Video: "Cinderonce" Makes Me Happy

I am catching up from my blackout period, so I know this is old news, but this video is one of my favorite things to come out in fairy tales this year: the story of Cinderella told through Beyonce songs.

It is brought to you by the fantastic artist, Todrick Hall who gave us Beauty and the Beat which went viral a year or two ago, and Cinderfella, a gay take on Cinderella which I had never seen until Once Upon a Blog's post. 

Everything in Cinderonce is lip syched, except for Todrick's vocals, but honestly, I didn't care! It was part of the homespun charm. It is a testament to how the themes of Cinderella still speak to a modern audience, and how the themes of Beyonce's songs transcend time. :-)

The best part is a cameo by drag queen Shangella as the fairy godmother! She is fabulous and makeovertastic. And Tiffany Daniels rocks the traditional Disney dress as Cinderella. The story is silly and tongue in cheek, but also very heartfelt at times.  

See more about the videos on Once Upon a Blog and Io9.

Here is Beauty and the Beat, a rendition of the song "Belle" set in the 'hood. 

Here is CinderFella, a touching gay retelling of Cinderella with a mix of Disney and modified pop songs (and sassy cameos from other Disney princes and princesses): 

Music Videos: "Why Are Music Videos so Obsessed with Fairy Tales?"

Flavorwire has again brought us a fantastic array of fairy tale music videos, complete with a sharp analysis of why fairy tale imagery is so prevalent in the music video format.

Once upon a time, pop stars used to be just like us. But then at some point — probably during their impressionable youth, while the rest of us were stuck in SAT prep classes — they were whisked away to an enchanted world of pop superstardom. It was the promised land of excess and beauty, where everything is magical all of the time. Louboutin heels served as glass slippers; award ceremony afterparties as fancy balls; black limousines as horse-drawn pumpkin carriages; and hunky A-listers as Prince Charmings. Yet it’s an open secret that when most of these pretty young things got sucked into the vortex of pop, they also found themselves having to grow up overnight. While they shirked the banalities of roommates bugging them about the ConEd bill, pop stars found themselves entangled with the messier parts of becoming an adult too soon: contracts, scores of people relying on them to make piles of money, and grueling hours that most of us probably only begin to reckon with as adults.

So it makes a lot of sense that some of the biggest stars in pop have, at one time or another, have employed fairy tale motifs in their music videos — what other trope could so evocatively represent the difference between who they used to be and who they are now? In addition to providing a venue to meditate about who they have become, these children’s stories allow pop stars to reconnect with that younger, perhaps forsaken version of themselves. Perhaps that explains why the fairy-tale music video trend pervades popular music across cultural, geographical, and musical divides. After the jump, we explore some rock and pop stars’ kitschiest fairy tale fantasies — many of which harbor curiously dark messages about coming of age.

 I think my favorite of the group would have to be Katy Perry's video of "Wide Awake." While it is not one of my favorite songs of hers, the storytelling is really captivating and relatable:

Flavorwire says: 

Katy Perry is just the latest pop star to cash in on tropes inspired by The Wizard of Oz and Alice In Wonderland. In the video for “Wide Awake,” Perry ends up tapping into her inner child during a weaker moment in her adult life. It’s a theme that finds her character navigating a hedge maze with this young girl, who ends up clearing some major obstacles for her — like slaying a couple minotaurs — and giving her the strength to punch out Prince Charming, an obvious reference to her split with Russell Brand. Ultimately, the singer and her inner child part ways and there is the grand a-ha! moment that finds Perry is in her dressing room, buoyed by this ability to connect to a more fearless version of herself.

I don't know about you, but this is what I use fantasy for: to tap into the little girl who killed monsters in her backyard. To put myself in the shoes of the heroine and gain strength from that.

My second favorite is Tori Amos' cover of "Strange Little Girl." It riffs a bit on "Little Red Riding Hood" and Alice in Wonderland:

Flavorwire says: 

Tori Amos tapped into a more anarchic quality of fairy tales in the video for her cover of The Stragglers’ “Strange Little Girl.” Amos touches on the mythology of The Little Red Riding Hood as an allegory for growing up and confronting your demons — the Big Bad Wolf, in this case. Maturity and refuge are both elusive until the girl finally confronts the demon — a confrontation that echoes the singer’s demand, “Strange little girl / Where are you going?” Amos’ use of the fairy-tale trope ultimately takes on a didactic tone, with the singer admonishing us, “There’s no need to run and nothing to fear.”

While there is not a straight-up confrontation in this video, like with Katy Perry's satisfying take down of the Minotaurs, Tori explores the idea of growing up and confronting your fears, though it seems that confronting your fears in this interpretation is not a choice, but a side effect of growing up and realizing your fears are a lot smaller than you thought they were. 

There are several more explored in Flavorwire's article, including Namie Amuro's “Do Me More” (2008), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' “Don’t Come Around Here No More” (1985), and Spice Girls' “Viva Forever” (1998).

Music: Rachmaninoff's Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf Etude

Today, I discovered that Rachmaninoff wrote a piece of music called the Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf etude. It is a rather frantic piece of music, but you can definitely hear the wolf pursuing Little Red and the nasty end that they come to.

Here it is as performed by Valentina Lisitsa.

Music: Scheherazade's Playlist from Flavorwire

(From Zazzle)

Flavorwire has, yet again, given us a wonderful fictional character playlist. This is the music they think Scheherazade from The Arabian Nights would have listened to:

Listen to the Playlist.

“The Circle Game” — Joni Mitchell
Many of the stories within the One Thousand and One Nights revolve around the inevitability of fate, so we think Scheherazade would appreciate Joni Mitchell cooing that we’re all “captive on the carousel of time.”

“The Mariner’s Revenge Song” — The Decemberists
This captivating sea ballad, the story of a son avenging the wrong done to his mother by a roustabout mixed with Moby Dick, would keep us on tenterhooks if it was stopped in the middle, too.

“Holland, 1945″ — Neutral Milk Hotel
Not only would we argue that any girl who’s well-read and well-bred as well as wise and witty should be into Neutral Milk Hotel, this song is the jewel of the album Jeff Mangum wrote after reading Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl and beginning every night to dream of rescuing her via time machine. Not only would that be a good story, but we think Scheherazade’s diary would be just as inspiring.

“Alice’s Restaurant” — Arlo Guthrie
This 18-minute talking song is one of the greats. It’s a lot of Arlo Guthrie talking and only a little bit of a song, but we don’t think Scheherazade would mind. After all, every minute counts.

"First Few Desperate Hours” — The Mountain Goats
The album from which this song is plucked, Tallahassee, would surely be on heavy rotation on Scheherazade’s iPod. While strains of the story of the Alpha couple ran through The Mountain Goats’ songs until this point, Tallahassee was completely devoted to them, telling the final story of their dissolution. We think, as a lover and master teller of stories herself, Scheherazade would love to pick through the lyrics and piece together the tale — and then, maybe, tell it.

“Lifter Puller vs. The End of the Evening” — Lifter Puller
Another song from a narrative concept album, this time about all the punks who hang out at the Nice, Nice. But we think Scheherazade would be most drawn to this track, just for the idea of it — after all, it’s always Scheherazade vs. the End of the Evening, when that means the end of her life.

“A Boy Named Sue” — Johnny Cash
One of the most well-known narrative songs of all time by an inarguable master, we think our girl would definitely have to give it a listen or two.

“Long-Forgotten Fairytale” — The Magnetic Fields
The Magnetic Fields are masters of the anecdote, but this song seems more like the song of Scheherazade falling in love with her captor king than a tale of others that she might tell. Or maybe it’s both at once, the colors blurring.

“Sometimes I Forget” — Loudon Wainwright III
Another one of the confessional songwriting greats, this sad song is a perfect subtle story of loss and heartbreak. After all, not all stories can be happy ones. (Full Article)

Music: Fairy Tale Inspired Music Videos

(From Thundrah)

Heidi over at SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog has been doing a month of fairy tale-themed music. While most of the posts are songs about fairy tales, the two guest posts [EDIT: one by our friend Gypsy over at Once Upon a Blog!]that caught my attention were the ones whose music videos used fairy tale imagery to express the emotional journey outlined in the songs.

