After almost two years, Jay Chou has finally dropped his latest music video called Greatest Works of Art, which was shot in Europe (more specifically, Paris) and it couldn’t be a more apt depiction of Jay Chou’s personality and preferences.
It’s riddled with an enchanting fusion of olden and modern sounds — something that the Taiwanese singer has been known to do with some of his other hits like Ju Hua Tai and Qing Hua Ci. Except this time, it’s not going to be with the oriental sounding zithers and lutes. Instead, think of something more Chopin-esque.
Here’s a fun little tidbit: the music video also has many scenes of the Mandopop King performing magic tricks as he goes about on his adventure back in time — another one of his favourite pastimes (as shown on his Netflix reality show, J-Style Trip).
The music video starts out with him sneaking into an old theatre and playing a beautiful renaissance-styled grand piano, which then transports him back in time to where most of the music video will take place — but this isn’t just any old grand piano.
This vintage grand piano dates all the way back to 1872, and here’s the jawdropper — it costs more than one million euros.
Jay Chou initially didn’t purchase the piano when he chanced upon it at a flea market in Paris (where he was hunting for old musical instruments and equipment for the music video) because of the hefty price tag. But after having a go at the piano and even creating a melody on the spot, he probably figured that it was too good of a find to pass up.
To create an authentic olden sound, the singer also bought a microphone from the 1950s and lugged his other recording equipment to The Palais Garnier opera house (which was founded in 1875!) to record his vocals.
Safe to say that when he said that he was going to create music that sounds like it was from the last century, he really meant it.
To build on the entire theme of the music video, the lyrics of the song draw references to some of the greatest influences on arts and culture in the previous centuries like Chopin, Van Gogh, and Salvador Dali.
You can watch the music video of Greatest Works of Art (which arguably, is also one of the greatest works of art this year) here.
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