Burnout Paradise, PS3, and PSP Featured in Wyclef Jean Music Video
By Jonathan on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 5:02 PM PST In Electronic Arts, Game Companies, Game Consoles, Gamer Life, Games, Portable, Sony, Sony, Sony, Videos
A few days ago, Wyclef Jean debuted his newest music video which, strangely enough, takes place in the Burnout Paradise universe. The video features the song “Fast Car” off his newest album, Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant, and has Wyclef basically racing in the Burnout Paradise game. It combines some actual gameplay footage with shots of Wyclef in the car and a kid he’s playing against online, not to mention some gratuitous shots of a PS3 and PSP driving the action along.
“When you’re on tour, you have plenty of time, and every artist I know spends time on a tour bus with two things: PlayStation® and the recording studio,” Jean said. “The PlayStation brand and Burnout Paradise fit perfectly with my vision for the ‘Fast Car’ music video. ‘Fast Car’ is like life – the pace of life is moving so fast, where you can burn yourselves out at times. The concept was about taking a song with such meaning and combining it with technology, but still keeping the essence of what we’re talking about and getting kids to listen to that message. A game like Burnout Paradise helps us get the attention of youngsters.”
It’s kind of a cool video, but it really doesn’t seem to match the actual song except for the title. Maybe it’s the slower pacing of the song compared with the video, maybe it’s the somewhat awkward product placement, or maybe it’s the fact that the lyrics of the song seem to indicate the “fast car” is more of a metaphor for life and death (and Wyclef noted) than a setup for an action-packed story. Personally, I think he just wanted a new PS3. Oh well, at least his new album’s pretty good overall.
Via Press Release
OMGOMGOMGOM
Wow, that video was actually very well done.
PS3 - Check!
PSP - Check!
PlayStation Eye - Check!
Big cheque from Sony - Check!
I heard originally they were going to use the xbox 360 but two systems got the RROD during shooting…Ohh noes!!!!
PS3 FTW!!!
Great post. I write a blog of my own about product placement in our media. I recently stumbled across the idea that the brand names that popular artists mention in their songs may be paid for by the company. I find the whole idea ridiculous. Can’t artists be creative enough to come up with their own lyrics without having to worry about throwing in brand names? Also, don’t these artists have enough money as it is? They don’t need more money from marketers. Anyway, check out my blog if you’re interested in more product placement.
http://smberger.blogspot.com/
The only reason I know Wyclef is because of Chappelle’s Show.
@ Sarah
Well he doesn’t actually mention any Sony products at all in the song so he hasn’t lot any of his musical creativity at all in. His record label is Columbia which is a subsidiary of Sony BMG. They probably came up with the idea for the video and offered it to him. He gets a cool looking vid (for free probably) and they get a load of product placement.