1. The Weeknd Aesthetic: What Is Aesthetic?
1.1 What Is Aesthetic?
1.1.1 Aesthetic Is A Trending Media Term
In this era of explosive information technology and social networking platforms, you can easily see, or hear the term “Aesthetic” anywhere on social media.
Aesthetic, these days, is a trending word among young people. This term is used to refer to a style that represents a group of people who share a common interest. There are different types of aesthetics based on creative styles in many areas, from fashion, interior, lifestyle, or music.
And The Weeknd Aesthetic is based on his music career.
This keyword often appears on strong visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest in the form of mood boards. In terms of fashion and lifestyle, many young people choose YouTube or TikTok to share their aesthetics.
More and more young people are pursuing aesthetics. These people often have one thing in common, which is that they desire unity in the way they dress, decorate their homes, and how to live their lives. Some people share that synchronicity helps them feel more in love with themselves.
In some cases, the personal pursuit of aesthetics is shared which will help improve some psychological problems and improve work efficiency. Aesthetic can also become a feature of you if you work in the arts, like The Weeknd Aesthetic.
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1.1.2 Aesthetic Is A Branch of Philosophy
Before the advent of the aesthetic concept of communication, people knew aesthetics (or asthetic) as a branch of philosophy. True to its name, it is a philosophy that specializes in the study of beauty and what is recognized as beautiful.
Aesthetic values beauty and creativity. It also encourages artistic creation and other ways of expressing beauty. Therefore, aesthetics includes all areas of art. From well-known arts to lesser-followed arts, we can all use aesthetics to explore and appreciate.
It can be said that aesthetics is a philosophy that concretizes beauty. Even before this concept and discipline appeared, we could still know what was beautiful and what was not, but with a vague perception.
The advent of aesthetics made the study of beauty clearer. At the same time, it also sets certain standards for determining beauty.
However, it can not be denied that it does not really affect human enjoyment. Because the perception of beauty is completely dependent on our emotions. That makes beauty rarely attached to specific concepts
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1.2 The Aesthetic’s Origin
We think that most of the beautiful and abstract concepts in English are derived from Ancient Greek. And so is the aesthetic.
According to research by linguists, the aesthetic is derived from “aisthetikos”, referring to emotional perceptions instead of rational thoughts.
It seems that after thousands of years, although humans have created millions of new languages with billions of new words, and added many new meanings to ancient words, some words still hold a part of their original meaning.
To this day, aesthetic is still a word that is more emotional than rational. Because sometimes, we just casually feel that something looks beautiful without putting it into any convention to conclude that.
When you listen to music influenced by The Weeknd Aesthetic, sometimes you simply feel that the song is strangely good without understanding the style of composition.
However, when aesthetic was still an ancient Greek word, it did not have the specific meaning of “sense of beauty”. It was the German philosopher, Alexander Baumgarten, who developed the meaning of the word more clearly, from “sense” to “sense of beauty”. He also named one of his books “Aesthetica” in 1735.
But in 1790, the word “aesthetic” with Alexander’s definition appeared in the book Critique of Judgment, written by the philosopher Kant. From here, “aesthetic” is officially used in the sense we have seen in modern English.
1.3 Why Does Aesthetic Become Popular?
In 2010, the vaporwave movement emphasized the aesthetics of the 1980s and 1990s, reflected in the design style of images, and music, … brought the word aesthetic to young people.
According to a report by Pinterest, since 2018, more and more users are interested in the topic of “aesthetic” when 60% of searches are related to this keyword. This leads to the emergence of different aesthetic genres to help users understand themselves better.
If Tumblr was a place where users express themselves and “flex” their personalities in the past, now TikTok and Instagram are the dominant aesthetic-sharing platforms.
One of the contents that gets a lot of interaction on TikTok is the “What aesthetic are you?” type of video.
