The idea that we can look at music as a ‘design’ has been embedded in me ever since the headphone challenge And I recently came to a piece that I thought artfully weave in the music and visual elements.
Link to Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6V_a1-EUA
The song is called “I found” by Amber Run. The lyric itself talks about a sort of forbidden love that the protagonist barely have any control over (“I found love where it wasn’t supposed to be”). The music video itself tells a story of an abductor who fell in love with his victim and helped her in the end.
What I found most interesting is how the texture of the music plays with the visual elements in the story.
The texture of the music is largely influenced by the low, somnolent vocal background that acts like a languid shadow to the main voice. With barely any other instruments, the whole song feels rather hypnotic, tired, and somewhat drugged. I feel heavy-eyed just listening to the harmony itself.
The music video features a very dim lighting. The color tone is that of an evening after rain (just gloomy). A kidnapper is stylized to have long hair, and looks hippy and aggressive, while our protagonist, has a haggard face.
The beauty of this production is the overarching theme of “insobriety” that is both apprent in the music, the visual, and the story.
To response to that hypnotic texture of the music, the visual responses with sketchy characters that are always filmed under a hazy light and characters that looks pretty much drugged or actually drugged (the damsel in distress who is the victim). How does the story plays in this to this? Well, the drug which sedates the damsel in the beginning becomes a weapon which set the protagonist and the damsel free in the end.
It is not surprising to me that this production is very memorable. When each of its component all tries to convey the same feeling, the message and story is cohesive, loud and clear.