Good Morning Sunshine - Alex Day

Overview

Release year: 2012
Length: 4:04
Type of video: narrative; linear
Themes: dreams and reality; expectations

Plot

A young man wakes up in a black and grey bed. He looks away, sighs and covers his face with a pillow. His shirt matches the sheets' color. Then he looks out the window and walks outside.

He now has a yellow shirt with a smiley face, everything is bright. He begins to walk happily as someone approaches and give him a cupcake. Someone else scares him and he drops the cupcake. Immediately, another person jumps from a corner and throws confetti at him. He sees his college mates and they greet him and carry him on their shoulders.

He sees his first crush, his holiday mates, his grandparents. Then, his mates drop him on the floor and he has to face his two ex-girlfriends. They pull him forward and reveal his current girlfriend with petal roses. They dance together and then everyone else joins. It turns into a party.

Our boy gets a letter and opens it. It reads: STAND IN YOUR LIGHT. People cheer on him.

Now he's back in his bed, grey colors. He walks out: there's no one outside. He sees a paper on the floor and picks it up: a similar letter, but torn down, dirty and the handwriting in this is shoddy. He smiles and breaks into dance.

Stitching

The young man wakes up gloomy and sad. He daydreams about how his perfect day could go, about how happy he could be with all the people he knows and loves. He imagines his friends cheering on him, hiw ex-girlfriends accepting his new relationship and even encouraging it, he imagines how he could be spending a romantic time with his girlfriend and having a party with his loved ones. He comes back to reality, but it just doesn't seem as bright as his dreams, it doesn't exactly meet his expectations. He, then, realizes that even if things are not as excellent and bright as we expect them to, good things still happen in reality, we can all be happy and we all have a chance to rejoice in our own inner brightness.

Symbols

Black and Grey: Represent sadness, mourning, gloom

Yellow: Happiness, the color of the sun, bright horizons

Party: Happy times

In Conclusion

The music video for Alex Day's "Good Morning Sunshine" is about how expectations may not always be fully met in reality. Dreams are always bright and colorful, real life may seem grey and dull in comparison. Still, we all have a chance to shine under the light of our success, we all can find a bit of sunshine to make everything better. 

Wide Awake - Katy Perry

Overview

Release year: 2012
Length: 4:37
Type of video: narrative; linear
Themes: inner child, expectations, difficulties, inner conflict

Plot

The video starts with Katy wrapping up the music video for California Gurls. She goes to her dressing room and, as she takes off her wig, she looks at her reflection in the mirror.  

Vines begin to cover a wall and now Katy has a purple dress and a cape and is standing in a stone maze. The maze is dark and foggy, she carries a lantern to help her find her way.

Even though the vines are dry, she comes upon one that has a strawberry. The walls begin to close up on her, in a different shot. She eats the strawberry and is able to push the walls away; her hands glow.

A spark raises from her chest and goes up into the sky like very much like the light from a flare gun.

A wall in the maze opens to show a little girl standing in a similar maze, but much brighter. The fog in Katy's maze tries to go inside the room from which the girl came, but can't. 

Katy and the little girl walk inside a hall full of mirrors. However, the girl's reflection is not visible in the mirrors. Katy's clothes are different now, she wears a peach dress. There's a mirror at the end of the hall and Katy stretches her hand to touch it, trying to find an exit. 

What she finds is a dozen men holding a cameras and taking photos of her. The men are scary-looking, much like Freddy Krueger. The floor starts to fall apart, so the little girl warns Katy, but Katy is too focused on the cameras' flashes. She pushes the mirror and it breaks into butterflies.

Katy is in a wheelchair and the little girl pushes her through a different hall. This new hall is white and so are Katy's clothes. She is holding a strawberry on her hand, but looks weak, almost catatonic. Two men walk toward her and the little girl. They have masks that resemble bulls. 

The little girl stares at them and stomps on the floor. The strength of her feet creates a tremor that knocks the men off their feet and wakes Katy. Katy stands up, takes the clothes she had to reveal a pink dress and grabs the girl by the hand. Both run through the exit door into a beautiful garden. 

