Angels

Although 3 music videos would be enough to analyse. I thought I should analyse another just in case, because I'm not entirely sold on producing a music video in the style of 'Shipwrecked'.

Continuing with Andrew Goodwin's 5 aspects of music videos and applying them to some of my favourites, I decided that the second music video I will be one from a sub-genre I have not explored yet. 'Angels' is a song by the symphonic metal band Within Temptation. Although the video has drums and electric guitars featuring in it, the singer's voice is one that you would usually associate with a more classical piece of music, however the mix of the voice with the metal styled music to create ' symphonic metal' is surprisingly pleasant to listen to.

In terms of the relation of the song to the visuals, it's pretty accurate compared to the past couple of music videos I have looked at. It tells a story of two people. The star of the video was hurt and a man came a long and took her into his home to take care of her. She gradually fell in love with him, only to be killed by him later on. "Dark intentions, your feelings for me" indicates a long time before she is murdered that something unfortunate was going to happen to her in the near future.

The star portrays a character of a delicate nature, who is also rather vulnerable. This can be shown not only through the way she moves when singing and the fact that she is trying to make herself small when she is sitting at the side of the road (as well as looking down). Yet the implication that she is vulnerable is expressed in her style of singing.  If we compare her image portrayed in this video compared to previous music videos (such as 'Mother Earth'), unlike the star in the Green Day and Blink 182 videos, the singer for Within Temptation barely develops at all. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Due to Within Temptation being a much smaller band than either Green Day or Blink 182, it is understandable how the band would want to stick to the style of music video that first found them major success.

The song is rather slow paced in most places, and in order to make the video reflect the slowness of pace, the camera movement is particularly slow, and that goes for the speed at which it zooms in and out as well. Special effects are featured in this music video because it is the simplest technique that can be used to create the spectacle of something that could be viewed as supernatural (E.g. The angels flying and the red eyes of the priest that light up to symbolise evil/the devil). The priest is also wearing black that could back up the idea of him being evil, while the woman wears white/light clothing to display innocence. The video has been edited in such a way that it has been given a browner/dustier effect. The colour brown traditionally connotes security and stability, everything she felt towards the man who betrayed her. However, as the video progresses, the atmosphere changes from having a brown 'tinge' to having a red one, conveying her rage towards her killer's actions.

The voice is a very expressive instrument in this video, not only are the lyrics deep and meaningful that create a serious story to the audience, but the style of which she delivers the story in expresses her pain and sadness of the fact that she was deceived and betrayed by the person she loved. The star of the video was hurt and a man took care of her. She fell in love with him, only to find out he was a serial killer. It acts as a metaphor to everyday relationships and how people can hurt someone without knowing it ("You took my heart, deceived me right from the start").

For the music video to be effective, the audience must feel as if what they are seeing is real. To make the video more authentic, the artist acts as both the narrator and a participant. This allows her to express her emotions as the character who has been victimised as well as the narrator viewing the story from another perspective.


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