Tribal Themes Within the Music Industry

Something that has been apparent in the last few years is the increase in tribal themes appearing in music videos.  And no wonder; with such an array of colour and texture that is apparent in tribal decorations, it lends itself to exciting visuals used to capture a music audience. Below I have found and discussed a few examples:

Lulu James - Be Safe

 

This song is right up there in my favourites at the moment. A fresh new sound, paired with exciting visuals, with references to natural and tribal beauty with the use of water, foliage and scarification reference in the main makeup look. This very simple dotted look under the eyes, paired with the ethnicity of the singer resembles similar patters I have seen in both scarification and tribal face paint. I like how the use of diamanté glams the imagery up, especially with them being lighter than the artist's skin. It makes for striking black and white imagery, so I thought I'd have a go on myself, this time using a dark pattern to contrast with my very pale skin.

Here I recreated Lulu's style, I have shown you in Colour first, but thought I'd have one black and white image to reflect the video :)

Rihanna -Where Have You Been

In the initial shots of Rihanna she is seen to be wearing lots of wooden bangles, introducing us to the theme that quickly becomes apparent when she is seen dancing in the desert with a group of male backing dancers. During these scenes, head scarfs, animal print, some face paint and the choice of the type of backing dancer have all been selected to create this tribal feel. As with all of Rihanna's videos, all of her influences are produced in a way that is slick and fashionable, in keeping with her public image and the expectations of a very fashion concious audience.

At 3 minutes and 17 seconds into the video Rihanna introduces her final look, a golden make-up creation that looks very mask like. I particularly like the styling in these scenes, with the thick rope necklace, golden bangles and gold earrings shaped like two pieces of golden bone through her ears.  The mask like make-up will definitely have been inspired by tribal face painting and I like how small star sequins were used to create it, creating a reference to something that naturally occurs and no doubt influences the choices of some tribes when creating decoration.

Towards this end of the video there are some mirrored shots of a black male dancer wearing UV face and body paint in a style that really reminds me of The Skeleton Tribe - a tribe which I will shortly be exploring further. 

No Doubt - Looking Hot



Unfortunately, due to the video being pulled shortly after it's release, I was unable to watch this music video in it's entirety. This is such a shame, as the screen-grabs and clips that I have been able to glimpse at suggest a wonderful collision of native american and western fashions and some excellent styling. It was however dubbed racist and some believed it to be dis-respective of the native american culture.

Kelis - Acapella

This has always been one of my ultimate favourites when it comes to music videos and I even remember the very first time I watched it, whilst shopping in London a few years ago it was on a huge screen in one of the shops. I'm fairly sure I just stood there in complete awe whilst my my friends wondered off and lost me. What I love about this video so much is how Kelis uses the tribal theme as a sort of female empowerment. She is seen in this video to be a hunter, to be goddess-like and shown to be a mother - three very empowering positions.

The make-up and styling in this video reflect this powerful status - leg and arm tattoos mimicking a native american style of arm band tattoos (designs pictured) which ties in with her large feather head band and beaded choker that also have the native american style. I particularly like the make-up she wear for this look also, although this reminds me a lot more of the images I looked at in my earlier post NATURAL FASHION where there are several examples of natural paints being used in similar ways across the face.

I completely adore the golden goddess look and how it conjures up the spiritual side of tribes and their beliefs.

Empire of the Sun - We Are The People

What I adore about this video is the complete and utter amalgamation of various cultural references throughout. The combination of the scenery - dramatic deserts, ancient ruins and exotic jungle dwellings, combined with the costume and makeup ideas borrowed from the Mayans, the Red Indians, Mexicans, Hindus etc create such a mash up of colour, influence and theatrical wonder. 

Naughty Boy - Wonder ft. Emeli Sandé

The atmospherical qualities to this video, with the mysterious combination of smoke and water gives this video a Pocahontas-esqu feel. The use of tribal design in the singer's and actor's clothing adapted for a modern audience also help to create a tribe like feel amongst them.

The song itself has chanting and drums, so its clear to see why they have drawn on this to influence the video, and although at come points I feel it looks a little to much like a advert for GAP with the strange array of clothing and mixed race actors, I do really like it.


References:
www.youtube.com
http://www.naturalexpressions.org/paperstencils.html