Line #24 Music/RareAmericans


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rareamericans152.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The Priestner brothers, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Lubo.]]]]
3
4	''Rare Americans'' is a Punk Rock band from Canada. The lineup currently consists of the Canadian Priestner brothers and the Slovakian Lubo. They're particularly notable for how their songs are promoted. They chose to promote their songs as ads on [=YouTube=] as full music videos. Their website can be found [[http://rareamericans.com/ here,]] and their [=YouTube=] account can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzCTW3k3_ItdqxdVaeXn2IA here.]]
5
6	!Discography
7	* Rare Americans (2018)
8	* Rare Americans 2 (2021)
9	* Rare Americans 3: Jamesy Boy & The Screw Loose Zoo (2021)
10	* You're Not a Bad Person, It's Just a Bad World (2022)
11	* Searching for Strawberries: The Story of Jongo Bongo (2023)
12
13	!Tropes
14	* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: In ''Searching for Strawberries'', Jongo, his family, and the CorruptCorporateExecutive have yellow skin (making them look rather like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' characters), his main rival at work has purple skin in "Money!" (blue in "Milk and Honey", if it's the same guy), while most other characters have more normal human skin tones.
15	* AnimatedMusicVideo: A lot of their music has an animated music video to go with it. ''Searching for Strawberries'' is an entire rock opera where every song has one, making it an animated musical.
16	* AnthropomorphicVice: Anthropomorphic alcoholic drinks and cigarettes show up quite a few times in the video for "Money!". Jongo dances with a living whisky bottle at the yacht party (representing the dream of luxury used to motivate the employees) early in the video, and is cheered on by cigarettes and bottles the second time he tries to run up the hill. He's also seen walking home for the night with an ''anthropomorphic fleshlight'' at one point.
17	* BrokenBird: Nicky from "Brittle Bones Nicky", wearing a bitter expression and having suffered abuse from his father. [[TheDogBitesBack He fights back]] and throughout the video, continues to fight until he dies of old age.
18	** ByronicHero: Crosses into this because Nicky does show a soft side to his girlfriend and his prison buddy. Later on in Gas Mask, Nicky can be seen helping the boxer through his drug addiction, having gone through similar struggles himself.
19	* ClaimingViaFlag: Elon Musk does this to Mars in the video for "Money!", after he and the other billionaires leave Earth. The flag simply says "MINE".
20	* CorruptCorporateExecutive:
21	** Uncle Graham from "Hullabaloo." He overworks, guilts, and drugs his employees into being subservient to him, and then morphs into some sort of eldritch creature and eats his own employees. It's gotten to the point where his own security is afraid of him.
22	** The blond CEO in the first act of ''Searching for Strawberries'' berates and overworks his employees while he lies in the lap of luxury, and shows blatant favoritism. It turns out he also gives his favorites wolf masks that [[{{Animorphism}} turn them into actual wolves]] in order to make them into more aggressive competitors.
23	* TheDeadCanDance: Brittle Bones Nicky, after death, is not only a SharpDressedMan (well, skeleton), but also pulls off some funky moves during the instrumental interludes.
24	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The music video for Moss Park.
25	* DemBones: Brittle Bones Nicky.
26	* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Nicky when he is human.
27	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Subverted in that Brittle Bones Nicky [[ByronicHero isn't a bad person,]] but he's aggressive, crafty, and tricky. That said, even though she died when he was very young, he still loved his mom very much and a large reason why he sold his soul to Satan is to protect his mother.
28	* FictionalCounterpart: The doll Lola in "The Moneyz", being a blonde fashion doll that goes through a bewildering range of fashions, occupations and ideological messages, is clearly intended as a stand-in for Franchise/{{Barbie}}.
29	* GodAndSatanAreBothJerks: Of a sort, in "Brittle Bones Nicky 2". At first, God is merely presented as the kind of guy who laughs at people who assume they go to Heaven before tossing them over to The Devil. Later, however it's revealed that The Devil ''is'' God; he just wears either title based on his mood.
30	-->"Surprised? Most of 'em are.\
31	I'm Mufasa ''and'' I'm Scar.\
32	[[GoodIsBoring Lily white shit gets old and trite]]\
33	Now tell me why you’re in my sight."
34	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Ryan and Dave. Despite the very different lives they lead, Dave isn't willing to give up on Ryan, and helps him go through rehab.
35	* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: The Panda and the Eagle in "Knives, Guns, and Bed" fight with each other while aggressively making out.
36	* LiteralMetaphor:
37	** In "Money!", the "rat race" is literalised as a dangerous rollercoaster/obstacle course.
38	** In "Hullabaloo", [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Uncle Graham]] feeds off the working class by [[ImAHumanitarian literally eating them]].
39	* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight: The Panda brought a knife to fight against the Eagle's gun, in the song titled "Knives, Guns, and Bed."
40	* RuleOfSymbolism: A lot of Rare American Music Videos run on symbolism while also telling a story:
41	** The video for "Knives, Guns, and Bed" shows a [[NationalAnimalStereotypes panda and a bald eagle]] (the latter wearing a red, white and blue outfit) having a self-indulgent [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence duel/make-out session]] surrounded by dissatisfied humans (with visual cues from the pro-Hong Kong and Black Lives Matter protests, respectively).
42	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their first three albums follow this pattern, albeit 3 has a subtitle to it.
43	* StableTimeLoop: Brittle Bones Nicky pushes [[spoiler:himself]] down into Hell so he can become the skeletal trickster from his first video.
44	* TakeThat: In the video for "Money!" (the first song in ''Searching for Strawberries''), caricatures of Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos appear, representing the ideal of super-wealth that drives the common person to enter the rat race. Musk is also seen landing on Mars and [[ClaimingViaFlag planting a flag saying "MINE" on it]] (after protagonist Jongo Bongo is fried by the flame from the billionaires' rockets).
45	* TomTheDarkLord: The CorruptCorporateExecutive in "Hullabaloo" runs his prison-like company with an iron fist and is actually an EldritchAbomination who [[ImAHumanitarian eats]] his employees. His name is ''Uncle Graham''.
46	* TheTrickster: "Brittle Bones Nicky was crafty and tricky, and that son of a bitch was gold."
47	* TheVerse: Somewhat, as characters from certain music videos will show up in others.
48	* VisualPun:
49	** The salespersons get turned into wolves that attack and eat each other in the "Milk and Honey" video. In other words, corporate offices are a dog-eat-dog world.

Context Music / RareAmericans