A Top of the Pops mashup for 2011

So I guess this is a thing now?  A new yearly tradition?  Remember a couple years ago when a DJ made a mashup of all the top songs of that year?  Well, he, DJ Earworm, made another one for 2011.  Time flies doesn’t it?  Featuring Britney, Adele, Bruno Mars, Riri, Pitbull, Foster the People, Usher, J.Lo, etc. take a trip down memory lane and see all the good, boring and just plain bad music video fashions of this past year, not to mention listen to a pretty cool spin on all the songs melded together.  Must have taken forever!

You all know that I am in love with Rihanna’s We Found Love but second to that in this video, I really loved Britney’s Till The World Ends.  She looked the best she’s ever looked in a video post K-Fed, I think.

A must watch!

Call Your Girlfriend- SNL style

I came across this yesterday and just had to share.  Taran Killam, a castmember on Saturday Night Live, reenacts Swedish popstar, Robyn’s Call Your Girlfriend video to the T. Seriously, dance moves and all.  They even have the video playing while he’s doing it just to compare.  The fur top? Check. Midriff? Check. Tight pants? Well, as tight as they can probably get for a straight male? Check. Also really loving the addition of the polo underneath the sweater.  New trend?  I think so.  One of my favorite parts comes near the end when that guy on the computer is working like lights aren’t flashing and a guy in girl’s clothes isn’t writhing around on the floor behind him.

Check out the two below and compare yourself.  You won’t even be able to tell the difference.

No Light, No Light- Florence+The Machine

Florence+The Machine’s new video for No Light, No Light came out recently and if you’ve read my previous post about Florence, it was basically a plead to her to not wear a long-sleeved long dress in different variations because we see her in that all the time! To further prove my point, her dress in the new video-

THE SAME THING. Girl, I know you’re capable of dressing not looking like a grandma all the time. YOU’RE ONLY 25. Did this surprise anyone as much as it did me? YES, because she dresses like she’s waiting for her deathbed!!!

You should take advantage of the time you can still dress like this.

Did you forget that you’re friends with Karl Lagerfeld? Use those connections!

Otis- Jay-Z, Kanye West, The Throne

If there’s one thing about me you should know, it’s that I love Kanye.  I think his style of pretentiousness is endearing, he’s immensely creative, he also isn’t afraid to be himself and I appreciate that, not to mention he is the mind behind the greatest Twitter account ever created. So with that said, I have been wanting to do a Kanye video since I began this blog.  He’s perfect for it! He makes music videos and he loves high fashion.  He’s not a hoe but who cares.

So since Kanye apparently abandoned his last album to work with Jay-Z on Watch The Throne and I didn’t want to post about a video that’s really old news, it only made sense to do a Throne video and that lucky one…well the only one is Otis.

Let me start off by saying, Givenchy+Kanye=I DIE.  When I heard Riccardo Tisci was going to be creative director, I knew this was going to be pretty epic. And it was. From the album cover…

To this alternate cover…

To their tour outfits…

To this in the Otis video…

I was in heaven.

Not only was the Givenchy great, the video itself was great.  Not much else in fashion going on but it was refreshing to see a hip-hop video of not just two guys, but the biggest rappers in the game just having fun, driving around with models. You can always count on these two for a great video.

Dance For You- Beyonce

Just when you thought my series of Beyonce videos from her album 4 was over, it’s not!  Bey just released her final video from this era, Dance For You.  It’s simple, and it’s hot.  She’s seducing this private detective from the 40’s which looks weird to me- kinda like they edited her into an old movie but she still looks better than 99.99% of the world while pregnant.

I get the draping to cover her growing belly but I don’t get that she left just enough for her crotch to show through.  Not so classy, Bey.

Not my favorite video from her series of videos for 4 but I do love this song.  I was crossing my fingers for her to do one for Schoolin’ Life! That would have been a great one.

Gotta Be You- One Direction, and the boyband revival

Confession- I love boybands.  Particularly the one’s from the 90’s.  It was Backstreet Boys for me until NSYNC came along and the rest was history.  I still reminisce about those carefree days, rocking out with my discman and watching music videos on TRL but nothing has come along that’s been quite as great as the boybands of the 90’s.  Since that trend passed, they all seemed really cheesy and so try-hard trying to obtain the status of their predecessors in their glory days but they just looked pathetic…

Until I heard about British boyband and X-Factor UK second-runner up, One Direction.  I saw that my little cousin liked them on Facebook and did some investigating and you know what? As a 20-something, I’m not afraid to admit that they’re cute (I’m pretty sure they’re all over 18…) and their music is pretty catchy.  If I were 12, I’d be all over that.

