Review: Norah Jones- “Chasing Pirates”

By: Alex Rivera

This video by Norah Jones was probably one of the cutest I’ve seen in a while. It starts off where she receives a message in a bottle (among numerous others as the video soon shows) and she then grabs a treasure map and starts to plan her voyage.

The video also has numerous allusions to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies- the infamous black flag of the Black Pearl with the skull and crossbones, the spinning ballast to lift a rather large anchor, and wide sails. In the end, Jones “sails” her apartment building through the city streets. Although obviously unrealistic, anything can happen in a music video.

The video does a great job in relating to the song title and its lyrics, from the pirate “ship” to the clothes that the artist wears. Unlike other videos, it’s very clear to see the storyline that follows this song- a girl “chasing pirates” for treasure. It sets the viewer apart from reality, taking them to a little world where apartment buildings sail through an ocean of tenants and sails are placed on top of chimneys. But, as simple as the video is, it blatantly shows the viewer the story and nothing more. Then again, nothing else is really needed.

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Review: 30 Seconds to Mars- “Kings and Queens” Music Video
By: Alex Rivera

30 Seconds to Mars comes back onto the scene with their new single “Kings and Queens,” an alt-rock ballad with orchestral notations interwoven between the fast-paced beats of a snare drum and smooth guitar notes. The video itself showcases the band on a rooftop overlooking a city illuminating the night sky, while panning back and forth to scenes of a huge mass of bicyclists roaming the city streets at night, led by the band’s frontman Jared Leto.
In between shots of the bicyclists, you see some people in abtract costumes (specifically a cow suit and people dressed up as clowns on unicycles) while you have others performing stunts and tricks on their bikes like professional BMX bikers.

The video gets a little more random when one of the cyclists gets hit by a car, only to be awakened five seconds later by a white horse galloping down an empty side street. The cyclist then gets up, grabs his bike, and rides away.

Overall, I think the video was extremely random and had nothing to do with the song itself, although I did find some of the camera angles extremely interesting, such as the overhead shot of all of the cyclists riding all together in a whirpool-esque circle towards the end of the video and also the shot where all of the flashing lights of the bikes are lighting up the inside of the tunnel. But, ultimately, I personally believe that the band could’ve done something a little more relatable to the song in this video. However, maybe the abstractness of the video captured an underlying storyline that wasn’t directly presented to the viewer. All you can do is watch and see for yourself and come up with your own verdict.

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Jingle Ball 2009 was overflowing with a unique variety of artists. The artist were ranging from Flo Rida to Colbie Callet. It was hosted by Leighton Meester and Adam Lambert. The whole show was kicked off with Leighton Meester entering singing “Good Girls Go Bad” the hit single by Cobra Starship which Leighton had appeared on. Miss. Meester then followed the intro with her single “Somebody To Love,” but was cut short do to some “technical difficulties.”

Jason Derulo, who has the hit song “Whatcha Say,” was given his chance to sing two songs from his latest self tittle album, and his performance was one worth sticking around for. Where can I begin with Flo Rida? All you could do is ” throw your hands in the air a-air.” Flo Rida also felt it was necessary to strip and give all his clothing to the audience, and his jacket also caused some bit of commotion on the floor. 3OH3! was undesirable, in a good way. They played Starstrukk, Don’t Trust Me, and Don’t Dance. The hilarity behind this was that the whole crowd sat down during Don’t Dance, must be because it has never been a single, but 3OH!3 was fantastic.

The dance party was however put to a halt when Colbie Callet began to perform. She has a beautiful voice, but the aimless wondering around the stage and the lack of enthusiasm brought down the hype and excitement the other performs had built up. Adam Lambert sang a bit of acapella in between acts, and it was breathtakingly beautiful and pure. LMFAO was my favorite of the night. They brought such excitement to the crowd and their energy was contagious.

Timberland walked on stage with a orchestra tape playing loudly, and you could tell he thought he was creating a “epic” moment. Timberland was talking through some back-up tapes his DJ was playing, but he did bring Brandi and JoJo to the stage which was a nice surprise. Jordin Sparks was one of the closing acts, and no doubt that girl had the best vocals of the night. Her voice was flawless, and the intensity she brought to her performance brought the crowd to their feet.

The closer of the night was one and only Shakira who shook her body awkwardly and sang some song as well as she could as she danced. All in all the show was fun and the performers did a great job.

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