The Art of Music.
Now of days, we are often inspired by art. With the use of technology in the digital era, we are also asked to interpret more info about the art and artist. Elements of Design consist of elements that are used as an outline for designers to get their viewers to understand their art. There are 10 elements of design. Each element also helps keep the viewers interested in the art the designers are displaying. Each element in art can help build our stimulation.
A$AP Rocky recently dropped a music video for “A$AP Forever”, and it reminds us that we are living in one of the best eras for the element of design with technology.This video is something everyone of the digital age should watch. The video takes us into the world of the artist and offers many interactive elements of design that certain music videos have lacked.
Since their existence, videos have changed the game for performing artists. Originally starting as musical short films in the 1920’s, the instant play back of a recording has been amusing for people. This gives the artist ways to express their written emotions visually. Today, Music Videos started to become the perfect medium for musicians. Most musicians typically promote their album single or push a piece of their art.
MTV first changed the world for music videos in their debut in the 1980s. ”Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll” became the words used as MTV debuted the new platform for music videos. MTV aired 87 musical videos on their first day describing them as video jockeys. One of the first videos MTV premiered was “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles. Video Killed The Radio Star was the single from The Buggles debut album The Age Of Plastic in 1979. The song was on many charts but didn’t crack the top 30 for the U.S. With the help of the music video and MTV, This song has become a top hit over the years with 19M views on the new video platform YouTube.
In this video, we are introduced with certain elements of design such as the use of Color, Scale and Harmony. MTV helped pave the way for Youtube by catching the attention of people. Music Videos were a concert for people who couldn’t see the artist perform or wanted to see the artist preform at an instant rate. There was a shift in music but also a shift in the elements of design. Although these elements are earlier forms of design, we can see the impact the video has on the interest of people.
This leads us back to Rocky, a popular rap artist has sold millions of records. He has also been known for having amazing use of technology in his videos. A$AP Rocky’s A$AP Forever continues to paint the illusion that rocky is more than just a rapper and that he is in fact an artist. The music video of the lead single off of Rocky’s new album TESTING, has gained 28.9 million views since its debut on April 8.
YouTube has now made this easier for artist to get views and sells. YouTube made its appearance in the digital age in 2005. For 13 years it has been a dominant force on the Internet. As of January 2018, YouTube has the #2 global rank behind Google for being one of the most popular website according to Alexa. Youtube has been a platform where artist share for the views of people. Those same videos are advertised. This makes YouTube a way for many companies to sell their ads. Not only if the video contributes to new fans, but the views itself pays. Some say you get a $1000 for every million views you get that contribute to those ads. Wow, the more views one gets contributing to ads, the more money YouTube will pay them.
Over the years we have seen many music videos from artist hit millions of views, but how long it took, and how many are those videos are actually good in content and unique in form? Now it is easier than ever to get millions of views in a single day than it was in pervious years.
One could say that A$AP Rocky’s videos are often compared to hip-hop’s own Kanye West with the visual direction of those videos
Both artists try to make the fans be apart of everything the album offers. They illuminate harmony between the song, design elements in the video, and the real word; however, the ways the visual elements are used are different.
Kanye West, The most popular artist of the decade, made his music debut around the same time Youtube was founded. . Kanye had made three versions of the music video for the song “Jesus Walks”. Although there were many videos to the song, the second version was kanye’s favorite and most viewed version on YouTube.
The song talks about the struggles that young black men have with society, and their own faith. In this video version of the song, Kanye simple conveys that idea. The video starts with police officers commanding black prisoners. Kanye portrays these prisoners as slaves to the system and compares the government to the devil. The videos continue to show these modern day conflicts we have. Now Kanye does get his viewers thinking about the message of the song with that element in the video. I chose this video because it was up for video of the year at many music awards that year. Thus making it the one of the most popular music videos in that era. With that being the best, It only has half of views as A$AP Rocky’s “A$AP Forever” does even though that West has nearly gained 4.5 million YouTube subscribers to his YouTube page.
Not only is the era of music is different, but the videos are extremely more advanced. In that era of time, music videos were more focused on the plot rather than the art designing aspect of the content. Videos were more transparent focusing on the content of the song. We want to become connected with the art we are experiencing. Music videos allow us to use our imagination. This is something that the radio limits. Now videos are more of hypermedia, focusing more on the actual art of the video relating to that content.
In “A$AP Forever” directed by Dexter Navy, the two artists focus more on the art of the video.
In the beginning of the video, the director uses a drone to get different angels of Rocky and his community in New York. The drone rotates over the “gang” as it flies at the pace of the chorus. Then once the verse starts, the view of rocky is switched as the objects in the video become frames to each other. Navy uses a zooming out effect of the objects in the video to act as frames for other objects appearing in the video. We don’t see these objects till they are revealed once zoomed out. The pacing of the zooming goes extremely fast to the tempo of the beat. This gives us a three-dimensional effect of being apart of Rocky’s world.
Rocky’s video design put his emphasis of the harmony of visual elements by including us into that visual space. The zooming effect with the use of Photoshop acts as a kaleidoscope of Rocky in New York. This is using the design element of space. The video ends matching the tempo of the beat with Rocky falling in slow motion as if he were falling out the sky. While he is falling, more images and lights pop off Rocky’s back. The video uses the design element of shape as Rocky’s back acts as a billboard while he also falling on pace to the song.
He keeps us interested in not only his album, but also he keeps us apart of the experience. He does a great job with the use of design elements, he getting us to think about Tempo, Rhythm, and Repetition and how those elements are important in our creative and literary skills. Those elements of the song are illuminated through the visual elements of the video. This is similar to films.
The experience acts as exhibition of the artist’s curation and vision. He shows Harmony of musical and visual elements as an artist, and that’s what I believe contributed to his views. In the span of two months, He has almost twice as the views of Kanye West did in nine years with having fewer subscribers on YouTube. We know who is the bigger artist, but who might end up the best artist of this generation? This video has people hyped about music videos again. Dexter Navy and Rocky even have people on YouTube creating tutorials on how to make and edit a video just as ““A$AP Forever”
Whether you like his song or dislike him A$AP Rocky’s video for “A$AP Forever” is an perfect example of how far we have came in designing in the digital age, and it also displays another shift in music. He keeps us interested in not only his album, but also he keeps us apart of his life experiences. We simply don’t want boring videos anymore. We want to be taken in the mind of the artist at the time writing the song. The more elements of design and the way they are used contribute to our interest levels. Rocky’s number of views and the tutorials of his video show that people are interested by the video. More importantly, his video shows how fast YouTube can have an influence on the number of views in digital age and in the industry of creators. Music videos are the staple when it comes to that illusion. One the final thought, this video gets me thinking about the emphasis we put on artist. We want the artist to engage us the best way we can, so we can something enjoyable and relatable. We somehow mold the art into the way we always wanted, in short-like films. This puts more emphasis on the work the artist puts out. Now are we putting too much emphasis on artist and their message? Is this a good thing? That is probably something we might never know, but we do know this video is one for the ages! One thing we do know is A$AP Rocky’s video for “A$AP Forever” ” is a well-balanced composition.
