Music Video Analysis

The Neighbourhood – Let it Go

• The Black & White theme of the video is used consistently across a wide range of The

Neighbourhood’s different music videos.

• This shows a unique style to their videos, and tells the audience that this is one of their signature trade marks.

• It can also be implying that some song lyrics may at times be quite dark or bring up a sad theme, with this

music video being a great example.

In the beginning of the video we are immediately introduced to the band where it is in bold white letters and the central focus. We are also starting to see images of a classic lady in the background with the perfect image of how she should act, for example baking in the kitchen.

Followed by the band name, the title of the song appears on the screen, right before the lyrics begin. This is a commercial exhibitionist technique as suggested by Sven Carlsson’s theory, as this is straight away selling the band and single to the audience, and giving them a brief introuduction to the video.

The mise-en-scene in the opening of the video portrays a woman getting herself dressed up for the day, portraying that she has “expensive taste” as the lyrics say, with stereotypical ideas of how she should look:

• Red lips• Red nails• Eye make up• Jewellery

We begin to see some illustration of the song lyrics, which is in one of Andrew Goodwin’s theories for what a music video can include, this one having visuals such as “spending pennies” and “what the future held”, and these are all positioned around the ‘ideal’ woman or housewife.

She appears very happy, yet this appears as fake, as if she is over-expressing this emotion, while holding a direct mode of address with the audience.

This idea of the woman is amplified across through the video being a narrative as it tells her story (another of Goodwin’s theories), with her in this section doing traditional household chores in the kitchen while smiling.

We get the impression that she is actually going through a lot of pain from this ‘fake’ smile, due to the lyrics almost telling this lady to “let it struggle just a little bit more”.

As the chorus of the song hits into the music video, the drop reveals the true self of this main character, revealing her true emotions. We see her smashing plates, throwing her hair around and crying, implying that she is trying to “let it go”.

This section of the music video again shows the lady getting dressed up, yet we now feel the tense build up of her hysteria kicking in.

The mise-en-scene displays her with a wedding ring, therefore displaying that she has someone ‘looking after’ her, or is she the one trying to look after him?

These next images in the bedroom clearly shows this lady with her husband in bed. Together they both seem very happy, although from the lyrics we gather that the lady is not happy in the relationship. We can’t really tell what will happen next, as the lyrics state.

We see this repetition of the lady smiling again implying she is pushing through the struggle.

We begin to see this clichéd imagery as the same theme is repeated with the lady “let(ting) it go”.

This confirms for the audience that the song is describing a relationship which is not working and she hates the place she is in with it, but has no one to turn to.

The lyrics in this scene change to a slower pace, building up to the climax of the song. We know the main lady is different in the video to these other characters, and she “was listening” to what these people have said to her who have clearly stuck to a very ‘snobby’ way of life or lying about what they might believe or not believe.

As she takes her glasses off, we see the frustration in her face as we can hear in the lyrics as they repeat “I was listening”.

She uses a direct mode of address here with the audience which gives us an idea that she wants us to understand how she is feeling. When looking through the glasses we can see this dark reality that the song is describing.

The camera is pushed to view the husband on the build of the chorus, where we see his true self. The eating of money implies that he is very greedy, arrogant and selfish. We can see the other’s view of “let(ting) it go”, where they are simply feasting with money.

The images become very quick and frantic at this stage of the song, showing that she has let her true self go and is devastated by what is going on around her. We see her blank expression as the rest of the people enjoy themselves. When we think the song finishes, it cuts back in, with her wide-eyed expression showing her panic.

This is known as an information overload which is suggested in Michael Shore’s theory, in that all videos share common elements.

The ending cuts back to scenes throughout the video, and finally ends with the happy image of the lady, implying she is carrying on with this struggle. We don’t know if she is truly happy or not, but music videos will never reveal a whole story which lets us think of our own interpretations.

We see the bands logo right at the end of the video to finish off the video, and for the audience to see this recognisable image of theirs.