Social media is currently the most powerful tool in gaining recognition and building a fanbase. These platforms act as a VIP pass into the life and mind of our beloved notorieties and can transform anybody from a “nobody” into a “somebody” overnight. Indie pop star mxmtoon knows this firsthand and has built an empire using her music, her sense of humour and her ukulele. In 2020, she released hit single ‘1,2’ featuring the talented Chloe Moriando and followed that with a creative professional lyric video to match.
Singer/songwriter mxmtoon, also known as Maia, is a young up and coming pop star. Hailing from Oakland, California, this new artist has seen unprecedented rapid success. At a young age Maia began taking violin lessons with her brother and followed her interest in music by learning classical cello, trumpet as well as guitar in 6th grade. Although taking mostly art related subjects in school, Maia began recording and releasing songs from her parents’ spare bedroom in 2017 using a USB microphone and digital audio workstation, GarageBand. Her bedroom pop style music reached international audiences and the positive feedback was endless. Maia is a social media icon with over 2.2 million followers on TikTok alone. Known for her sense of humour, her fans absolutely adore the young pop star. Her signature vocals are unique and fun followed by her ukulele, mxmtoon is a force to be reckoned with. In 2019, she was signed to American independent record label, Kobalt Music Group. Her music has been streamed over 300 million times across all platforms combined. Following her 2019 debut album ‘the masquerade’, mxmtoon released hopeful EP ‘dawn’ in April 2020. Like in previous songs, Maia touches on topics such as love, anxiety and other common teenage struggles.
One of the songs that really stands out to me on mxmtoon’s EP ‘dawn’ is the track written for her boyfriend titled ‘1, 2’. Featured on this upbeat single is the vocals of indie-pop singer and YouTuber Chloe Moriondo. This remix uses a warm guitar piece and both rising stars bubbly voices as a fun and infectious new version. In July 2020, the singer released a professional lyric video for the medley with Moriondo. Unlike other lyric videos, this one is a single cartoon illustrated scene of a computer desk in what could be a young girl’s bedroom. In the desk we see cartoon storage boxes, books and an amazing polaroid camera. There is a chic computer chair with a green hoodie hanging over top which is what sells the viewer on the fact that this could be any young woman’s bedroom. This cartoon visual is a great representation of mxmtoon’s bedroom pop style music and pays tribute to the fact that she is known for recording her songs at home. The main focal point in the illustrated video is the laptop behind the lyrics. Displayed on the laptop is an animated audio visualizer that seems to move perfectly in tune with the track and is by far my favourite feature in this lyric video. This animation is subtle but so quirky and charming. There is a line in the song where mxmtoon sings “You’re in my headphones in my room” and this seems to be a line that has heavily influenced the theme of the video. The cartoon style seems to be retro 90s throwback and gives me Cartoon Network Adult Swim vibes with its solid colors and thick black outlines. The lyrics are displayed in a creative yellow font that looks like it has been hand drawn and resembles the block fonts students use to doodle on their binders. The words have been animated to have a lively little wiggle which just pairs this video even more perfectly with mxmtoon’s lo-fi track because it is equally as bright, youthful and upbeat as the song. mxmtoon’s success is growing exponentially with every album. She is young, vibrant, talented and extremely relatable and her lyric video for ‘1, 2’ is self-reflective and represents who she is as an independent artist. I think choosing a single animated scene instead of an entire animated lyric video or stock footage was the right creative decision. Professionally animated videos are my absolute favorite, and I can’t wait to see if mxmtoon will choose a similar style for future releases.
Check out the cartoon lyric video for mxmtoon’s ‘1,2‘ featuring Chloe Moriondo on YouTube here: