Hozier - Take Me To Church

Hozier's song, Take Me To Church", is itself a metaphor comparing religion to love. The music video chronicles the murder of a homosexual man in Russia. The video serves as a representation of the underlying meaning of the song which is a criticism of the way homosexuality is viewed in religion. In this representation the story told by the visual representation develops throughout the song. Elements of the story do not necessarily match up with the lyrics, but ultimately tell a story that figuratively represents the lyrics. This is an interesting approach because often times a visual representation closely represents lyrics whether it be literally or figuratively. This approach builds suspense through visuals and the audio complements the video well as it adds intensity to the representation. This all builds into a fever pitch at the end of the song as the murder occurs. At the conclusion of the song the viewer is left with the full picture of the representation. I feel that this technique can be good and bad. This technique effectively communicates the underlying message while also leaving the viewer to wonder the stories relevance while listening to the song until the very end. Depending on the story being told elements of this representation may be appropriate or could be easily misinterpreted.