On Challenging Reality: An Uphill Battle

The Role of Psychedelic Imagery in Music

Do you think it's a universal correlation that music goes hand in hand with trippy visuals? Do you think Mozart envisioned the exhibition of his symphonies alongside something akin to a laser show or the last 30 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Do you think we've collectively changed as artists?

Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness (Universal Motown Records)

Videos like this one used to freak me out. Halfway through, I actually had to turn this one off the first time I watched it.

There's something so incredibly frustrating about this video, but it goes beyond that, this video is downright disturbing. He takes the rules of the universe and throws them out the window. At first blush, you aren't sure how exactly you are seeing what you are seeing. The video creates this visceral tension that makes me want to pull my hair out. WHY CAN'T HE GET OFF THE COUCH!!!!

Kid Cudi is unstoppable. I don't know where he's been the past few years, but for me he's redefined the genre.

Dog Blood - Next Order (BoysNoize Records)

Okay so there's no getting around this one: it's about a guy on heavy, heavy drugs. 

I guess the natural starting point for a discussion of this video is: why the drugs? Are they necessary to the meaning and application of the video, or should it's depiction be considered obscene? Is this art? Surely the creation of psychedelic imagery is linked to the use of mind altering substances. But then again, an artist like Salvador Dali, renowned for his surrealist imagery, is quoted as having said:

"I do not take drugs. I am drugs."

-
David Applebee