Analysing a Music Video- Bastille 'Pompeii' (Part 1)

Analysing- Bastille 'Pompeii'

The song I am analysing is by Bastille, and it is called 'Pompeii'
Directed by: Jesse John Jenkins
Genre: Indie Rock
Characteristics of 'Indie Rock' within the video: Indie rock is known to be not compatible with mainstream tastes, and the 'Pompeii' video is very different from what you would usually see, for example it i has an unusual concept of people's eyes turning black which isn't a typical music video. As well as this the video looks fairly low budget, set in alleyways and in corner-shops and arcades, these are typical everyday settings, as opposed to big stages and expensive locations that the audience would be used to seeing in a music video.

Goodwin's theory of music videos:

Lyrics and Visuals:
There are many parts of the video in which the visuals are used to amplify the lyrics in the song.
the first example I can see is when the lyrics say 'But if you close your eyes', and you see 2 young girls look up to reveal their eyes which are blackened, and quite scary, a picture of this is shown below.

This amplifies the lyrics, adding something to them that the audience wouldn't necessarily think of if they were listening to the song without watching the video. It almost creates a sense of fear for the audience of what they are watching.

Another example is when the lyrics 'How am I gonna be an optimist about this?' are played and you see the artist struggling to find his way, desperately looking for a car to be able to get out of the situation he is in;

This shows the audience his thoughts at the time, it tells the audience that he is struggling to stay positive as he cannot escape the situation, again adding a visual to otherwise meaningless lyrics the audience would listen to.

There is a clip near the start of the video which says 'Many days fall away, with nothing to show', and it cuts between day and night during this sentence, as it says 'many days' it is light, and as it says 'fall away', it becomes dark, this all happens as the artist is walking down the stairs, so it is something that the audience would not initially notice watching the video, although is very clever in linking this visual to the lyrics on a subconscious level for the viewers.

Music and Visuals:

The pace of the music often links to the visuals in this video, for example as the music is slow and very simple during the part where it says 'Oh where do we begin?' as the audience see the artist lip syncing to the song, and slowly driving along (shown below);

This is quickly followed by seeing the artist getting agitated, hitting his steering wheel, appearing angry and getting out of his car as he then begins to hit the bonnet of his car, at the same time as this the music becomes more fast paced and intense as it says 'and the walls kept tumbling down'.

The video cuts with the beat of the song throughout most of the video, however there are some parts of it in which the beat contradicts the visual the viewers see on the screen. For example as the artist is running through the arcade, the music is at a fairly low tempo;

The music then becomes faster as he stops after seeing two girls at one of the arcade games, and nothing happens for several seconds as the backs of the girls are turned and the artist is staring at them, other than the tempo of the music raising, and drums begin to get louder.

The music tempo does change in time with the shots during this section although the visuals that the audience see are not ones that you would expect to go along with this kind of beat, as the beat is fast paced and the visuals are very simple, although the music may be being used as a build up for the audience seeing the two girls turn around.

Another example of the video cutting to the beat of the music, is at the start of the video as it cuts from a clip of the artist looking out of a window, where not very much is happening, to a clip of him singing as the singing starts in the song. The transition is very  sudden, and the settings between these two clips is very different, making it more interesting for the audience to watch.

Artist Image:

In this video by Bastille, there are lots of close ups of the artist, showing his image very often, it is different from other videos Bastille has done, as this video almost shows a transformation of him. Below are some screenshots of the video of different shots and close ups of the artist.

These show the artist going through some kind of journey throughout the video, the concept of him gradually becoming one of the people we see through the video with blackened eyes is very unique, and shows him to be able to do acting as well as just singing. This shows more of what the artist can do, showing him to the audience in a different light than they are used to, advertising that he has more skills than just singing.

The 'Pompeii' music video relates to other Bastille music videos such as 'Flaws' in many ways. For example in the 'Flaws' video in several different ways. Both videos have unusual characters, such as in 'Pompeii' the people with blackened eyes, and in 'Flaws' it is people with their faces painted as skeletons. The screenshot below is from the 'Flaws' video.

As well as this, both videos are mainly focused on the one artist from Bastille, and have a similar dim lighting throughout the video, showing that the band is fairly consistent with their branding and image, and aren't going through any form of image change. The screenshot below is from the 'Flaws' video.