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{"id":22,"date":"2012-03-09T04:59:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T09:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=22"},"modified":"2023-11-19T18:16:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T23:16:08","slug":"af-month-in-review-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/af-month-in-review-february\/","title":{"rendered":"AF Month-in Review: FEBRUARY"},"content":{"rendered":"At Audiofemme, we don’t exactly try to break music news; we’re more about pontificating on the news after it has broken. \u00a0In honor of that, here’s our first monthly recap! It’s true that we’re a week into March, but this is a look back at some things that happened in February – and without mincing words, exactly what we think about it all. \u00a0This installment features MIA, Whitney Houston, why the Grammys are irrelevant, and the best show we’ll (possibly) ever see.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\nAF:<\/em> Afterflipping the bird during a Superbowl halftime show performance, thename Maya Arulpragasam was on everyone’s lips once again (or anyway,her initial-based moniker, MIA was). But MIA didn’t need to extendher middle finger to get our attention, since she already had it withthe video for \u201cBad Girls\u201d released just a few days prior. Thesong is from the <\/span>Vicki Leekx<\/em><\/span> mixtape, self-released at thebeginning of 2011. Not only is the single far better than prettymuch anything from 2010’s mostly excruciating <\/span>\/\\\/\\\/\\Y\/\\<\/em><\/span>, butthe video adds a new level of intensity to an already fierce jam.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
MIAreunited with director Romain Garvas, who also had a hand thecontroversial video\/short film for \u201cBorn Free\u201d. Looking back on\u201cBorn Free\u201d it’s hard to say if our distaste stemmed from lukewarmfeelings for the track, or if we just thought the video was dumb. AudioFemme has always appreciated the political content in MIA’s work. Itnever feels like a gimmick, mostly because it extends throughevery expression of her being, from her music to her fashion sense toher live shows and album artwork, not to mention her background andthe causes she supports. \u201cBorn Free\u201d was sort of an exception tothat. While we suppose that someone should call attention to thehorrors of genocide, must it be done by depicting a bunch of gingerrefugees shuttled to their torture on a crowded deathbus? Are whitekids really so blissfully unaware of racial and cultural profilingthat they need MIA to clobber them over the head with gory imagery offreckled, pale bodies exploding over land mines? Sadly, the answeris yes, but it felt a bit heavy-handed and obvious.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Thevideo for \u201cBad Girls\u201d is essentially doing the same thing but ina much more successful manner. It takes a very real topic \u2013oppression of women in the Middle East – and turns their liberationinto a orgiastic free-for-all. While it was filmed in Morocco, thedesert scenes and clay buildings remain just ambiguous enough toencompass areas of the world where MIA would have been arrested forsuch openness. Musically speaking, \u201cBorn Free\u201d had a much moreaggressive sound than \u201cBad Girls\u201d and in turn, the video was hardto watch. \u201cBad Girls\u201d delivers its heat as a club-readyscorcher, and so there is a party-at-the-end-of-the-world sort oflanguage to the video. At first glance the future appears strangelydystopian, aimless. Then those first beats drop, MIA gyrates ontothe scene wearing iridescent lame, and snarls \u201cLive fast\/Dieyoung\/Bad girls do it well\u201d and the realization hits: we areactually seeing a utopia where Middle Eastern women are allowed todrive stunt cars, dance provocatively and wear whatever the fuckcrazy clothes they feel like wearing.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Allaspects of MIA’s signature in-your-face attitude are in full effecthere – her pouty expressions, provocative gestures, and creativewardrobe. Her bravado is most apparent when she nonchalantly filesher nails atop a stunt car driving on two wheels, but every second isinfused with the palpable excitement of the most explosive actionsequence in any summer blockbuster. At the exact moment MIA asks\u201cWho’s gonna stop me if I’m coming through?\u201d she’s backed bymotorcade of glow-in-the-dark cars and a horde of flamboyantlyshrouded back-up dancers on the march, a procession placing her inthe position of liberator and leader.<\/span><\/div>\n