Monday, 8 October 2012

Music video Matt. Video 1. Rihanna and Coldplay, Princess of China.


Princess of China.
About the song:
The music video “Princess of China" is a duet track recorded by British alternative rock band Coldplay, and solo singer Rihanna. It was recorded for Coldplay's fifth studio album “Mylo Xyloto” that was published in 2011. The song was written by band members Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, and Chris Martin, along with Brian Eno, and draws influences from the music genres of electronic rock, electro pop and R&B.
The response:
The track was met with a generally positive response from music critics, with some praising the collaboration between Martin and Rihanna, though others criticized it for being uninspiring. The song performed well on international charts around the world.  A reviewer for NME commented that the song is;
 “An attempt to sound as pop orientated as possible and compared the effort to one of Coldplay's previous singles, "Viva la Vida”. If you can get beyond the outrageously chart-hungry intro – that glossy synth sound wouldn't sound out of place on a Taio Cruz album – it's actually kind of awesome. For all the poppy surface sheen, this is a song with surprisingly hefty balls, possessed of a pounding momentum that recalls 'Viva La Vida'."
Josh Eells said, in his review of the album for Rolling Stone, that
 "Princess of China is a ballad about loss and regret, co-starring Rihanna. It's a partnership that probably came together over champagne brunch at Jay-Z's, but its synth-fuzz groove is offhandedly seductive."
Judah Joseph of The Huffington Post praised the song, calling it a "collaborative monster", and noted that the song was likely to be chosen as a single to gain airplay and because "it is simply too good". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph reviewed the song favourably, and labelled the collaboration as "effective", writing "the richly textured backing bringing out interesting nuances in her sweet but tough vocal, but it is the very English soulfulness of Martin himself that really adds depth to Coldplay
The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 33 on 5 November 2011, after the release of Mylo Xyloto. The next week it dropped to number 49 before falling of the chart. "Princess of China" re-entered the chart on 19 May 2012 at number 61. After five weeks, the single reached its peak of number 4 and stayed on the position for one week.[31] In Denmark, the song debuted at number 17 on 4 November 2011.[32] The song re-entered the chart at number 20 on 15 June 2012 and reached its peak of seven after two weeks. It stayed for a total of 10 weeks on the chart.[32] "Princess of China" debuted and peaked at number 14 for one week on the Finnish Singles Chart.[33]
"Princess of China" made its singles chart debut in Ireland and the Wallonia region of Belgium on 28 October 2011. In Ireland, the song debuted at number 22, which meant that Rihanna had four different songs from four different albums, including two of her own, in the top forty of the chart, with "We Found Love featuring Calvin Harris at number one, "Princess of China” at number 22, "Fly" with Nicki Minaj at number 30 and "Cheers (Drink to That)" at number 39.
"Princess of China" debuted at its peak of number 17 on the Canadian Hot 100 on 12 November 2011 based solely on digital downloads. The next week it dropped to number 41 before falling of the chart. The song sold 105,000 digital copies in its first week and debuted at number eight on Hot Digital Songs for the chart issue when it came out on 12 November 2011. But over next  few weeks it fell 56 places to number 76, representing the biggest fall for the week .The single re-entered the US Billboard Hot 100 on 11 February 2012 at number 98, following the announcement that Rihanna and Coldplay are set to perform the song together at the 54th Grammy Awards.  The next week it fell off the chart again, before re-entering again on 25 February 2012 at number 75. The single became Coldplay's fifth and Rihanna's twentieth top-twenty song in the US."Princess of China" debuted at number 39 on the US Pop Songs for the issue dated 14 February 2012and later managed to peak at number 24 on 31 March 2012.
When and how it was filmed:
The song's music video, directed by Adria Petty and Alan Bibby, was filmed in March 2012 in Los Angeles and released on 2 June 2012. The video shows a complicated love story of Rihanna and Chris Martin. The video was met with positive reviews, with critics praising the Asian theme of the video. The song was performed live on the 54th Grammy Awards held at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
As said previously, "Princess of China" was written by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Brian Eno and Chris Martin. During the recording sessions for their fifth studio album Mylo Xyloto, the frontman of Coldplay, Chris Martin confirmed the band had recorded a song with Barbadian recording artist Rihanna. Martin explained that the song was specifically written for Rihanna to be featured on, and hoped that she would like it enough to want to lend her vocals to the track. Martin also explained how he approached the singer about collaborating on the song, saying the album [Mylo Xyloto] is designed as a whole piece it has boy and girl lead characters and top of our list for the girl part was Rihanna.
Behind the scenes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfJH9XT3BeY  à  a video of behind the scenes.
From looking at the behind the scenes video clip from YouTube I have noticed that they use throughout the video a green screen with maybe a few props in front, for example the sofa Rihanna is sitting on in parts of the video. They use the green screen so it saves time, instead of taking everyone and all the equipment to real places.  And also so they can create any sort of atmosphere they desire. In parts of the video it looks like Rihanna and Martin are flying in mid air, behind the scenes you are shown they are being held in the air by an invisible wire, the wires can be easily edited out to save time, and it is more free so Rihanna and Martin can hold themselves in the positions needed in mid air to create the idea that they are fighting in the air.

I included this video in my research as I really enjoy both Coldplay and Rihannas music, and putting them together i think worked well and I enjoyed the song. I enjoy watching videos with Rihanna in as I like the fact she can change her appearance and the theme of each video she makes.

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