Music Video Analysis: Bad Religion - 'Sorrow'

I will begin my initial research by analysing the music video to a song by one of my all-time personal favourite bands, 'Sorrow' by Bad Religion.



Now, this video, first and foremost, is a performance video, showing the whole band playing in what is assumed to be the top room of a tall tower overlooking the world below. The singer, Greg Graffin, is shown to be presiding over a swathe of microphones and megaphones, and occasionally during the video the camera cuts to shots of the world below, with the song and performance being blasted out through stylised speakers down at ground level. Of course, there is an immediate note to be made about the fact that they are playing atop a huge tower, dominating the immediate landscape - this immediatly puts the band as the central focus of the video, and this is only heightened by the fact that Graffin is surrounded by microphones, giving him a definate sense of importance and significance ahead of the rest of the band.
The feel of the location that the band are performing in is distinctivly cold, with a clear feeling of silvers, greys, and browns combining to give the video a distinctivly dull, metallic feel. This melds well with the emotional content of the song, and indeed the title of the song itself - it feels appropriate that the video should feel like it is full of sorrow as well as the song itself. There is more colour in the animated shots of the landscape and world below, and this is in stark contrast - it almost feels like the band are alone in their own emotion in the huge tower high above ground level, like they are cut off from everyone else in the world in a way.
As for the mise-en-scene, the performance location is packed with wires and technical equipment, and there are frequent shots of various dials which probably relate to the transmission of Graffin's singing through the microphones down the ground level. With the microphones for, in particular the rest of the band, being placed coming down vertically from the ceiling, this gives the room a more unusual, unorthodox apperance - it certainly sets it apart from any traditional performance video in a small room setting. The clothing of the band members is nothing flash, and this blends in with the dull feel of the locale.
There are infrequent shots of the band members, normally showing both their face and facial expressions AND their playing of their instrument at the same time, for example, the seemingly only shot we ever see of the drummer, Brooks Wackerman, is of his face and his hands playing the drums. This demonstrates the technical proficiency of the band members whilst also showing their levels of emotion and body language at the same time. At no time in the video is this more obvious than in the middle eight/guitar solo section, where guitarist Brett Gurewitz is shown playing the solo. The shots vary from medium close-ups showing him in his entirety, playing the guitar with real energy, to extreme close-ups of his fingers fretting the solo and playing it. This shows real levels of technical skill, as he appears almost casual as he plays it, showing that it is almost easy for him to play.
The natural light is a key component of the video, right from the very start where the side-on shot of the dangling microphone has the sunshine from through the window reflecting off it, creating a shine and a glint. This further emphasises the coldness of the colours in the room, with the sun giving a dull glow to the silver and brown surfaces.
The speed of the cuts matches the pace of the song itself, for although the song is built on technically quite a fast drumbeat, it is actually quite a low-energy and melancholy song, with the driving guitars used to amp up the sadness rather than hammer through real energy. Therefore, the speed of the cuts matches this feeling - they are quite regularly timed, not quite in time with the music, but sometimes being beatmatched, and it is quite a slow pace of cutting.
Overall it is a very effective music performance video, and it reflects the song, and more importantly, the mood of the song very well, in my opinion. There are definatly a wealth of ideas we can look at and take from this video for our own, even if the song we have chosen is a little more energetic, it still has a cold element to it, which means we can perhaps draw inspiration from this video as to how they created the cold, melancholic feeling to the colours and imagery.

More to come...