Music Video Research

The Cure - Lullaby



A more theatrical video which both tells a story and works by using amplification to add visuals to the song. The visuals are strange and dramatic but still reflect the actual words in the song, basing the video around an oncoming 'spiderman' which is the focus point of the song. Though the song is rumoured to be about drug addiction and going cold turkey, the video directly represents the songs visual meanings rather than the metaphorical meanings.


The XX - VCR



A video directed by Marcus Soderlund, it starts off in black and white and ends in colour, perhaps visually representing the conflicts and resolutions between the characters in the video and the meaning in the song. Amplification is again presented in this video as it's not a literal interpretation but a visual and less poetically thought out version of the song itself. The song is about a couple, though what the couple do, where they live and how they look or act is interpreted by the director (Soderlund).


Arctic Monkeys - When the sun goes down



This video from the Arctic Monkeys is a controversial example and representation of the issues highlighting prostitution. It's only a music video but it manages to underline a massively important and relevant social issue. It's clear from the song lyrics that the song is about prostitution and the video shows this, though again, it only implies that the girl is a prostitute, we dont actually see any prostition. We see a man who the video cuts to every time the song lyrics mentions 'him' who we assume to be the pimp, and the girl who we assume to be his prostitute. The video cleverly shows the characters roles in the story by simply showing them in the video doing what the song says they're doing and showing their faces when the song mentions them. The video also keeps with the tempo of the song by being slow at the beginning when the song is slow and speeding up when the tempo speeds up.