<i>Atlanta</i>'s Perfect Satire of the Music Industry in 2018
Arcade Fire’s new music video opens with the band visiting the offices of the fictional Everything Now corporation, makers of such products as cars, soft drinks, and a cereal advertised with the slogan “Make it painless!” An executive played by Toni Collette informs the musicians that their band is broke, but that Everything Now is going to bail them out. “We’ll have exclusive rights over your entire back catalogue,” she tells them, “and take just 98.3 percent of future earnings.”
The story that then unfolds (it’s a two-song video billed as a short film, ) sees the band melancholically film Everything Now commercials, melancholically perform gigs at an Everything Now casino, melancholically try to escape that casino, and melancholicallyforced by guards to perform again. The point, that a record deal can feel like shackles, is a familiar one. “SLAVE,” Prince scrawled across his face in 1993 as he protested the allegedly onerous terms of his WarnerBros. agreement. In the past in terms of emancipation: #FreeKesha.
