The music video for 'Robbers' by the indie pop band The 1975 was directed by Tim Mattia and released in April 2014. As the music is of an alternative stlye and is believed to fit into the 'indie' genre the visuals reflect this by utilising genre characteristics.
The characteristics are also used to reinforce the 'star image' and way the artist would like to be seen by their audience; the theory explored by Richard Dyer. These characteristics are as followed :
- Retro/vintage styling
- Drug references
- Low-key lighting and gritty locations
- A breaking down couple
- Unusual props
The lyrical content and meanings are parallelled by the visuals of the music video, the song 'Robbers' explores a relationship based on infatuation,drug abuse, thrills of danger and the impaired lens they see one another through.
Some examples of the lyrics and visuals mirroring one another includes the hook :
" I'll give you one more time
We'll give you one more fight
Just said one more line "
Here the song addresses the toxicity of the relationship introducing the idea of connecting through drug abuse and a relationship littered with arguments suggesting the couple are infatuated with one another and the thrill they provide but do not have the stability or capacity to love each other.
The relationship is never ending as the couple are forever saying "one more time", they have a Bonnie and Clyde style romanticised yet doomed, toxic love. The visuals mirror this with mise-en-scene and edits playing a major part in connecting visuals and lyrics.
The props (gun and alcohol bottle) reinforce the problems which have caused the most recent breakdown in the relationship with a following dast paced montage of the couple fighting over the weapon. The use of a desolate location also mirrors the 'us against the world' style relationship and their lack of a grasp on reality. This is explored in the line "It's much harder now the police of come" which symbolises reality finally hitting the couple.
The music also links to the visuals of the music video, some of the video directly cuts on the beat of the percussion which reinforces a connection between visuals and music. Segments of vocals are emphasised through scenes of the protaganist performing karokee, as this is the frontman of the band the visuals easuly connect the music and the musicians.
Some edits also change pace along with the track to empahsise speed and tempo development whilst holding the attention of the audience with narrative continuity. The mixing of the music is emphasised through a zoom two shot of the couple after more intercutting of the midshot karaokee scene. As this zoom creates a close-up with only the mixing to acomppany the shot both the relationship and music are focused on complimenting one another.
From the music video we can assume the record comapny 'Dirty Hit' are attempting to promote the track by utilising the 'grunge/indie' style aesthetic of the band and their 'gritty alternative' image.
As the music video focuses around the band being a group of friends who appear against the mainstream and too involved with their 'indie' lifestyle. This was the typical 'star image' taken on by the band during their debut album release.
Like Dyer's theory suggests the band kept up their gritty, alternative image with black and white music videos released previosuly involving substance abuse, relationship issues, lowkey lighting etc.
Though performance in the video is lacking in comparison to previous videos the emphasised narrative showcases the star image the label and band are portraying to sell their music. The simillarity of motifs in all of the music videos for the debut album creates a sense of the audience grasping the star's image but still feeling the want for more understanding again providing evidence for Dyer's star image theory.
The scenes of the couple kissing and displaying their affection towards each other illustrate their sexual attraction but there is not obvious sexualised character in the narrative.
Both characters wear different costumes throughout with both showing large ammount of skin but this is portrayed as their aesthetic not in a provocative manner. Camera work reveals the couple being affectionate towards each other but on mutual grounds.
The covention of intertextuality is subtly found in the music video with a Bonnie and Clyde style relationship and influence from Quentin Tarantino’s 1993 film True Romance,the song itself utilises intertextuality with the line ''Babe stay, stay'' take from the script.
Both the relationships from the film and the music video are comparible reinforced by visuals with simillar locations, props etc. Fraser's theory suggests intertextuality provides audience pleasure as they can recognise the references to other texts and compare accordingly.
With the music video based on narrative there are a range of shots depicting the relationship's cyclical nature and thrilling developments. With low-key, subtle kareokee style performance intercut between narrative the audience can grasp the indie/alternative style of the band's music and star image. Overall mise-en-scene, camera and editing is hectic yet engaging complimenting the genre and tranlating the lyrical meaning creating a cinematic, effective music video.
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