You Me At Six – Bite My Tongue

JASMIN MAHMOOD

Genres Characteristics All the members of the band in the music video are dressed in black or dark colours and all

seem to wearing similar baggy ‘grunge’ clothing. The video is performance based, with the band performing through most of the video

however it is also concept based with the band all attached to wires and being controlled by both lead singer Josh and featured artist Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon.

Musical instruments are being played throughout the video which is very typical of a rock/alternative rock music video.

Energy is portrayed through the wires controlling the band members and their movements while performing.

Relationships between the visuals and the music & lyricsBecause the video is mainly performance and there is no narrative it is a disjunctive video and the visuals have no correlation to the lyrics and so are contradicting. The music, however, relates to the visuals as the tone of the song is quite angry, bitter and frustrated and the dark colours and low key lighting in the video signify this well. The movements of the band also seem harsh with them being controlled by wires and cables, connoting anger and violence.

Visual Style & Close UpsThe main camera movements in the video are handheld and the camera shots are mostly close ups and mid shots of the band members with the occasional low angle shot. There are several close ups of lead singer Josh and featured artist Oli Sykes when they are singing to emphasise their identity and also to convey their emotions in the song.

Emphasis on LookingBecause of the nature of the video, there is a lot less emphasis on ‘looking at the band’ and voyeurism as there are no women in the video and the band members aren’t made to look a certain way (made to look attractive to fans etc.) In the beginning of the video, lead singer Josh is watching the rest of the band in a separate control room while he is in charge of their movements until he is interrupted by Oli Sykes who takes over Josh’s job and Josh joins the rest of the band in performance for the rest of the video.

Intertextual References Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon is a featured artist in the song and makes a cameo in the

video. He is known to be very good friends with the lead singer of You Me At Six Josh Franceschi

The video is primarily performance based with no set narrative but the set up seems to be concept based with the performance being controlled by the lead singer and featured artist.