Architecture and music are forms of communication that share the common goal of creating harmony and patterns from the individual vision of each artist. The qualities shared between music and architecture can help inspire each other.

To illustrate this concept we collected a selection of 10 music videos with scenographies of famous architectures that invites us to discover new visions of iconic projects.
The selected music videos focus on highlighting the beauty of iconic architectures, such as the Grand Louvre, the White Towers, the Glass House and Oscar Niemeyer's Communist Party Headquarters.

These are the selected videos.- Jain - oh man. Pleens - Torres Blancas. Trupe chá de boldo - à Lina. The weekend - secrets. Tangana - Comerte entera. Julianna Barwick - Nebula. Solange - cranes in the sky. Angele - Jalousie. The carters - apeshit. The chemical brothers – go.
 

 
Jalouise is the single from Angèle's first album, released on October 5, 2018. Angèle presents a video clip that is both poetic and suggestive. Produced by the dancer Léo Walk and the director and photographer Neels Castillon, the mini film presents the Belgian singer and her dancers under the impressive dome of the PCF headquarters, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, with a Rouje brand costume.

The scenery explores the occupation of the land below ground level, where there are underground spaces that reappear on the esplanade.
 
 
The music video, Go by The Chemical Brothers, was released in May 2015 and is one of the singles from the Born In The Echoes album. The production was directed by Michel Gondry and shot in the Beaugrenelle district of Paris, also known as Little Manhatan. The film director shows us a group of girls who march through its streets in a synchronized way, almost like a human locomotive.

The video allows us to travel through one of the few neighborhoods in the center of Paris with skyscrapers, the result of urban planning from the 70s. In the production we can see some of the 20 towers of the neighborhood and the esplanade paved with mosaics on which they implant .
 
3. Eat Whole by C. Tangana, Toquinho
 
 
The Comerte Entera music video was recorded in Madrid, at Casa Carvajal, projected in 1966 by the Spanish architect Javier Carvajal. Other works of architecture also appear such as the Royal Palace and the Lhardy restaurant. The scenography explores the relationship of the concrete house with nature and invites us to discover the rooms with unusual distribution.
 

 
Oh man is a single from the EP Souldier released in 2018 by the French singer Jain. The music video was filmed in one continuous shot and follows Jain discovering the beautiful details of Barcelona’s famous Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya - MNAC, located in the Palau Nacional de Montjuïcen, completed in 1929. The production is composed of colorful images that take place in the grandeur of the museum’s main room, the Oval Hall, considered the public square of the museum. Dozens of dancers take over the space through perfectly synchronized choreography.
 

 
The american singer and songwriter Julianna Barwick released the album Will in 2016. The single Nebula, features a video clip directed by Derrick Belcham and was shot in the iconic Glass House, designed by Philip Johnson and completed in 1949. The project, a paradigm of transparency and minimalism, was built on top of a hill in New Canaan, Connecticut.The scenography of Julianna Barwick's music video shows the modern and contemporary sculptures and the simple interior design of the Glass House. The visual narrative captures the lively reflections of the clear glass, including those of the trees of the surrounding landscape.
 

 
Torres Blancas is the single by the Spanish band Pleens, released in October 2020. The title of the song refers to the emblematic Madrid building, Torres Blancas, designed in 1961 by the Spanish architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza. The video clip, directed by Manuel León, shows a post-pandemic dystopia in which only the Madrid building will remain.

The production is marked by accentuated brutalism and shows the contrast between a lifeless city and the remaining nature. The scenography is a representation of a confined city, where everything seems colorless and abandoned.
 

 
The North American R&B singer Solange Knowles released her album A Seat at a Table in 2016. The single Cranes in the Sky was directed by the singer and Alan Ferguson. With the help of the Spanish photographer Carlota Guerrero, they manage to express a new dimension much more visceral thanks to the choices of costumes, landscapes, and movements.

The protagonist of the scenography is the Steel House of the sculptor and architect Robert Bruno, an unfinished house sculpture in Texas, United States. Solange Knowles achieves truly evocative images: dressed in billowing white, she represents a warrior atop the extraordinary house of steel.
 

 
To present their new musical collaboration, Beyoncé and JAY-Z have recorded their first video at the Grand Louvre in June 2018. The photography in the video focuses on highlighting the beauty of the museum's works such as "The Victory of Samothrace", " The raft of the Medusa "and, the well-known," Gioconda ". The synopsis of the production shows a real attachment to the museum and its works.
 

 
Secrets is The Weeknd's single, released in June 2017. The video clip shows the Canadian singer pursuing the unrequited love of a woman, all in a futuristic setting in the same vein as his latest videos.

The production, directed by Pedro Martín-Calero, was recorded inside the Toronto Reference Library, a library designed by the architect Raymond Moriyama in 1977. The scenography explores the red carpeting and the mirrored rooms, all with a very careful aesthetic and using four colors, red, white, black and gray.
 

 
À Lina is one of the five songs of the album Viva Lina, released in February 2020 by the Brazilian group Trupe Chá de Boldo. The album, produced by Otávio Carvalho, is a tribute to the life and work of the architect Lina Bo Bardi.

he music video for the song “À Lina” was directed by Manoela Meyer and recorded in Lina Bo Bardi's iconic project, the Teatro Oficina, founded in 1958 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The music video explores the flexibility of the project, where the artists and the audience can take over the entire structure of the theater

More information

Published on: October 2, 2021
Cite: "10 music videos with scenographies of famous architectures" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/10-music-videos-scenographies-famous-architectures> ISSN 1139-6415
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