The first is "Black Sheep" by Valentine (see full post with more songs). The lyrics tell the story of a girl who is living life in the fast lane, but seems to have made all the wrong choices. You picture limos, clubs, back alleys, shady deals, mascara tears, people basking in her glow, and then shunning her. Valentine takes that song in the music video and transplants it to the fairy tale world. Juxtaposed with images from Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast (and probably others I didn't catch), the story becomes about a girl who is trying to change her life. She has a rich lifestyle, but it seems to give her no pleasure. She chooses to go off into the woods. She goes through the mirror at the invitation of her younger self, trying both to get back to who she used to be and find a new life, a new way of looking at the world (loving the Beast, living in the woods):

Valentine - Black Sheep (Official HD Video)

Valentine | Myspace Music Videos

The other is "Call Me When You're Sober" by Evanesence, a song rumored to mark the break up of Amy Lee and her boyfriend, and the resolution for the band to clean up their act (Full Post). The lyrics tell the story of a girl who is conflicted by the break up of a mutually destructive relationship. She knows its the best thing, and that they are not good for each other, but her heart whispers "How could I have burned paradise?" The video has Amy as a powerful and captivating Red Riding Hood sitting at a booze-littered table with her lover. Judging by the fur and predatory stare, he is the Wolf. She pets real wolves while in a large chair, exerting her control, and then divests herself of her Red Riding Hood cloak, rejecting the advances of her lover. She goes from a place of subjugation, to a place of power, blowing the bottles off the table as she advances on him. It is an interesting exploration of the Red Riding Hood/ Wolf dynamic as a mutually destructive relationship that she needs to get out of before they destroy each other (presumably by being eaten, or killed by having rocks sewn into the stomach.):

Music: Little Red Riding Hood's Literary Mixtape from Flavorwire

(from SurLaLune on Zazzle)

Flavorwire has a Literary Mixtape series where they create playlists for fictional characters. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Scarlett O'Hara and Jane Eyre, they have Little Red! 

"Little Red Riding Hood begins the story as a paragon of virtue — wandering through the woods on an innocent mission, and easily led astray by the pretty flowers in the forest. In many ways, this is a fitting Valentine’s Day story — a virginal young girl ventures into the woods in an alluring cloak of the deepest red. Her innocence is stolen and her body compromised by a wolf of a man, before she is rescued by another, princely figure who rescues her. Like vampires, wolves (or werewolves) have a sexual, romantic connotation, ravishing their victims, taking them into their arms and mouths. Anyway, we’ll stop. We think Little Red Riding Hood would be struggling with her innocence post-wolf incident, clinging to the youthful, pretty songs she picked flowers to, while opening her world to new things. Also, we really think she’d be into mostly female singers, for some reason. Girl power and all that. Here are the songs we think our Little Red would get lost, get eaten, and get revenge to."

In light of our recent posts regarding Little Red (Red-Handed, Red), I love the interpretation that she has to come to terms with who she was before the events with the wolf, and who she is after.

Her songs include:

"The Woods" -- Stars
This is a song for getting lost in the woods, especially with a companion that might just eat your heart. “That day we walked a little deeper / Breathless, lost and too alive to stop” Plus, all little girls (and many big girls) love Stars.

“Fool That I Am” – Etta James
Ah, the classic song of an innocent woman fooled by a seductive man who did nothing but hurt her. Don’t worry, Etta, Little Red will avenge you.

“Werewolf” – Cat Power (Michael Hurley cover)
This kind of sexy, kind of scary version of Michael Hurley’s classic song of the wolf might be just the kind of thing that the newly wise to the world Riding Hood would listen to after her liberation from the wolf’s belly, perhaps while lying on her bed and rolling the events of the fated day around in her head.

“Kiss With A Fist” – Florence and The Machine
Revenge music — perhaps a soundtrack for that time that Little Red filled up the wolf’s body with stones and let him die.

You can listen to the songs right on the page, thanks to a Grooveshark Widget.

Music: Sara Bareilles' "Fairy Tale" Music Video

SurLaLune Fairy Tale Blog is doing a Music Month! Most of the entries have been rather trippy and obscure, but I thought you might be interested in this charming music video of Sara Bareilles' song "Fairytale":

The theatre person in me enjoyed the cardboard cut outs and low-tech special effects. The fairy tale scholar in me loved how theater and fairy tales combined to present a woman who was being pushed into various situations where she had no real autonomy. She may not have wanted to be there, but that is where she was expected to be by others. Theater had her being directed, and lead by stage hands from one scenario to the next. The fairy tale aspect presented the idea that fairy tales are how life is "supposed to be," and Sara has to break free from those constructs to become her own person.