Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Erykah Badu's "Window Seat"

OK, let's face it. Erykah Badu lost her mind a WHILE ago, and I doubt that even she can object to that. Nevertheless, I was still very shocked when I watched her video for "Window Seat". In the video, Badu plays on the assassination of JFK while protesting conformity. Sounds harmless right? One would think so until they get to 3:46 when the singer is left in nothing but her bra and panties while walking nonchalantly on a public street. Now I know you guys are probably thinking "WTF??", but it gets better (and I use that word lightly). Miss Badu is still turning heads at 4:26 when she reaches for her bra strap. Now at that point, I was thinking "There's no way this is happening". But indeed it did. In a matter of 6 seconds, the singer was TOPLESS. You can immediately see the shock and outrage as pedestrians look at the half-naked singer parading down the street in nothing but her undies. But holding true to the rest of the video, it doesn't stop there. At 4:44 the singer reaches for her underpants and casually pulls them off. And there is Erykah Badu. Naked on the street. At that point I'm speechless, but Erykah has one more "shock" up her sleeve (or SKIN). The sound of a gun shot comes out of nowhere and immediately Erykah flings her head back and collapses to the ground, mirroring the assassination of JFK . Then Erykah's voice is heard once more, but this time she is talking. She criticizes a group (who she later identifies as "us") for conforming and being too afraid to stand out apart from the group. A good message, right? Precisely. But was casually walking down the street nude the way to get it across? No. I am no advocate for being so politically correct that you lose the real meaning of a piece of art in your own criticism of it. I find nothing wrong with the singer's allusion to the assassination of a president because it had a good meaning behind it. But the manner in which it was done was distasteful to say the least. Kudos to Erykah for the nice piece of pop art that she's gave us, but on the contrary, shame on her for her vulgarity.   

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