Widely renowned as one of the most talked about collabs this year (whether positive or negative is up to you), The Weeknd & Daft Punk’s collaborative track “Starboy” has been talked about incessantly for the last week since its release. While the track itself is hotly debated by music connoisseurs on whether it is a track of grandeur or just another lackluster name drop, the music video stands apart in its own aspect and potentially gives us a look at the new direction the heart throb singer may be taking.
The new video is flashy and spectacular to watch, but watch for a 2nd or 3rd time and you’ll begin to notice tons of imagery being used in the short film-like video. Opening with a shot of The Weeknd being suffocated to death by a masked assailant, the first scene seems to symbolize the death of his previous era. Resurfacing as the man who took his own life, The Weeknd reappears with his signature palm tree hair style cut off and a clean cut, nearly posh mafia type look. Sporting crosses and seeming to be leaving his past era of sin behind, Your EDM writer Andrew Claps also noticed a main message of The Weeknd destroying his previous records and smashing up his old house as if trying to erase any mention of his former self. Daft Punk even makes their cameo in the film with a nicely made portrait of the pair standing above a panther overlooking a mountain range framed inside The Weeknd’s home.
With all these symbols and underlying messages, we’re bound to see more and more theories come up. Make sure to check out the video below and also a Reddit thread hypothesizing the connection between each of The Weeknd’s videos here. Don’t forget to check out his new single “False Alarm” releasing this Friday and catch his live performance on SNL this Saturday, October 1st!