DJ Snake & Lil Jon - Turn Down for What
Turn Down for What was released on the 18th of December 2013 and instantly received an explosion of attention. It is co-produced by both DJ Snake (DJ who originally produced the track) and Lil Jon (a rapper who wrote the lyrics to the track).
The song is 3:33 seconds long and just repeats Lil Jon singing his lyrics "Fire up that loud, another round of shots!" and "Turn down for what!" The song popularised the phrase: "Turn down for what!" and is used by people at raves and parties as slang to not stop partying or get sober.
Lil Jon had this to say about his role in the song:
"When DJ Snake sent me the track with a sample of Redman saying 'bang the underground,' he wanted me to redo it with my voice. When I heard the song I was like this beat is too crazy for that sample. I wanted to make it hip and current, and the first thing that came to mind was the phrase 'Turn Down for What!"Turn Down for What has sold over 3,000,000 copies in the US alone and has reached the top ten in music many music charts around the world. A reason for this success is partly down to the very popular music video released for the song on March 13th 2014. It has since been viewed over 133 million times on YouTube. The accompanying video was directed by lesser known filmmaker duo DANIELS comprised of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The video shows what seems to be a sort of "Virus' where anyone who watches someone contaminated dancing then becomes infected. The video stars Daniel Kwan (the director) and Sunita Mani. Daniel Kwan explains how he got inspired for his strange conceptual music video:
"For a while Daniel and I had been wanting to explore male sexuality in a really weird way. For some reason our brains came up with this image, and this other universe where dudes are so pumped up on their own dicks—and they’re so into their testosterone—that the way that they show that is by breaking shit with their dicks. So, whatever happens, that would just be a funny logical progression."
Throughout the video is dancing and special effects to attract the viewers attention. Editing with slow motion and close ups on the dancing allow the audience to really get involved with the video and makes it easier for the dancing to relate well to the beat. The dancing in the video is based on sexual positions and movements and although many have complained about this, I believe the directing duo did it to create a 'buzz' over the video and generally increase the songs popularity since it is targeted towards teens and young students who engage in these types of activities. The video has won a number of awards for DANIELS including Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects at the MTV Music Video Awards 2014, and it has since been used many times in various media forms including, commercials, touch down songs, television and film including 22 Jump Street and Horrible Bosses 2. It was even used to help promote US youths voting in upcoming elections (the lyrics were changed to "Turn Out for What") All of this media usage was to help raise the songs awareness.
Watching the video what really stood out for me was the mise-en-scene and lighting used. This is because the apartment where the video is set comes across as dirty, unorganised with dust in the air, cheap dated furniture and rubbish around the room. The same goes with the characters clothes being dirty and plain as well as them not having any makeup on. And the lighting makes the apartments seem dark and unloved. I believe the video was filmed like this so that it relates to the audience they are targeting. Students who cannot afford expensive furniture, buy new clothes and clean up the apartment regularly. This inspires me since I have a very small budget for my video so using normal backdrops, people, props and clothing etc might actually help me reach my audience allowing them to relate with my video.
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