Music video analysis: The Lumineers – ‘Stubborn

love’

By Jumana Ismail

The song ‘Stubborn Love’ by The Lumineers is an indie folk song, which is within the genre that I will be researching. It was a released in 2012. Due to the fact that there has been two music videos made for that song, I have decided to analyse the music video that includes a young daughter leaving with her mother due to her parents divorce. I feel as if this music video conforms with the indie folk genre due to the following scenes I will be analysing.

Overview of music video

Camera (Shots, movement and angels)

The use of camera shots in this music video has a very big effect on the video as a whole. For example, in this screen shot of the music video, their is a close up shot of the girl

looking out of the car window as she leaves with her mother. This enables the audience to see how sad and upset the girl is which makes it seem more realistic and

therefore the audience sympathises with the little girl. Due to the use of the wide angle shot, the audience can see the rain through the car window. This emphasises on the fact that its a gloomy day for the girl due to her parents

divorce.

Throughout this music video their is a panning camera movement as the car is moving. This type of camera

movement is used to portray to the audience what the young girl is seeing when she is going past people in the

streets. The camera is showing the girl watching people sing and dance which depicts the contrast of moods. Their is also

views of nature shown as she is driving past which emphasises on the fact that she is moving onto another stage in her life with her mother. This image portrays the

long journey the young girl is going on which tends to be a convention of Indie Folk music videos in addition to visuals of

nature.

Sound

The sound used throughout the music video of ‘Stubborn Love’ is very mellow and calm which

tends to be a convention of Indie Folk music. In this music video the instrumentation of the track is very

simple which allows the audience to pay more attention to the lyrics and therefore would be able to identify with what is going on in the music video. For example, at around 30 seconds into the video, when the song was starting, the audience was only able to hear the instruments playing every time one of the band members would sing. When the band

member would stop singing, the instruments would stop and their would only be silence present. This has a big effect on the music video as a whole as it

allows the audience to stop and think about the actual lyrics and what message is the band trying to bring across rather than be distracted by the ‘loud

music’.

Non diegetic sound added in.

Editing

The use of editing throughout the music video allows the music video to flow in a linear or a non-linear way. For the music

video of ‘Stubborn Love’, it flows in a linear way which allows the audience to see the continuous journey of the young

girl in the car. This type of editing is called continuity.

41 seconds 46 seconds

The use of eye-line match allows the audience to see what the young girl is

looking at as she in the car. Throughout the music video we see the young girl

looking at the views outside. This portrays how she is really feeling, as with the help of the camera shots, the girl is looking at how happy people are in comparison to

how she is feeling.

Mis-en-scene

Most of the music video is taking place in the car. The car is an important prop as it emphasises on

the fact that the young girl is going on a long journey far away from home. As the car drives

through the city, it portrays the fact that the mother is taking away the daughter for good from her father. This is typical of Indie Folk music videos as most of them tend to portray the fact that the

artist is going on a journey.

The lighting throughout the music video is very dim and dark which gives of a gloomy effect throughout the music video. This portrays the fact that the girl is unhappy and the reason she is leaving home is due to an unfortunate reason which has had an effect on her mood and the whole city. The fact that its raining as

she is leaving emphasises on the fact that she is feeling melancholy, as rain usually connotes

nostalgia, as well as going through a big change in life as it seems purifying.

Andrew Godwin's Theory

Andrew Godwin’s theory is based on 5 key characteristic’s that are included in many music video’s. These include the relationship between the song and the visuals, the technical aspects of the music video, the narrative and the performance of the song, the star image and the thoughts through the beats. Godwin’s theory has helped me a lot when analysing this music video as it will allow me to use his theory's in the music video that I will produce.

The star image - In this music video, ‘Stubborn Love’ by The Lumineers, there has been many close-up shots on the young girl to highlight the fact that she is the protagonist. The star image, who is the young girl, is the main character the audience is introduced to at the beginning of the music video and therefore this makes her the centre of attention. If there are many camera shots on the young girl, the audience have no choice but to focus on her and therefore this makes it clearer who the young girl is and what is happening to her.

Relationship between the music and the visuals- One way visuals are used to promote the song in this music video is Amplify. This is the use of repetition of the camera shots which are constantly repeated throughout the music video and encompassed in our visions. Technical aspect of a music video – When thinking of Mis-en-scene, the fact that the music video is filmed around the country as the young girl is going on a journey, it portrays the fact that the director of this music video has made an effort and thought really well about how to match the music video with the lyrics.

Representations used in this music video is very typical from representations that are signified in the media. For example, the little girl in this music video is represented as ‘cute’ and ‘innocent’ which is typical of how young girls are represented in this media. This for example conforms to typical representations of young girls in the media. In addition, the family in this music video is represented as a dysfunctional family, in which the women is leaving her husband and taking away their daughter with her. This is also a typical representation, as it is the ‘norm’ for children to live with their mothers if their parents have separated according to the media as well as society.

However, this music video goes against dominant ideologies because of the fact that the couple are separated. The ideologies that are present in this music video is that young children are highly effected by separation or divorce between parents. It also goes against dominant ideologies of women having to listen to their husbands or partners and stay with them regardless of what the situation. By presenting the woman taking her child and driving away on a journey portrays how strong and independent she is, and therefore not needing to rely on any man.

Representation & Ideologies

Audience reception and Stuart Hall’s theory

Stuart Hall is a cultural theorist and sociologist who was also known for working on covering issues of hegemony and cultural studies. Hall looked at the role of reception to different types of media texts and audience positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by different social groups in society. Hall came up with three different key aspects that suggest how the audience read media texts. They include dominant reading, negotiated reading and the oppositional reading. Stuart Hall believed that mass media creates issues of public interest through audience positioning.

In this case I believe that this music video allows the audience to have a dominant reading in which the audience accepts the preferred reading, in a way that the director and the artist of the music video would want them to view it in. This is due to the fact that the visuals on the screen narrate the lyrics of the song.

For example, part of the lyrics of this song include “And I don't blame ya dear for running like you did, all these years. I would do the same, you best believeAnd the highway signs say were close, but I don't read those things anymore.” meanwhile, the visuals in the music video show the girl and her mother driving away.

Binary Oppositions in the video (Levi Strauss theory)

Another binary opposite that may be present in this music video would be that the young girl is juxtaposed with the adult in the car. The young girl is depicted as care free and happy, which is typical of any girl her age. This is highlighted through the use of mid camera shot used on the young girl. In contrast, although her mother seems to look strong, and put on a fake smile, it is evident though the close-up shot that she has more worries on her mind as she is separating her daughter from her father.

The Binary opposites that are present in this music video is the

contrast in going backwards to moving forward, happiness and sadness. The overall narrative of this music video is that the young girls parents are separated and she has ended up leaving with her mother. Some people in the audience may interpret this as moving back to square one, in which the woman has lost her partner and has to figure out what she has to do, as well as how much it negatively effected the young girl. On the other hand, some members of the audience may feel like this is a turning point in both the woman and her daughters life, as they are going on a long journey to search for the next chapter of their lives. This has been backed up by the long shots and wide camera shots that are captured as the woman is driving off.