After over a decade of infectious songs, Jason Derulo has never disappointed his fans. 2020 was another year of billboard busting singles for this infamous pop music superstar. In July 2020, Derulo released his up-tempo single through Atlantic Records, ‘Take You Dancing’. Immediately hitting the charts, this sultry song swept the globe and got the whole world wanting to be Jason’s “dance partner”. Derulo fans didn’t have to wait long for a music video because in August we had a professional custom lyric video full of spicy animations.
Jason Derulo needs no formal introduction. He is a global pop music sensation, international heartthrob and an all-around talented entertainer. He can write music, which he did for many years before the launch of his solo career, rap, sing, dance, act and the list goes on and on. This artist is a veteran when it comes to stardom and his success proves true. He has had five chart topping studio albums, with over 138 weeks on Billboard’s Artist 100 chart and over 6 billion views on YouTube. On top of that, he has become a social media king and a viral video legend using TikTok as his platform to show off his unlimited skills. His song ‘Take You Dancing’ has followed on that red carpet path with over 200 million streams. Derulo even released an official TikTok dance video challenge for the pop song resulting in countless follow up videos from his fans. This track features vocals from American singer/songwriter Sarah Solovay (Solly) who accompanies Derulo’s charming falsetto. It is clear almost immediately that this song just might be about a little more than just dancing. Combining pop, R&B and Latin music, Derulo captivates his fans by singing sweet and sexy nothings into our ears.
Whoever figured out that Jason Derulo’s fans lusted for more after his song ‘Take You Dancing’ was released, is a pioneer and I think we can all tip our hats to them. In August, the official TYD animated lyric video was released and it was everything we had hoped for. Immediately we are entranced with trichromatic visuals. Color salience is a clear theme in this video, using black, white and red for instantaneous audience engagement. In this lyric video, the red pulls focus and is powerful in communicating what must be seen, which right off the bat is the dress and the high heels on the silhouette of a beautiful woman.
The lyrics in the video and the animation pair up perfectly, and we see this example when Derulo sings “..performing just like my ‘rari” referring to his Ferrari sportscar. In perfect timing, the audience sees a red sportscar drive up to centre screen, again pulling our focus. One of my favourite features in this animated lyric video is the hood ornament on the sportscar. Taking the place of a black horse on the Ferrari logo, there is a beautiful black woman which is so clever in relation to the story that this song tells. Taking things one step further, she is animated to clap along to the handclaps in the song and I’m absolutely obsessed with this attention to detail.
The chemistry between the animation and the lyrics in this video continues further. Red liquid fills the screen as Derulo sings ‘pouring up up up by the liter…”, we see liquor bottles on ice when he sings about tequila and vodka and the ever-elusive red high heels in motion when the lyrics read “run away..”. This story telling genre of animated lyric videos is so popular and allows the audience to live out the fantasy that the song has created. We finally get introduced to what appears to be a strong masculine silhouette, which could only be Jason Derulo himself.
Boy meets girl and as the pop song predicts, things are about to get a little heated. Our animated couple begin to dance and kiss and it is evident that they are going to dance straight up to the bedroom. The climax (pun intended) in this lyric video is when our love birds are standing in the bedroom and fall onto the bed and we are once again left stunned at the quality level of this lyric video. They splash through the bed, and the whole scene is lifted. We catch them in an intimate salsa dance and the rest is history. The professional animation in this video is so amazing and unlike anything I have seen in other lyric videos. The use of a simple bold font is very effective in keeping the balance between the animations and the lyrics. At times, our attention is on the large words and other times, on the characters.
Lyric videos have proven to be extremely effective in not only allowing the fans to sing along in a creative way, but also in telling a story to it’s audience. The ‘Take You Dancing’ animated lyric video is a perfect example of both of those concepts. It is sexy without being explicit, seductive and intoxicating, which pairs flawlessly to the lyrics in the pop single. This video quite literally took us all dancing and left us gloriously disheveled, cigarette in hand.
Check out the sultry lyric video for ‘Take You Dancing‘ on Jason Derulo’s YouTube Channel here: