Afro-Futurity: Going On by Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley
The Odd Couple
Downtown; US: 21 Mar 2008; UK: 31 Mar 2008; Internet: 18 Mar 2008
The new Gnarls Barkley video looks like a Saturday morning educational video invoking. The 1970s, tomorrow and beaded yesterdays still to be imagined. This video about a group of friends who find a portal to another dimension says that the future is mystical and not technological. It says that the future happens in Africa, however vague that is.
But what starts out an exuberant celebration for many becomes a strenuous journey survived by few. For the leaders, or the “brave leader” and his fierce girlfriend, exuberance becomes fatigue and anxiety, whittled down to reverence by the time we get to the end. The two remaining heroes kneel like sprinters before the do or that they set up at the meeting between worlds. Their victory offers more questions than answers.
These two heroes a man and a woman, are lovers, and champions. Maybe we are meant to understand that these two heroes are Gnarls Barkley, an odd couple “going on” to another world that the rest of the music industry isn’t strong or brave enough to enter.
The heroism of the final duo is complicated by the gender politics and love relationship that the song and the video present. I wonder about what levels of love are meant and residing there in words that seem to be spoken by the male hero. The video put the words into the mouth of the lead man, and projects them onto the sometimes smiling, sometimes pained, sometimes pensive face of the lead woman. I wonder if the words about there “being a place for you too” are for her? Who exactly is supposed to get left behind gender of us to be left behind while male explorers forge forward again? What divides her from the “lead man” what connects her to him? Their movements are similar, the framing of the video makes it seem that a love relationship connects them, but the words to the song, which seem to be about leaving someone behind while also projecting that person into the future seem to divide the two characters.
Most explicitly the command “don’t follow me” made in words that seem to come out of the portal doorway after the man jumps could be meant for the woman who follows and jumps through the doorway, just as athletically anyway. If the words come to the viewing audience from both of the jumpers… why are they timed between the two jumps? Is the woman actor or audience in this video?
Either way… I’m going to keep watching.
Just as side note, the people are from Jamaica not from Africa. If you look at the map where he points during the cause and effect and when he is talking about one step in front of another the map in the background there is of Jamaica.
It could also be considered that couple was the only people willing to dedicate themselves to the ordeal of leading. They are determined to move this portal to a particular location and even though the others quit along the way they are “Going On”. I keep looking for a good explanation about the “Don’t..Follow..Me” part before the female counterpart jumps through the door. It could be a message of don’t just follow..lead yourself and make your own decisions. It could be a warning about what is on the other side, it is difficult with a band like Gnarls Barkley as they do things that are a bit further out there than most. This is part of the appeal of the band though.
I do find humor in that he pushes his arm through the door in order to open it, but the portal is not active until the rock goes through. Small details from an engineering point of view.
Comment by Roland from Texas — June 9, 2008 @ 10:48 am