Music Video Analysis

Interpol - Evil

Language
In Interpol's video, there is no use of spoken language except the music which is playing in itself. In terms of the language of the text itself; the way that it is filmed features a steady pace to match the tempo of the song. Although, the video uses fast editing to represent what is happening in the shot in a more appropriate manner. With that said, the shots occasionally slow down to match the speed of the song and to establish the reaction of the characters in the video. Through use of cinematography, there is also often a large amount of close-ups on the main character’s face (pictured above); this is to reflect the emotion that the song tries to bring upon its audience. The whole video besides the occasional shot only includes the main character as he sings the song with the situations going on behind him. 

Ideology
In this music video, the story features a car crash (pictured right) in which the two parents involved are shown upset about the damage caused. The main character is a puppet which is shown to look like a young boy. Whilst his parents are left to sob, he sings the song and later gets rushed to hospital to receive treatment. By the end of the video the doctors leave the emergency room and he is shown dancing on the stretcher; this gives the impression that he died in the hospital yet he is not shown to be caring at any point.

Institution

In terms of institution, Interpol are signed to Matador Records who produce music from bands such as Queens of the Stone Age and Fucked Up. This shows that they distribute music from bands which are more focused on creating deeper imagery in their music than the likes of bands on major labels. The music video was directed by Charlie White who later directed the video for 'Lights' by the band on a following release.

Audience
The audience of this video would be alternative rock fans of any age from teenagers onward.The genre is represented in this video by the themes of despair and misfortune. In the post-punk area of alternative music, there is a lot of focus on negativity and downbeat, shoegaze inspired influence. Due to the nature of the lyrics in synergy with the video itself, there is a focus on trauma and tragedies which reflects the outlook that a lot of similar bands (and including Interpol) use.

Representation
The themes of the song are highlighted metaphorically by the events that occur. The nature of the song itself is about losing yourself whilst experiencing trauma, this is shown through the traumatic experience that the parents go through with the car crash and later their son being rushed to hospital (and questionably dying).

The band is represented through this video as people of a dark nature in terms of their songwriting. In their album 'Antics' which this song features in, there are a lot of songs of this nature which reflect on negative imagery. This video is partially used to represent the attitudes that their album gives off as it is their only individual release from Antics.