice mail alert wakes him from his slumber. It’s his girl — or should we say late-night friend — letting him know that she’s coming over. From there, things get serious.

It seems that Mr. Owen is thinking things through. When the blonde bombshell arrives, his heart is saying no but his hands are saying “let’s go,” meaning things get pretty hot and steamy. The singer wants the girl to know he’s more than a sex object, but she’s like an addiction that he can’t break. There are elements of anger — she only calls him when she’s drunk and he can’t handle it anymore — but romantic feelings are developing.

In the end, it seems there’s no conclusion … and Jake Owen is left with his thoughts once again. “The line in the song ‘But you kiss me when you’re drunk’ is so real, and the music video is true to the storyline of the song,” Owen explains in a press release about the new video. “Basically, it’s about not finding love … but comfort in someone’s arms who really isn’t the one for you and sometimes no one else knows about it but the two of you.”