The Death of the Music Video Was a Tragic Loss. Troye Sivan Shows How We Might Bring It Back to Life
GQ columnist Chris Black says Troye Sivan’s “Rush” gives him hope that music videos can once again move the culture.
“One of the more talked-about sketches from the last episode of Saturday Night Live featured host Timothée Chalamet and musical guests Boygenius playing sleep demons who take the form of stiffly dancing, red-underwear-flashing Troye Sivans. It was timely, funny, and very online—a bit as Gen Z literate as the show has ever done—but it was made possible thanks to a pop culture throwback: a music video. Specifically, the video for Sivan’s “Rush,” directed by Gordon von Steiner.
In an alternate history where pop stars continued to evolve but basic cable and music videos maintained a chokehold on the mainstream, “Rush” would be no. 1 on Total Request Live. The song is pretty good, but the video—3:42 of great-looking people partying and having fun—is excellent. It opens with a dancer slapping his bare ass, and a glory hole makes a cameo. The casting, cinematography, and choreography (by Sergio Reis) have made it fodder for conversation, imitation, Grammy nominations, and, in the ultimate sign of late-20th-century cultural saturation, an SNL sketch.”
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