In the garden, there is a Prince waiting for them on a horse. He gets down from the horse and approaches Katy, but he crosses his fingers behind him. Katy punches him and sends him flying up against a wall. The little girl watches amazed. They high-five over the knocked-out prince.

The once dark maze brightens. Katy hugs the little girl and the girl gives her something. The little girl runs towards a bicycle; she waves goodbye and rides away. Katy opens her hand to see what the girl left her: a blue butterfly. She is back in her dressing room and the butterfly flies away. She now has a red and white dress and goes on a stage to start a show.

Stitching

While changing clothes after shooting a video, Katy's mind takes flight. She remembers all the hard, dark and scary times she has gone through; the maze that life has been at times. However, she also remembers there have been good times in between; the delicious and fragrant fruit she has been able to reap, her career, her success. 

It tells how her inner light (finding inner peace, a possible reference to "Firework") has invigorated her and made her strong enough to battle the obstacles that have come in her way. She comes upon a little girl, her younger self, her dreams, hopes and imagination, the things that have kept her going even in the darkest, most depressing times. 

It also shows her fears and how she has learned to deal with them; how her boogeyman is now the media and the power it has to shatter her world. She has had to battle her inner demons in order to find a way out of her own sadness and self-doubt. She discovered a beautiful garden within, a secret garden in which liars and deceivers are not allowed, in which she is powerful and independent.

Symbols

Mirror: how you perceive yourself or how you want others to see you
Strawberry: love, happiness, and success
Purple: wealth and royalty
Pink: childish innocence
Peach: kindness, sympathy
Fog: prevents clear vision or thinking, isolation
Little girl: innocence, dreams
Butterfly: joy and bliss
Blue: tranquility, relaxation, and peace
White: purity
Minotaur (and his labyrinth): internal conflict
Garden: happiness, salvation, and purity

In Conclusion

Katy Perry's "Wide Awake" is about the inner and outer struggles Perry has gone through in life and how she has been able to overcome them and how her dreams, goals and inner child have helped her see the light in the darkness, tear down all the walls that have gotten in her way.

This is my view, do you agree or not? Is there anything you'd add? Let me know in the comments!

New analysis? I guess not!

As some of you might have noticed, I've had ABBA's "Money, Money, Money" as a "Featured Video" for the past week or so. It is my favorite ABBA video and I wanted to analyze it. I hadn't seen it in a while, so I rewatched it the other day. I realized that, while "Money, Money, Money" is an extraordinary music video, it is too literal and leaves little to no space for analysis. It is a song titled "Money Money Money" about money with images of money all over, ha!

Oh, well, I guess I'll leave it here for your enjoyment and move on to another video. C'est la vie!

Viva Forever - Spice Girls

In honor of the upcoming Spice Girls Musical, here's the analysis of the music video for "Viva Forever"!

Overview

Release year: 1998

Length: 4:12

Type of video: narrative; linear

Themes: childhood, innocence, growing up

Plot

A book titled Viva Forever opens to share with us the story of two boys. 

The boys run through a meadow and find a big plastic toy capsule from which a toy chicken springs and hops away. They follow the toy chicken into the forest and it leads them to another plastic toy capsule.

Five faeries spring from the capsule and fly up into the air. The shortest boy runs away scared, but the other one stays, amazed. 

Each of the Spice Faeries interacts with the boy, then Baby Spice blows some faerie dust on him and they all fly him to a giant Rubik's Cube. The faeries dance on top of the Rubik's Cube.

The middle square of the cube goes up and reveals a yellow light. The boy stares inside and is mesmerized by what he sees, though they don't show what it is. The other boy sees him from afar and runs towards the cube. The first boy climbs into the middle hole and disappears with the faeries.

The other boy grabs the cube (now normal-sized) and keeps walking trying to solve it. He sees more toy capsules and a giant toy vending machine. One of the capsules glows, so he puts the cube there, locks the capsule and throws it back inside the vending machine. 

