After the novels written by Don DeLillo, Bret Easton Ellis or Chuck Palahniuk, the idea of consumerism has already begun to be assimilated in artistic discourse with almost irreparable human degradation. It seems that music projects are not far from this conclusion either. ‘Strange Days‘ is a music video confirming this. The animation created by Jaak De Digitale & Nick Timmermans falls into the category of pessimistic messages about our more or less distant future, proposing to the viewer / listener a kind of dystopia with gothic accents in which the concept of consuming reaches monstrous proportions. Inspired by the immediate reality of the great industrialized nations that created real empires around junk food, this project can be received as an acidic response to capitalism, depicting a possible version of the apocalypse. In this macabre fictional universe, the social critique message acquires slightly fantastic nuances, giving the whole project the aspect of a parable, of a metaphor about the return of human to a primitive stage, in order to become a puppet in the hands of evil rulers. Everything reaches, thus, a political stake, while the producer-consumer relationship can be replaced by that of dictator-victim.
However, all these interpretations remain at the discretion of the viewer, since the lyrics, although quite cynical and aggressive, that support this miserable picture of our future are subtle enough not to limit the message of the project to a rigid reception. Likewise, the elements used by creators, taken from the collective imaginary of the modern consumer, can be seen as symbols of the alienation of contemporary society, while other listeners can see in this world a purely fictional exercise composing a universe whose strangeness is only a somewhat morbid exaggeration of our present.
Regardless of the way of reception, this project manages to convince through its emotional impact even those who may not necessarily taste the slightly psychedelic musical style, with nuances of indie and stoner rock. Also, the qualities of the animation signed by Jaak De Digitale & Nick Timmermans that use a gloomy chromatic, punctuated by almost vampiric shadows in creating this “nightmare” fully contribute to the gloomy and magnetic atmosphere of the project. ‘Strange Days’ is certainly a cleverly constructed music video that has the strange ability to haunt the viewer not only because of the impact of its message, but also because of the way the image and music combine in an intense experience.
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