For those who couldn’t help but tap their foot to the pre-manufactured rhythm of fictional pop star Ashley O on the third episode of the latest season of Black Mirror, there is a complete version of her “hit single,” “On A Roll” now available in music video format. Of course, considering that pop music of this nature has a certain shat out quality, don’t get too excited over the aesthetic of the video, which looks very much like a ripoff of a Target ad. With a touch more skin showing.
With lyrics adapted from Nine Inch Nails’ far less chipper 1989 single, “Head Like A Hole,” Ashley O insists, “I’m stoked on ambition and verve/I’m gonna get what I deserve.” While on the inside, of course, she’s screaming, “Get me the hell out of this fabricated body and persona.” The one controlled by her manager/aunt, Catherine (Susan Pourfar)–propping her up with a cocktail of drugs designed to numb her out and make her go through the motions. The same motions that propel her to shimmy to the generic beats of “On A Roll”–even if all of her backup dancers start out as corpse-like bodies lying on the floor before delving into the choreography. Writhing about her (sometimes in the shape of a pentagram–for that NIN/antipop allusory value) as she stands in the center like she could be selling clothes, bleach, makeup and anything else in between the positive attitude and can-do spirit she wants to imbue her listeners with, Ashley O is a tailor-made Target spokesperson.
Even the flashing lights, alternating in color, are patterned in an oval ring that echoes the same round, two-dimensional abyssal spiral of the Target logo. Making occasional gestures of drawing a heart with her index fingers, Ashely O seems to have no idea what she’s supposed to be selling: positivity or a vacuum cleaner. Either way, she’s getting millions of dollars to do it. Which pales in comparison to whatever her orgiastic dancers are getting, the ones who appear to be orbiting around her like a feeding frenzy of open-mouthed maws appetitive for material regardless of what it is, or how cheaply made it might be. Much like the concept behind Ashley O’s persona itself.
So as she spouts, “Oh honey, let’s get in through the door/Oh honey, not concerned who sees us ripping up the floor,” it sounds more like she’s talking about a bedlam-filled Black Friday excursion in the context of her Target commercialesque video than the prospect of achieving one’s goals through unbridled ambition and verve (you know, the way Madonna did in the early 80s tableau of a harsh and uncompromising New York that somehow wasn’t as harsh and uncompromising as she). Then again, maybe that’s just the effect Catherine wanted. Minus the part where there’s suddenly three of her in a trio of bathtubs filled with pink-purple sludge that makes her appear like she’s inside some smattering of hard-boiled eggs (a fitting symbolism considering the exterior/interior divide of her public image and actual personality).
As the video becomes more fragmentary and disjointed–a shot of her flipping off the camera included–the cracks in the veneer of this “good times only” Target homage give way to an actual crack in the screen as we’re shown a black and white image of Ashley O’s controlling aunt. Adequate sales margins, all at once, but a remote possibility.
