Passion Pit - Sleepyhead

This wonderful work of art was created by a group called "Passion Pit" which was formed by five guys in 2007. The men, Michael Angelakos (lead vocals/keyboards), Ian Hultquist (keyboards/guitar), Ayad Al Adhamy (synth.), Jeff Apruzzese (bass) and Nate Donmoyer (drums), came together because Michael Angelakos originally started writing songs for his girlfriend as a valentines day present (aww, cute). When the group realized that they had something going they started playing at small venues, then bigger ones, and then they were voted Best New Act in the Boston Phoenix's Best Music Poll (yay for small groups making it big!). Finally, the group started becoming well-known outside of Boston and here I am today, in Vermont, admiring their unique talents that were showed to me by another loyal fan via YouTube.
After being showed the music video online and showing it off to my own friends, I've learned that Passion Pit plays as far as Ohio, Washington, California, and even in Canada. They've made it big all because of a romantic idea for Valentines Day which is one of the reasons I appreciate them as a whole, they seem very funky and cute. However, I can't pinpoint exactly what draws me to this song and their style considering I am an avid Country Music fan. Electronic music is definitely not even in the range of country. But I'll try to dig deep for some specific reasoning:
First of all, the music video is insane! It's abstract, it's unique, it's something that I couldn't even dream of thinking up by myself. I'm impressed that the band could somehow find it in them to put a creative twist on their music video, making it look like concrete art with different shots of their hands and faces. I'm not sure what the technique was exactly, but it seemed that they took multiple photos of the lead singer while he sang along and then they put some of the photos together on a computerized spinning screw so it resembled a flip book (if you're not sure what a flip book is, check it out! They are way cool). Passion Pit also uses color and design as if they invented it. In the music video there are parts that look like an itunes visualizer, with swirling, twisted lines in blues and greens and pinks and reds and yellows. It's beautiful. And this leads me to what this song is about: love!
Aside from the obvious fact that it was written as a valentines day gift, the lyrics represent a very strong love (for the lyrics, click here). At one point in the song the lyrics read, "they crowd your bedroom like some thoughts wearing thin against the walls, against your rules, against your skin." To me, this means that their love is overpowering all of their morals. It's that kind of love that keeps them up all night, whether it be because they're together all night(wink, wink) or because they can't stop thinking about each other when they're apart. The song expresses how in-your-face love is. Michael sings about how love is not only blind, but that it's blinding. And his technique lies within his emotional, poetic and metaphoric lyrics. In order to understand what he was feeling when he was writing to his valentine, I had to read deep into his metaphors about fire and stars and saltwater and more.
The mixture of how he uses his words and how the electronic band created a funky music video is what makes it art, to me. They explain love as being untamed, intense, and blinding. In the video they use colors and shapes and designs and random images to show how overwhelming love is. They bring it to life! And because of their techniques, their art follows the emotionalism theory. The song and the video is set up to express a specific emotion (love), but not everyone is going to catch that. Before I looked up the lyrics and learned the background of the song, I thought it was just dance music with no deep meaning. It's pretty straight forward. Love is clearly represented in this song and love is one of the most widely known emotions to the humankind hence, emotionalism.
How does this all relate to class? We've been talking a lot about good ol' Jesus Christ who preached about love and kindness. He is the father of true, pure love. And although I don't personally believe in much of the stories from the bible, I do agree with Jesus's teachings. And if you haven't already discovered this about me, I love love.