Personally, I think he missed a beat with the song this time. Its not terrible, and fits with the video well enough, but its not particularly memorable either.
The song in his previous video “Praan” was fantastic, and built to a crescendo as the groups he was dancing with got bigger. This one seemed a lot more bland to me.
Also, it jarred a little that he used the same location twice a number of times. I don’t think he has ever had to do that before. Its another great video, but I can’t help but feel it needed another few months work to match up to previous efforts.
We’re all humans with two common languages - music and dance. I don’t really know of any culture that doesn’t have at least one, and most cultures venerate them to some degree.
Absolutely. And I think it’s an indictment of modern culture that in this day and age, where we can instantly connect with nearly anyone around the world, that we still need these reminders. Shouldn’t it be immediately obvious to everyone by now?
My sister taught English at a university in Dubai for a while, and we were often blown away by the stories she sent back. Like the group of young Arab men in one of her classes who liked to sit around before class and talk about how much they liked Jack Bauer and 24. “Wait,” she said, “don’t you realize that he’s fighting Arab Muslim terrorists?” “Oh, yeah,” they replied, “but that’s just Hollywood. Go Jack!”
I didn’t cry or anything but I do find the video quite touching (and man, it looks expensive to do.)
I agree that the formula is simple; initially what you have a goofy, friendly-looking guy being goofy with some people in Kigali. He’s an inherently likeable-looking guy, the sort of galumphing generic white guy with a smile on his face who’d hold the door open for you at the Quizno’s. So you’re inclined to like him.
What gets you then is just the unbelievable number of places he is… and the video is masterfully edited in that, as it goes along,
The time spent on each place is reduced, and
You see less of Matt. By the end of the video there are cuts where, to be honest, he might not even be there, you can’t tell.
So the video is really very cleverly designed. It makes you like the guy, and then it makes you like everyone by association, gradually changing the emphasis from Matt to everyone else. So you feel like you like everyone, which is, of course, entirely, and quite openly, the point.
The only little thing I didn’t like about it, and hey it’s a tiny thing, but… here’s a string of locations:
Detroit, Michigan
Terelj, Mongolia
Rangali, Maldives
Ruwa, Zimbabwe
Budapest, Hungary
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti
Erbil, Iraq
Notice the difference? Again, it’s a tiny thing, but surely you don’t want a video with this theme to be written as if American-centric, do you? Meh, it’s a nitpick.