Got a whole day to kill? Need a new creative form of torture?
Not to be outdone by Bob Dylan’s awesome channel surfing interactive music video for ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, hit-maker Pharrell Williams has released his own online music experience this week: the world’s first 24 hour music video.
The Daft Punk-friendly renaissance producer-performer has put together an ambitious interactive video for his latest single, a slinky soul-pop nugget called ‘Happy’ that’s his contribution to the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack.
Rather than go the traditional pop clip root, the N*E*R*D and Neptunes millionaire has instead filmed a whole day’s worth of footage, with ‘Happy’ serving as the constant soundtrack, as NME reports.
To paraphrase the tune’s opening line, “it might seem crazy” but the video – which can be viewed over at http://24hoursofhappy.com/ – features Williams singing and spinning his way through settings such as parking lots, gospel churches, and supermarkets, but also includes a number of other starring roles, including some everyday folks busting out their best dancefloor shapes in train stations and school buses.
If you can make it through the 24 hour clip, you’ll also spot cameos from a range of Pharrell’s celebrity pals, including Jamie Foxx, controversial hip hop collective Odd Future, basketballer Magic Johnson, Despicable Me 2 star comedian Steve Carell, and Kanye West-baiting, festival hipster-tricking late night host Jimmy Kimmel (but no appearance from ‘Get Lucky’ pals, Daft Punk).
You don’t have to drudge through all 24 hours (and the 460-ish looped plays of the 4 minute song) however, with the interactive page allowing users to click through to different points of the epic ‘Happy’ video. Or if you can’t afford to spend a whole day on budgeting for eye drops and caffeine, you can always watch the edited version of the clip – at a measly 4 hours long.
Meanwhile, Pharrell Williams has discussed the worldwide success of his 2013 hits with Daft Punk and Robin Thicke, on ‘Blurred Lines’, as being because “people need a break” from their mundane lines.
Speaking to GQ Magazine, who named the evergreen-looking 40 year old their ‘Hitmaker of the Year’, Williams chalks up the #1 success of ‘Get Lucky’ and ‘Blurred Lines’ as being down to people wanting to escape reality; “there’s a lot of fucked-up travesty in the world. Sometimes you just need a Hallmark card. Sometimes you just need to shake your ass.”
You can view Pharell Williams’ full ‘Happy’ experience at http://24hoursofhappy.com/ or the first 4 hours of it below.