He walks away hopelessly as four faeries fly out of the vending machine.

Stitching

Two friends embark on a fantastic journey by following a toy chicken that leads them into the forest. The forest represents their unconscious desire to hold on to childhood, innocence and imagination. Much like Peter Pan, the faeries offer them the opportunity to come with them and stay young and innocent forever. One of the boys is fascinated by the idea, but the other one is scared, confused about whether he wants to grow up or stay young. The first boy follows the faeries, while the second one regrets his initial choice and  attempts to find a way to go with them too. He is offered a second chance and, while the video doesn't show what happened to him afterwards, we can assume that he went away with his friend and the faeries because innocence and imagination are not necessarily lost when we grow. They are states of mind that can be part of us forever, regardless of the age.

Symbols

Forest: Represents the unconsciousness, a journey into the deepest fears and desires of the soul.

Fairy: A childlike or innocent state

Toy: Childhood

Rubik's Cube: A puzzle, a problem, and trying to solve the puzzle, in turn, means trying to find a solution

In Conclusion

"Viva Forever" plays out as a fairy tale, a tale about growing up and losing innocence or trying to hold on to it forever. 

This is my view, do you agree or not? Is there anything you'd add? Let me know in the comments!

Ain't Afraid to Die - Dir en grey

Overview

Release year: 2001 

Length: 7:49

Type of video: narrative; non-linear

Themes: death, afterlife, forgiveness, restraint of freedom

Plot

The video starts out with five hooded people walking through a forest holding torches. It flashes to show a hand coming from the ground and then flashes back to the torches.

Then, there's an old, dirty room. There is a cross and other religious figures, pictures and a piano. A woman starts to play the piano. She is dressed in white and her right hand is a metal-like claw. She fades.

Four men in black suits (yes, the band members, but they're in role, so let's call them "men") stand around a strange-looking machine. The fifth man is standing nearby, he has no mouth. There is a blonde girl in a white gown inside the machine. She opens her eyes and walks out of the machine.






She walks up to two women, a blonde one that has no eyes and the one we saw earlier playing the piano. We can see the men in more detail now. Their heads have been stitched back by the neck, each has a marking on the forehead.

The guy with no mouth kneels in front of the girl with no eyes. She touches his face and a tear drops down to her chin. A light from above falls on the blind girl's face and her eyes return, but that same light starts a fire that burns them and the room. The men are in a different room, they see the light  too.

One of the women places a picture on a cross, the other one pours a pink liquid on it. Then, the first one sets the cross on fire. The blonde lady from before is with the men and she touches them from the neck down to the chest. Then, she moves to another room, in which she takes the two women through a door of light.

Stitching

The hooded people set fire to the women's house. What we see in the video is the afterlife. The women are ghosts in their former house, but they don't seem to notice they are dead and thus, can't move on.

The hooded men are the same men in suits. They were apparently decapitated which is usually done to someone as  punishment. Even though I can't tell what each of the marking means (if you can, please let me know, I'm very curious!), a marking on the forehead is a sign of mourning and repentance. They regret what they did and are paying for it in the afterlife. Their regret is also shown when "Kyo" kneels before the women. To try and make up for their mistake they create an angel-like woman (the blonde) to help the two women move on.

The women are able to "see the light" which makes them realize what happened. The angel touches the men's necks and chests, releasing their voices and their hearts of guilt. They were in the dark, they were in the wrong, but they saw their mistake and made up for it.

Symbols

Lack of mouth, lack of eyes, lack of hand: Represents a suppression of expression -voice, sight, action

Fire: It destroys and kills, but it also purifies and gives the hope of new life

Light: Truth, knowledge

In Conclusion

"Ain't Afraid to Die" is mainly about forgiveness, the afterlife, and death: not only physical, but also death of the mind, death of the soul, and the metaphorical death of expression and freedom.

This is my view, do you agree or not? Is there anything you'd add? Let me know in the comments!