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| pc: ftw.usatoday.com |
If you have been on Facebook for the past 3 weeks, you may have noticed those "Hotline Bling" Vines and videos that have been taking over your news feed. Although it has been quiet in the last couple of days, they were EVERYWHERE such that you couldn't even open Facebook without seeing the same video that has been re-posted for what may have been the hundredth time.
They were funny at first, but after seeing these endless likes and shares of the same videos over and over again, you couldn't help but ask yourself, "When will this madness end?"
When I came across the first wave of videos, I wondered, "What is this, and why is this even funny? And once again, why are people making fun of Drake?" I don't listen to Drake or his music, so I wasn't familiar with the hype surrounding this trend. So one day, I decided to listen and view the original music video to figure out why people have been going nuts over it.
Surprisingly, I made it through the entire video (I say "surprisingly" because I don't usually listen to R&B and Hip Hop). The video actually wasn't bad and the music itself wasn't bad either. The mood the song evokes is very soothing and is something that is appropriate to listen to on a late-night drive.
As I was watching the video, I kept my eyes peeled for that one portion where Drake is doing that weird dance with his leg, so I'll leave the analogous movements to your imagination since that was the part that people have been editing out. Once it came to that part, I was disappointed to find that it wasn't as spectacular as the Vines have made it out to be. But the question remained: "Why is this even funny?"
These days, music videos are not simply meant to be viewed as music videos only. With the growing capabilities that users have on Facebook, along with having the ability to see what your friends have commented on and liked, short videos that make fun of cultural and social situations and references are becoming the most viewed and shared content on the social platform. From clips of animals making anthropomorphic faces with the caption, "That moment when your friend catches you doing something weird" to people making attributions of being single forever with clips of a little boy crying about his first day of school when he was asked, "Are you going to miss your mommy?", these short videos are the way that people are able to relate to each other in a visual manner.
With that said, this does not mean that Drake, in particular, is necessarily funny or relatable. Instead, music videos like "Hotline Bling" are made in such a minimal way that it gives users enough room and freedom to poke fun at situations and make references as they are creating these short videos. What's even more profound about this phenomenon is how "Hotline Bling" has managed to become a social reference where some people have dressed up as Hotline-Bling Drake on Halloween.
Given this ability, artists will be able to reach a wider audience and gain more publicity. Does this mean that music videos will soon be made for this purpose? Not all of them will since there are artists out there who still believe in the music video being a short movie. However, it is most likely that the art of making music videos, especially within mainstream media and pop music, will be heading in this direction in the near future.
After contemplating on this, I finally understood the humor behind "Hotline Bling." I will admit that I laughed at the Vine that made the Pokemon reference.
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