In “Lithuania” the spirituality leans more toward the paranormal and works against Big Sean and Travis Scott. The video references The Shining, which provides rich visuals and works with the director’s goal of showing Big Sean’s success over obstacles he has faced in his life. Through the use of anticlimax and specific camera movements, the director depicts Big Sean’s triumph over a chaotic and antagonistic environment.

In this article, I examine the way the music video maintains the strong message of persistence, specifically looking at how the video was created, the aspect ratio that was chosen, and few key images.

This piece examines the music video 100 gecs and Rico Nasty’s single “iPhone”, and how it perfectly encapsulates the post-ironic attitude of Gen Z.

In this article, I discuss two works of art – Metropolis by Fritz Lang and the music video for “Digital Witness” by St. Vincent – and how St. Vincent updates Lang’s warning of technology for contemporary times. Through her allusions to the German film, she cautions that the internet, specifically social media, could destroy the individual through the erosion of privacy by the attractive yet soul-sucking desire to reveal your life online.

I discuss the third and final video to make use of the theme of individuality by stripping: “Balenciaga” by Princess Nokia. She takes the argument put forward by Erykah Badu and narrows the scope to fashion. She plays with the structure of the video to depict the other side of the struggle between groupthink and individuality.

I discuss the music video for “Window Seat” by Erykah Badu and how it pushes the themes of individuality presented in “Lessons Learned” by Matt & Kim towards a sincere social commentary.

I analyze Mac Miller’s music video for “America” with a focus on its line animation. I discuss the effectiveness of the style in general, and how Miller and the video’s directors used it specifically to enhance the themes of the song.

I explore how the style of “Sundress” by A$AP Rocky directly relates to the otherwise obscured narrative through its references to the French film La Jeteé.

I examine the video for “Black Balloons Reprise” by Flying Lotus featuring Denzel Curry, paying close attention to how it depicts Curry’s struggle with mental health issues.