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Everybody Wants to Rule the World

ghostfacekiller39

Entry posted by ghostfacekiller39

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I just wanted to rant on something really quick. It'll be clean, nor is it of some pressing or urgent matter. It's actually just something a videogame did. Ubisoft, of course.

 

Ubisoft is a company that really doesn't try to hide how little they care for anything besides money. Virtually every company is in it for money, that's no secret, but at least some put forth an effort to care in order to improve their reputation, thus earning more money because people think they care. Ubisoft doesn't care about consumers or workers, and they don't hide that.

 

Of course, that isn't part of this rant. I just need to gripe about something they did in Assassin's Creed: Unity.

 

 

This song is called "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears. Beautiful song. A work of art, really.

 

Music is just as much art as a painting, depending on how you look at this song. I view this song as a bit like "Starry Starry Night" by Van Gogh - brightness in a dark spot. Beautiful, breathtaking even, when you get the gist of the message.

 

The lyrics are rather dark, to begin with. My personal interpretation of it is being a depiction of totalitarianism in the verses. About the misery inflicted by lust for power. Very powerful lyrics. Very serious, very depressing.

 

But if you listen to this song, you hear a happy, '80s new wave song. So why? Why is it sad?

 

Sad, tragic songs being masked by a happy tune is not a new thing, but it's the seriousness of the subject matter, the time period, the contrast of the sound, and the composition of the chorus hitting you with lyrics such as

 

"There's a room where the light won't find you,

holding hands while the walls come tumbling down,

when they do I'll be right behind you,

 

So glad we've almost made it,

So sad they had to fade it,

Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

 

Using this song in videogames is not a new concept, given the lyrics depict the brightness of friendship, even when you're surrounded by tragedy, in everything from the structure of the song to the sound it provides to just everything is.

 

That's what makes this song beautiful. Everything about it depicts that bit of happiness in a dark spot. That's what makes this song special. It's happy even in tragedy - and it does so without ignoring the tragedy.

 

BioShock Infinite was a good setting for this song, and the utilized it correctly, even in a time-adjusted style. I applaud that version, because it fits the setting, is stylized to fit the game, and stays true to what made the song great to begin with. You can find that version

 

The version in Assassin's Creed: Unity, though, is terrible. It defiles this song that is a piece of art. It defaces it.

 

A part of what makes this song beautiful is the happy sound. A big part of it. It's depicting happiness surrounded by tragedy, and it does so in imaginative ways - even the structure of the song's lyrics shows flashes of happiness surrounded by darkness.

 

This version, however, betrays the artistic integrity of that song.

 

 

Yes, it sounds epic and intense and whatnot. More fitting for the dark lyrics.

 

That's the frustrating part. This song isn't supposed to be intense. That was the beauty of it, and they took it and defiled it by making it such. Some may think it sounds "better" and "more sleek and edgy" than the original, but the beauty of the original was found in the lack of sleekness and/or edginess. It was found in the happiness surrounded by tragedy. That bright spot in sadness. That little flicker of hope. It was beautiful.

 

This isn't. This is nothing more than selling out a piece of artwork for a quick buck. I know this kinda thing happens all the time in corporations with no artistic integrity, such as Ubisoft, and it is a fact I need to get used to, but good lord, it's just frustrating to me how they essentially took "Starry Starry Night" and repainted it in a daylight setting. Ughh.

 

I dunno what I was expecting, but this is just a bit saddening to me :confused:

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Guest90210

I see what you mean. Personally I like the Assassin's Creed version better, but that's mainly because I'm generally not a fan of the original's genre of music. Nothing against it artistically, it just doesn't fit my tastes as well.

 

Speaking of Tears For Fears, that reminds me of another song, "Mad World" by Tears For Fears. The original is upbeat, while the Gary Jules cover version is slow and played over a piano. They're two wildly different sounding songs, both with the same lyrics. I prefer the Gary Jules version, but I can see why the original may be consider superior in the same way you're saying about "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". I think the slower tone fits the lyrics, but if one prefers a more conflicting tone to accompany the lyrics, that makes sense.

 

With that being said, I don't think the Assassin's Creed version of that song necessarily betrays the artistic integrity of the original. It may go against the intended purpose of the song, but I don't think looking at it with a new take is necessarily a bad thing.

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Banul

Ordinarily I would argue that its acceptable to cover a song and try to create a different kind of feel than the original as its own art form.

 

 

 

but fuck Ubisoft.

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Fhaolan

Just as a note, Lorde (the singer who did the cover) actually talked to the Tears for Fears guys before doing the cover. Not only got their permission, but they liked the different take on their song. It wasn't funded by Ubisoft anymore than it was by Legendary Pictures (who also used this version for their Dracula Untold trailers). If anything it was paid for by Lion's Gate for the Hunger Games: Catching Fire sountrack. And I'm not entirely convinced that Lion's Gate asked for that specific song to be covered, rather than the normal business of saying 'Hey, this Lorde person is popular, pay her to do a creepy, emo song of some kind. Don't care which.'

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ghostfacekiller39

With that being said, I don't think the Assassin's Creed version of that song necessarily betrays the artistic integrity of the original. It may go against the intended purpose of the song, but I don't think looking at it with a new take is necessarily a bad thing.

 

Ordinarily I would argue that its acceptable to cover a song and try to create a different kind of feel than the original as its own art form

Thing is, I usually don't have a problem with this sort of thing either. I'm all for that sort of thing, actually - in this very blog I brought up another cover of this very song that restylized an '80s new wave song into a 1912 ragtime tune while praising it. Thing is, when you take such a vital part of what makes the song great and modify it, you better execute it well.

 

What made the original version great, in my opinion, was the contrast between the lyrics and the music itself, but with the occasional bright point to match the music surrounded by the dark lyrics. Light spots surrounded by darkness, and the fact it's played in a key that's usually reserved for happy, empty pop songs adds to the depth of it. Happy key, but the lyrics are contrasting for the majority of the song, but fall in line with the other parts. Seems happy by the song, but the substance is dark - but even in that darkness lies hope and happiness. That's what makes the original version awesome.

 

This newer version is generic, however - there is nothing special about it. Nothing to make it anything other than a generic cover for a game or a quick buck. It's ordinary, it's plain, and in of itself not a bad song, but when you take a song that's essentially a piece of art and has beauty even in the lyrical structure, you're basically spitting on it if you turn it into something that's like this cover. It was executed okay, but not well - and they took it and made a song filled with emotion, soul, and complexity and made it into a brooding emo tune that sounds little different than most music out there today.

 

That's my problem with the cover. Not so much the fact it was taken in a new direction as much as the way it was executed was brutally generic and did nothing but betray what made the original song great by turning into something like it is.

 

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