Upon watching their latest video for their second single, Gotta Be You, what really made them stand out from boybands I’ve seen in my time is style.  They look like they’ve stepped out of the pages of GQ Teen despite the fact that the video looks like a moderately budget student film made in iMovie.

I mean, you kinda can’t deny that they look kinda cool.  I wish guys my age dressed like this. I approve of this boyband considering the ones I idolized as a kid wore things like this.

Oh, how times have changed. And I sit back and await the power of teen girls bring 1D to world domination.

LMFAO…or not

While browsing iTunes’ top music videos and YouTube’s most watched videos in their music section for some inspiration for my next post, I found a trend that really concerned me- LMFAO.

Can someone tell me WHY they have one of the top videos right now in iTunes and YouTube? I’m not even going to watch any of them and yes, “them;” there are multiple ranked up there.  I’m not even going to post their videos here for you to watch. I just don’t the appeal. What delusional old music exec thought this was what the kids wanted to listen to these days to sign them? Please explain to me why that’s appealing?  Not to mention their songs irritate me like no other.

Sorry America, but you have some BAD taste.

Someone Like You- Adele

Undoubtedly one of the biggest artists of this year was Adele. I mean, her album, 21is still selling and at the top of the charts.  We just couldn’t get away from Adele this year, from Rolling in the Deep to Someone Like You, and I’m not complaining.

Everyone relates to Adele’s amazing voice and her songs that make you emotional like no other, even SNL had to poke fun at the fact that this girl knows how to tug at your heartstrings with a skit where anytime Someone Like You plays, you just can’t help but cry.

This song brings up different moments and people for each listener, which is why I think they decided to make the Someone Like You video very, very simple- just a one-shot of Adele walking in Paris, singing and reminiscing about that “someone”.

Not much fashion to talk about since she wears one jacket throughout the whole thing but what I wanted to really talk about was the hair.

Adele has amazing hair period.  Those ginger tresses always look perfect from music videos to magazine covers.  A round of applause to her hair team.  Look how perfectly it waves and poofs at the top of her head.  Snooki would be jealous she can’t get make it look as effortless as Adele.

Headlines- Drake

Let’s talk first about Drake’s new album Take Care. It’s been #1 on Spotify’s top albums list for a long time now and all it’s tracks are on the top songs list.  Whether you hate Drake, hate rap or everything else in between, you can’t not give him credit for making something totally new.  It’s kind of like indie-rap and it’s amazing. It’s a new sound and it almost reminds me of Kanye’s approach to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (here is my comment about how he was snubbed for Album of the Year at the Grammy’s). Keyword: ALMOST. I know some of you rap connoisseurs and Kanye lovers are going to kill me for saying that. Just know I’m on your side.

Onto the video.  We all know that Drake isn’t afraid to try new things and for his music video for the lead single of his newest album, he uses some cool flashing effects, has someone make a huge graffiti and…WEARS A MISSONI SWEATER.

Drake is known for his sweater game but he blew it out of the park with this one.  A random man in a Missoni sweater would usually signal a red flag in my head and a voice saying, “this is weird…” but this is Drake and he knows his sweaters so it’s greatly appreciated.  I’m happy he’s bringing more interesting male fashion to the table.  Guys should realize that it’s fun to wear fun clothes!

Shake It Out- Florence + the Machine

After talking about Florence + The Machine’s vinyl cover for Shake It Out shot by Karl Lagerfeld, it is only natural that I talk about the Shake It Out video. Let me start off by saying, I LOVE her album Ceremonials. I can’t even handle it.

For this second single, Florence takes us to a strange, fantasy, slightly creepy masquerade party.

Honestly, I’m not quite sure what’s going on in this video but I do know that Florence, you need to “shake up” (pun intended) your wardrobe for this video! I know you’re a classy lady but that doesn’t mean you have to wear the same dress in different styles all the time! In a music video, especially; we want to be visually stimulated and we can look and be interested in a long sleeved dress for so long.

Your friend is Karl Lagerfeld. Enough said.