Florence and the machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) music video
analysis.
Genre
Characteristics - This specific song is of the rock/indie genre and
the music video is suitable for the genre due to costume, setting and lighting.
The costume of the lead singer is white and almost seems like a wedding dress.
The colour white shows innocence and the purity of the main artist. She’s also wearing a crown to show her power and alternative side which is
related to the genre of indie.
Lyrics and
Visuals – The lyrics and visuals match very well, especially when
she refers to ‘gold in the sunlight’ and the lighting appears to have a golden
tint added to match with this lyric. As well as this, ‘Midas is king’ is a
biblical reference which relates to when they’re sitting around which relates to the table with
a feast which is like the last supper. Again, this connotes the idea of her
crown because the word king connotes this idea of a crown and Jesus wore the crown of thorns, again linking to the visuals of the last supper.Visuals and music – In the music video, the cuts are very fast which does link in with the tempo of the music. When she sings ‘I must become a lion hearted girl’ it becomes to begin a faster paced song, potentially due to lions being very quick animals, then the cuts become faster which are relevant to the song.
Close ups of the artists and star image motifs – The beginning of the video has a close up of the image but her eyes are covered. This is relevant because it’s almost as though she’s become ashamed of signing a record label and doesn’t want to look anybody in the eye. From the beginning, we see the costume of the main singer who is the star image and the costume acts as a motif for what the video is trying to portray with the idea of white being purity ad innocence.
Star Image – The star image is the lead singer and she/he is the main focus of the narrative in the video. There are references to God and to Alice and wonderland, especially with the visuals as there’s a man wearing a top hat and at one point he is the star image of the video.
Thought Beats – Thought beats are used throughout the music video. They are used to fit the tempo and visuals of the video to make it flow with a lot more ease.When the chorus is present, the shots become a lot faster paced and it even seems as though there is a handheld camera being used which relates to the tempo of the music which is also fast paced. There’s also thought beats when the tempo of music is of a slow pace, especially the beginning when it opens with one shot being 20 seconds long. This is a long time for just one shot but because the tempo of the music is slow, the shots can also be slow paced.
Narrative and Performance – Narrative and performance is exactly what it says it is. The narrative of the song must be matched by the performance of the lead singer and backing dancers etc. In this video, this is done relatively well especially as she starts to become more resilient to even being touched or being near people and she describes her change which we see from the lyrics, ‘And in the Spring I shed my skin’ and in the video she does gradually change from the beginning.
Voyeurism/Looking/Gaze – The music video consists of many close ups which is purposely done. The lead singer is always directly addressing the audience which makes us feel more a part of what is happening in the narrative.
Intertextuality – In terms of intertextuality, there are different narratives that seem to come into it. One being Alice in Wonderland. The visuals of the video show a clear Alice in Wonderland narrative, with there being a rabbit present and the main artist being dressed in the same manner as Alice did. The lyrics ‘Was that the wrong pill to take’? is the reference to Alice in Wonderland and this is matched by the costumes of certain people in the music video as one man wears a top hat and another is dressed as a rabbit which also relates to the song title. Another is the biblical reference with Jesus. This is seen at the start as she seems to wear a crown which almost seems like the crown thorns. Also, the table they sit around is just like the table from the last supper which is another reference to Jesus.
