semiotic analysis of music video

Arctic Monkeys – When The Sun Goes Down

The video for this song is based heavily on the song and the story inside the song. It is about a man and woman, the woman is a prostitute and the man is one of her client’s, however he is very protective of her and when he find’s she is soliciting to another man he gets angry and makes her go around to where he lives and beat him up and ruin his house and belongings. The video is shot on location throughout area’s of Sheffield, they have chosen areas that look and are very run down with graffiti on the wall. This further enhances the idea that they are in a working class area and have had to start taking part in criminal activity such as drug dealing and prostitution just to make a living. Also he is still driving even while he has a driving ban.

The costumes for the characters have been chosen to give a sense of boredom as they are all dull colours such as black’s and brown’s, this could connote that the people in the video are not happy with their lives and want to get out and do something else. She is also shown to be a smoker this is a very stereotypical view of someone of working class or lower background and she is being used to represent these people in this video. During the video the woman never appears to have any more clothes than what she always has on, two hoodies, trackies and trainers. These are also very stereotypical of people form the lower classes, as if to say they can’t afford anything else. Also it might be saying she doesn’t have a home as she would be able to get changed there.

There are two separate parts to this song, a slower part at the beginning and end and a faster tempo middle section and the camerawork has been used to show this in video as well as the music to go with the song. While the music is slow there are many close up’s of the two main character’s faces showing looks of disappointment, boredom and of them being generally miserable. In this slow part at the beginning there are also a lot of scenes of her meeting up with other client’s to further reinforce how she makes a living. Then once the music gets faster the scenes get a lot shorter with views from inside a car driving around the middle of Sheffield slightly bleared and with a lot of jump-cutting to further convey the idea of speed, and maybe the man driving above the speed limit. There are also a lot of medium-close ups of the woman character with blocks of flats behind her. This is possibly to show where they are and that they are old and don’t look like very nice places to be living in or around.

The only time she looks happy is when she is with the other man who only wants her to practice magic with not to have sex with. This shows that she might think it maybe a way out of her current way of life, however it ends up being ruined by the main male character who firstly goes around to the magician’s house and beats him up and then gets the woman drunk and gets her to beat him up. After this scene there are a few shots of him with the woman possibly a day or two after trying to cheer her up, however you can tell by the expression on her face that she is very unhappy with herself and him for ruining possibly the only thing she had going for her.