Hello everyone! I’m coming back from a holiday-related hiatus after a few days at my partner’s parents’ house where I ate, missed Gloria Gaynor and Cyndi Lauper kill it at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, drank wassail, met up with some old friends, gave and received gifts, and beat the entire family at Wii boxing, the last activity leaving my arms and torso surprisingly sore. Oh, and I spent the past few hours belting Neko Case and pre-1986 Billy Joel tunes at full volume on the car ride home. So, I’m a little tired and hungry for leftovers. But to limber up and get back into the swing, I thought I’d offer up a quick post.
Driving back to Austin, I also listened to Smog’s A River Ain’t Too Much to Love. As Bill Callahan is a long-time resident of my fair city, I intended for the album to get my partner and me excited about our return home. But then I remembered a music video off this album that got me thinking about female actors acting in clips for songs by male musicians. What does their presence contribute to a music video and how might it change or deepen a song’s meaning? To be clear, I’m referring to protagonists — not creepy playthings like Kim Basinger’s corpse in Keir McFarlane’s music video for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”
Kim Basinger as Tom Petty's perfect and dead object of desire; image courtesy of fanpop.com
That said, having a female character serve as the lead to a male musical act’s music video doesn’t guarantee a progressive narrative, though does create interesting sites of discourse. She can be problematic as a result of how she’s characterized, what she might suggest about the song’s meaning, or how the director has chosen to frame her. And of course an actress offers her own on- and off-screen personae to the proceedings, often complicating matters when she crosses entertainment mediums.
Click on the song titles below to access the music videos and consider how these actresses’ presences might make meaning. Also, feel free to offer up any other suggestions as well, particularly if you can come up with more representations of actresses of color or any examples of female actors serving as protagonists in hip-hop music videos for songs by male artists.
In a Smog video, Chloë Sevigny's motel maid see herself reflected through a mirror, a TV screen, and a news achor played by Callahan, but never explicitly comments upon her eyepatch; image courtesy of chloesevigny.info
Sofia Coppola
The Black Crowes
“Sometimes Salvation“
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Directed by Stéphane Sednaoui
Claire Danes
Soul Asylum
“Just Like Anyone“
Let Your Dim Light Shine
Directed by P.J. Hogan
Sofia Coppola
The Chemical Brothers
“Elektrobank“
Dig Your Own Hole
Directed by Spike Jonze
(Aside: I wonder if any Godfather III detractors are at all resentful of me considering the director to be an actress and to spotlight her presence in multiple music videos)
Rosario Dawson
The Chemical Brothers
“Out of Control“
Surrender
Directed by W.I.Z.
(Aside: I wonder how electronic artists, whose often non-descript physical presences are obscured from packaging, open up the possibilities of who or what can be featured in their music videos)
Chloë Sevigny
Smog
“I Feel Like the Mother of the World“
A River Ain’t Too Much to Love
Directed by Bryce Kass
