Guitarist André Anuthnes processed videos about the American election that appeared on the Web
Содержание
The 2020 elections in the United States have become an occasion for active political discussions. There were also situations that gave rise to memes. One of the brightest examples of creativity based on these events is a heavy metal music video created by Portuguese musician André Antunes about the US elections and reactions to them.
BBQ Beer Freedom
The first part of the video is dedicated to an extremely expressive man who rudely interrupted a press conference in Nevada in early November. He stormed into the conference wearing a T-shirt that read, "Barbecue, Beer, Freedom". You can often see sarcastic comments from Democrats pointing out that these appear to be the core values of their opponents. A man shouted that votes in Clark County would be deliberately miscounted in favour of Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and accused the Biden family of stealing. The media, he argued, was covering for the Democrats.
The emotional demand for freedom for the whole world that the man shouted before he left became part of Andre Antunes' track.
Karen
A man from Nevada is not the only hero of the arrangement. The female vocal part was performed by a woman named Karen by the musician. Her emotional speech about politics has become a meme. In her video, she very insistently asks certain political forces to wake up, so as not to lose democracy. True, many users in the comments to the video never understood which of the presidential candidates she supports - Biden or Trump. More often they lean towards the second option. Anyway, the woman does it with such theatrical expression, and her vocal data is so impressive that the phrase "I'm terrified" was even dedicated to a separate arrangement by Andre Antunes.
Interestingly, the name Karen has also become a kind of meme in the USA in recent years, which only attracted interest to the video. The stereotypical Karen is a middle-aged woman who likes to assert herself at the expense of others, is poorly versed in the issues in which she wants to appear to be an expert, and often shouts on the most insignificant occasions. The latter characteristic was the reason why users linked the two memes, making Andre Antunes' video viral.
Reaction
The musician posted the composition on his channel on 17 November 2020. A month later, the video had hundreds of thousands of views, and the comments continued to reflect the battles of supporters of Republicans and Democrats reflected in it. Listeners note that if initially watching the man from Nevada and Karen caused a sense of embarrassment and shame, then in the rock treatment they even cause sympathy.
On the work of André Antunes
André Antunes is a Portuguese guitarist known for his arrangements of pop hits and classical works. His work is quite unconventional, for example, on his channel you can often find videos dedicated to various events of public life.
The US election has inspired several videos, one of which, for example, creates the musical accompaniment for a speech by Donald Trump's spiritual adviser Paula White.
The track, recorded on the basis of White's speech, is called "Sound of Victory" - the phrase that she hears the sound of victory, the woman said several times during her expressive performance. Paula White's recitative really turned out to be worthy of musical accompaniment - even without it, her speech sounds like a ready-made track by a certain kind of underground artist.
Another video by Andre Antunes concerns the US elections, in which he recorded music to accompany the sermons of eccentric American TV evangelist Kenneth Copeland. The latter's laughter during one of his speeches became a meme. After the election results were partially summarised, Copeland still did not believe in Joe Biden's victory, and reacted very emotionally to the statement that the latter could become president.
Nevertheless, not all of Andre Antunes' works are about current events. For example, he often records performances of classical works on electric guitar, and these arrangements are as impressive as his meme videos.
Reactions to large-scale political events can be different. Antunes' works are proof that even the most bizarre and awkward manifestations of a political stance can become part of art.
