16 Aug 2009
Fam-ily Fatale
We all have secret music fetishes that we would rather our friends didn't know about; that Aqua album that seemed so fun at the time or even the Garth Brooks cd that you bought just for the cover. This morning, my moment of musical madness surfaced after four years in the wilderness.
Four years ago, I bought the album Feeling by the Spanish electronica group OBK. These two Catalans are like a mixture between the Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode. Their albums sell relatively well, they don't do anybody any harm and eventually they fade away for a year or two and then return. They have a solid fanbase and dare I say it, in spite of the singer's whiney voice, some of the songs are quite catchy.
Today, they went up in my estimation when I watched the video for their song Sin Rencor (Without Anger). In the video, the boys live in a seemingly breeder free world. There are no couples walking the streets with prams and there are no children making noise. The boys seem to be alone.
But they aren't. Overhead looms an ominously large Zeppelin-like craft. Rather than run away, the OBK boys are curious to know who the owners of the craft are and in due time are greeted coyly by a family of four. The perfect family. A family who, if they weren't appearing in a pop video, might just take to the streets and join the thousands of other families protesting against gay marriages.
I won't spoil the ending. Let's just say the baddies win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKUuO6648I8
The video won a number of prizes here in Spain, and OBK, in spite of seeming to be mere popstrels, OBK always include hard-hitting social messages in their videos. They admitted to being delighted to be able to attack hypocrisy and discrimination against gays through their music. Nobody knows if they are gay or not, but every album has a song with clearly gay overtures. Their song El cielo no entiende (Heaven doesn't understand) became a huge gay anthem in 2000.
Over 1.5 million "family value" protesters turned out to demand the cancellation of gay marriage legislation in Spain.
Skyborne anti-gay craft may not populate the skies above Ireland but the same "happy families" DO live among you. Be prepared for the bloodshed. Even if it is only in a pop video.
