Romanticization of Violence in Tove Lo’s Music Video “sadder badder cooler”
Swedish singer Tove Lo's new music video for the song "sadder badder cooler" from her album Sunshine Kitty uses animation as a more socially acceptable method of romanticizing violence. The music video depicts Lo and her sidekick – which seems to be some combination of a bunny and a kitten with a vagina painted on its stomach – going from door to door, chopping each of Lo's exes' heads off. If anything, the video's use of Disney-character-look-alikes and depiction of a "sunshine kitty" as a murder accomplice makes it even gorier than the average slasher film. While placing these seemingly-innocent characters in these violent roles increases the shock factor, there is something to say about how we interpret violence as an audience. I question why we feel that gore, particularly in this genre, is more palatable to the public.
Lo is not the only artist who recently experimented with animation to express her less accessible emotions. Kanye West's music video for the song "Good Morning" illustrates an animated teddy bear running through a valley of mushrooms, and Lil Uzi Vert's music video for the song "You Was Right" portrays a cartoon version of himself driving a motorcycle off of a cliff. And yet, what do these videos have in common? They each add a lighthearted element to dark subjects – like overdosing on drugs and suicide – and create a world that is detached from reality, or in other words, the frailty of human life. Unfortunately, we are not immortal like the virtual players in a video game or the cat and mouse in a cartoon.
When Lo's animated alter ego goes on a murdering spree, the cartoon is not thinking about the consequences of slicing a person in half with a sword – and that certainly wasn't Lo's intention with the video. Surely, she is advocating for feminism and pushing the concept of a strong, independent woman to the extreme, and this will definitely create some backlash in-and-of-itself. Personally, I agree with the underlying message of the music video, but since when do we watch animation glorify death and praise the butcher? The camera zooms in on Lo's naked body, smothered in blood, standing over a man whose guts are spilling out onto the couch. In a recent interview with NME Magazine, she described the video as "full of glitter and power," emphasizing the power gained from heartbreak. After analyzing the "sadder badder cooler" music video, I am not sure whether Lo is giving power to women or villainizing them.
When watching Lo slay her exes by using her body as bait, the first thing that came to my mind was the head-to-head battles and sexualization of women popular within anime. Hana Yori Dango (1996-1997), or Boys over Flowers, is a prominent example of one of the many anime series that glamorizes physical as well as emotional abuse within relationships.
Like the anime series Hana Yori Dango and various music videos from other well-known artists, Tove Lo is following the trend of attributing positive and endearing characteristics to abusive and self-destructive behavior.
Watch the music video for “sadder badder cooler” here: