Happy PS238/PC488 Day to us all! With that in mind, let’s take a look at Café Tacvba’s newest video for El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco track, “Aprovéchate.” We look at it because the video, directed by their Hecho en México helmer Gregory W. Allen, focuses on non-traditional sexual/gender roles. The Meme-led track plays as an apostrophe to a loved or scorned one, begging for a type of mutual-advantage-taking relationship, as if that adds up to “love.” The video then takes us into a black-and-white ‘50s world where some men are dressed as women, some women “act” like men, old ladies are going down on young dudes, dudes on dudes, dudes being harassed by ass-grabby chicks, etc. It’s a lot. It feels as if the video wants to be all-inclusive in terms of sexuality, hinting at all LGBTQ forms, but some of the intention gets lost. Rubén, dressed as a woman, suffers humiliation and, at first, rejection, as if the dress makes him “weak,” i.e. traditionally feminine or transgender roles weaken the man or stand in as the weak half of a relationship. It felt, ultimately, too muddled in its message. But I do appreciate that the band forewent the traditional “men can be awful to women” or “women are just as bad” routes. It shows a lot of risk and openness that at this stage in their career, the band is still striving toward some semblance of a point of view.
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Download Café Tacvba’s El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco below: