Music Video Monday… Erykah Badu – Window Seat

by Devil’s Food Cake

My deep-rooted love for Erykah Badu is well-documented on this site – there are a number of articles I’ve illustrated with a picture of her simply because of the fact that it’s Erykah Badu (duh). And that love is based on a lot of things – her political activism, her dedication to challenging social norms, her excellent music… seriously. Tell me you haven’t listened to ‘In Love With You‘ and haven’t fallen a little bit in love yourself.

But maybe the thing I love most about Ms. Badu is her absolute ability to push the envelope, to make us reconsider a situation or a point of view in an extreme way. Her new video from her latest album is no different: following the same route taken by the late great JFK, Erykah walks to the Dallas intersection where the former President was shot, removing her clothes – all of them –  as she does, and, as she reaches the end of that route, removing the last of her clothing, she’s shot.

Observe (warning: NSFW):

From her lips to your ears. The video ends with the word ‘groupthink’ forming on the ground in front of Erykah’s body, and her dulcet tones announce the following:

“They play it safe, are quick to assassinate what they do not understand. They move in packs ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another. They feel most comfortable in groups, less guilt to swallow. They are us. This is what we have become. Afraid to respect the individual. A single person within a circumstance can move one to change. To love ourself. To evolve.”

Strong words. And in an interview with a Dallas newspaper, she explains further that ‘“Window Seat” is about liberating yourself from layers and layers of skin or demons that are a hindrance to your growth or freedom, or evolution. I wanted to do something that said just that, so I started to think about shedding, nudity, taking things off in a very artful way. I am from the theater, and this is just a part of expression to us, a part of art.‘ She explains further that the assassination at the end of the video is representative of the inevitable character assassination one deals with as a result of their self-liberation.

As a piece of art, I love this video. ‘Window Seat’ itself is the kind of song you need to listen to again and again, because the lyrics mean so much more every time. And the video, I find, is the same. It is dreamy and delicate and somehow incredibly forceful in its message. I read up on all that’s been said about the video after watching it a couple of times, and interpretations are widely different – significantly typical of the kind of debate I can only imagine the artist herself wanted to inspire. Since the video and the backlash, it’s been announced that the singer is to be charged with disorderly conduct. What a to-do. What do you make of it?