Janelle Monae Covers ‘Heroes’ With A Video That Encourages Armed Cosplay Revolution
So here are the facts as I understand them: Pepsi -- you know, the cola company? Born In The Carolinas Since 1898? -- is producing an album that is nominally about soccer called Beats of the Beautiful Game to tie into this year's World Cup in Brazil. And this album, which will becoming out soon, features a cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" by the always amazing Janelle Monáe. And that song, in turn, has a music video where bullied children are inspired by Monáe, who in the world of the video is a comic book superheroine rather than a musician (or possibly both?) to dress up as homemade superheroes and overwhelm their oppressors through superior numbers.
If that sounds a little bizarre, I can assure you that it is. But it's also pretty awesome.
Since it was originally recorded in 1977, "Heroes" has been covered more than almost every other Bowie song -- most notably, of course, by the Wallflowers for the soundtrack to 1998's Godzilla, starring Matthew Broderick and the Taco Bell restaurant chain. And, as you might expect, it's been repurposed to be about comic book heroes quite a few times as well. It was only back in 2012, for instance, that it was used by Pepsi's chief rival in the soda game, for an advertising campaign in Latin America featuring people dressing up as the Justice League:
Still, Monáe's cover is pretty predictably awesome, and I can get behind the anti-bullying message of the video a little easier than I can get behind, say, "drink a Coke and then go plant a tree or something." Still, I hope this storyline continues and we eventually get to find out what happens when she teams up with Donutguy.