Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song

Bruno Mars puts a comical spin on an already comical song with his music video for "The Lazy Song." I chose this because it features the simple portrayal of lyrics through hand gestures and smaller movements. Stripping away the special effects and dramatics that music videos usually offer, this one parallels the content of the song, keeping it lighthearted and simplistic. Although it may seem like there are not many components to utilize in my own project, I recognized a few that had potential. I enjoyed the most that the same movements were used for the chorus. This made me think that when referencing a certain person or place in my own story I would continue to use the same picture over and over again to stress their importance in my narrative.   

"Don't"- Ed Sheeran

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iD2rhdFRehU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This song is about Ed being cheated on by a girlfriend, but the music video is very different. It depicts a male dancer moving through different houses starting with one in which he sleeps on a very shabby cot and ending when he dances in a mansion wearing a suit. The video doesn't appear to have anything to do with a break up, but because it does not match the lyrics of the song I am led to believe that it is extremely figurative. I think the music video moves backwards because the man's girlfriend does not respond to him later in the video. Maybe it's about being undone by heartbreak-- it's left up to interpretation.

16 Military Wives- The Decemberists

This song is trying to make a point about American foreign policy by figuratively representing the US's actions as a person at Model U.N. It's not particularly subtle, but it conveys the message well and makes it a little bit humorous. It represents all of the countries by describing different people, which makes it easy to visualize how the videomakers view the characteristics of each one.

Maroon 5 - One More Night

Maroon 5 - One More Night

I chose this video because it has a figurative representation of the lyrics, but it is still fairly simple to understand how the lyrics relate to the video. The whole premise of the lyrics is that Adam Levine keeps saying he is only going to stay with you one more night, and the viewer would think that he is talking about the woman and baby depicted in the video. In reality, he is really saying that he will stay with boxing one more night. "Try to tell you no, but my body keeps on telling me yes" is him saying that he wants to try to stop boxing and he knows he has to to be there for his family, but he can't help but keep going back to it in the end.

"Queen of Peace" and "Long and Lost" by Florence + The Machine

I chose this video because it is by my favorite artist, Florence Welch. Almost all of her music videos are figurative, and this video combines two of her songs and combines two stories.
The first song is "Queen of Peace," and Florence's is trying to keep the peace between her family and her lover's family. They dislike each other and fight often, and the tension between them is exemplified by the waves crashing against the shore. Overall, the video uses the conflict between the two families as a representation of the singer's desire to be a peacekeeper.
In the second song, "Long and Lost," the story of the fighting families is continued. Florence is on a boat being taken away from her lover, and with lyrics such as "Is it too late to come on home?" the melancholy feelings of the lyrics are translated into the film because Florence cannot come home (literally and figuratively). There are many layers of figurative representation in the video, showing how even in a relationship, she can never truly be free.

Zombie - The Cranberries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts

This song is about the Irish Republican Army bombing in Cheshire. In this bombing two children died. Having young children painted in gold and sitting around a cross was an effective way to figuratively show the deaths of these innocent children. Although having people dressed up as military holding guns emphasizes the severity of the situation, it does not figuratively represent the bombing. I think that this detracts from the figurative nature of the video because it is a very literal interpretation of this sensitive event.

Halo

Beyonce’s Halo music video is a decent figurative representation of the lyrics.  The video itself is very bright, which obviously is a way to explain she’s encompassed by her man’s aura of awesomeness.  Her facial expressions often convey her feelings of peace and happiness, and I found them very compelling.

What was less useful was her singing the lyrics, it didn’t really serve a purpose in conveying the meaning other than the lines which are clearly directed at her man serve to show she is speaking to him.