Sometimes, you don’t have to use social media to know your aesthetic. You can find it out sooner if your area of work gives you plenty of opportunities to do that, like The Weeknd and The Weeknd Aesthetic.
Fashion is an aspect where young people most clearly express their personal taste through many different makeup styles and combinations. One of the outstanding trends is e-girl, VSCO girl, art hoe, etc. In terms of lifestyle, cottage-core, the trend of living in harmony with nature, has become a trend during the epidemic season.
It can be seen that according to the modern definition of young people, aesthetics brings feelings and emotions associated with aesthetic images. This is also close to Aristotle’s definition when he said that art gives us the opportunity to feel emotional levels that we have never touched.
2. The Weeknd Aesthetic
2.1 The Weeknd Aesthetic: Stages Of Development
Since he started his career in 2010, this has changed year by year. If you’re his long-time fan or you’ve learned about his career, it’s easy to see how The Weeknd Aesthetic changed anytime he releases a new album.
However, it would be wrong to say that it has completely changed. Consistently, his aesthetic changes but rests on a constant foundation.
It seems confusing to say this. Let us explain more clearly. The Weeknd aesthetic foundation has never changed after more than 10 years of his career. It embraces darkness and moodiness but blends perfectly with romance and luxury.
To support this point, we will analyze some of The Weeknd’s albums.
— In 2010, The Weeknd released a mixtape album, “House of Balloons”, and attracted a lot of attention from audiences as well as some critics.
On the album cover, there is a half-naked woman whose face and lower body are covered by colorful balloons. But the entire image is adjusted to black and white. That heralds an album of uncomfortable themes.
Yes, the lyrics and visuals of this mixtape take the audience into chaotic parties, where drugs, drugs, and sex appear. The album perfectly depicts the dark aspects of nightlife.
— In 2012, a compilation album, Trilogy, featuring The Weeknd’s first three mixtapes (“House of Balloons”, “Thursday” and “Echoes of Silence”) was released. The cover photo, again, is a black and white photo. The Weeknd appears in this photo. He is leaning to the side. A woman was standing behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
The familiar darkness from “House of Balloons” and nightlife culture remain themes throughout this album.
In 2013, The Weeknd released his first studio album, Kiss Land. It is a different album from the previous 2 albums. This time, the cover photo is a color photo, though still dark with strange blue lights.
The Weeknd is in the center of the photo, with a third of his face in shadow and the rest of his face exposed in the dim light. During this period, The Weeknd Aesthetic was opulent and glamorous but still somewhat dark and depraved.
Once again in black and white, The Weeknd’s second studio album “Beauty Behind the Madness” was released in 2015. The Weeknd’s face in the cover art looks like it was stitched together from scraps of photos.
A deep, straight cut split his face in half. This time, we get to see The Weeknd’s face-to-face. In this album, The Weeknd retains the gloom throughout, but his musical style has been refined. He also collaborated with other famous artists such as Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey.
Starboy, The Weeknd’s third studio album, was released in 2016. Unlike the neutral color style used in the cover art of previous albums, the cover of this album has made excellent use of color contrast. It marks a clear change in The Weeknd’s musical style, most noticeable in the contrast between the throbbing beats and sad lyrics.
The Weeknd’s latest album and his most successful album, After Hours, is considered the maturity of The Weeknd Aesthetic in every way. In this album, The Weeknd hides the gloom and moodiness that is often seen under a bright red suit.
With a bloody image under the bandages, he really created a boom in 2020. Unfortunately, despite being highly appreciated by critics and expected to win many major awards, The Weeknd was not nominated in any category of the 2020 Grammy Awards.
2.2 The Weeknd Aesthetic: Influences
The Weeknd Aesthetic is one of the key elements in creating his music. The songs he writes, under personal aesthetic influence, give audiences unique musical experiences. Because of his unusual way of composing and performing, he has received a lot of positive comments from critics and good reactions from his fans around the world.
3. About Leapice
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