By Jocelle Koh, Matt Taylor, Sinead O’Connor
Mandopop is moving into a new era of change. As the genre diversifies into even more niches and subgenres, the music industry is pushing its creatives to reach even higher levels of artistry. And visual creatives are no different. Increasingly, we see artists incorporating more unique methods of visualising their creations in their music videos; diversifying into more avant-garde forms of expression such as contemporary dance.
Let’s see how these three up-and-coming artists (Chiu Pi, Eli Hsieh, 9m88) incorporate the dance form in their music videos shall we?
Chiu Pi 邱比 – Martyr 中離
On Martyr 中離, enigmatic electronic artist Chiu Pi 邱比 uses his background knowledge of contemporary art and body movement to encapsulate the essence of the song to make an engaging yet complex visual product.
Over an ethereal and haunting electronic-industrial soundscape interspersed with dreamy vocals, we witness a woman – dressed in black with her head draped in a red scarf – blindly follow a staircase to a rooftop, where she begins to caress an angel.
Over an ethereal and haunting electronic-industrial soundscape interspersed with dreamy vocals, we witness a woman – dressed in black with her head draped in a red scarf – blindly follow a staircase to a rooftop, where she begins to caress an angel.
With dance embodying these pains on the steady ascent towards a conclusion, to be embraced by an angel in the end symbolises the freedom from torment, even if you don’t necessarily want to let it go.
Eli Hsieh 謝震廷 – Alice 1993 愛麗絲 1993
‘Taking a deep breath/Alice jumped into the rabbit hole/And so began her perilous adventure/She had no one beside her, it was a journey she would have to complete alone’.
Eli Hsieh 謝震廷’s 2019 track “Alice 1993” takes the timeless theme of the Alice in Wonderland universe to explore the artist’s relationship with his mother. The frenzied struggle of the dancer to free herself from the swirling veils which bind her echo the lyrics, which relate ‘Alice’s’ lone journey through various hardships.
These mark key moments in the artist’s own life – from his mother’s teenage pregnancy, through a period of separation and finally a serious illness brining them together again. Shot in a striking monochrome, the focus switches frantically between images of the mother and son, building to a climax in the final scene when the dancer is finally motionless.
The intricate layering of various visual effects and textures over the shots of Hsieh and the dancer combine to recreate the intensity and confusion of Alice’s journey down the vortex of the rabbit hole.
9m88 – If I Could 如果可以
Presented entirely in black and white, 9m88’s latest music video pays homage to her time spent in the big apple majoring in Jazz.
The most Jazz-centric song on the album, baba has chosen to present this piece visually in a minimalist fashion; building out of space and angles a piece heavy; almost burdened with emotion.
Amongst imagery of towering buildings and sidewalks brimming with character, dancer Kay Wavyy invokes the complex relationship between regret and possibilities through her abandon and how she throws herself into what seems to be an improvised, raw choreography.
Seeing how the empire state has long been regarded a global centre and cornerstone in the history of modern dance, it is only fitting that this video incorporates this style to give it that heady NYC flavour.
