When music and visual aesthetic collide.

I started this post simply expecting to share the song and video for Hazel English's "I'm Fine." 

But as I wrote more trying to explain my enjoyment of the simple pictures juxtaposed with the music I thought, "why is it that some music when paired with visuals turn into something so much greater than the sum of its parts." I'd enjoy the song "I'm Fine" without the video, but it would have never grabbed me and made me really listen without those old 1970's (?) pictures flashing across the screen. Accompanied with the pictures the song feels timeless and the lyrics haunting. 

Since the eighties there are so many songs that have been given music videos, but not all combine in such a way that they become this paired unbreakable bonding of two separate mediums. Sometimes the visuals and music go so well with each other, that I can't help but see those same visuals when I'm just listening to the music by itself. Sort of like, who can listen to the song A-ha's "Take on me" without thinking about the visuals of that music video?

I know many others have asked themselves this same question. Many musical genres have an aesthetic attached to them and I'd imagine this has most to do with the time, place, and people that gave birth to the music, but recently I've come across certain genres like vaporwave and simpsonwave and future funk that feel almost like they are disconnected from any time or place. Yet as far as I can tell these genres of music were birthed at the exact same time as their visual counterparts to the point where you couldn't separate them without killing either.

I almost feel like there should be some sort of word for this. When a song or musical style so completely fits it's accompanying aesthetic or vice versa that to separate it would be to kill it.

#imfine #hazelenglish #A-ha #takeonme #futurefunk #musicmusings #musicthoughts #musicvideo