Muse is an alternative rock band whose music is very often link to rebellion, the lead singer of Muse himself Matt Bellamy has stated that he considers himself a libertarian, someone who has a political belief focused on freedom. Many of Muse’s songs are therefore not only linked to rebellion but also help arise a revolution of freedom, Uprising is one of these songs; the lyrics themselves have very revolutionary overtones and focus vastly on the rebellion aspect. The video begins very strangely, since Muse are often very flamboyant and unique in terms of sound since the lead singer is thought to have a vast vocal range and plays multiple instruments that range from an electric guitar to a harmonica it means their videos often are very artistic but lack any sense of narrative depth in order to make things look as good as possible and as peculiar but also very effective. The video begins with a miniature version of an empty garage with a life sized electric wire burning, as the camera continuously pans it reveals a whole miniature city made up entirely of miniature figures including dolls, trash cans, houses, etc. As the wire burns it stars to decrease in size similar to a wire connected to a detonator as though the whole city is about to explode. Eventually the band is shown to be doing a live performance of the song but interestingly enough they’re shown to be a part of the miniature world however instead of being motionless dolls they’re their live selves and are therefore unchanged, apart from the world around them, they’re riding on the back of a miniature truck, they appear to be unfazed by these very strange circumstances and continually carry on to play the music, not paying attention to the surroundings and being completely focused on the music is a typical convention for rock music specifically. As the wire continues to burn the camera continues to pan this time revealing a building with a “going out of business” sign, this sign is made to show how the political fathoms of the government is not working and that the whole city (metaphorically the country or the world) is crumbling due to a lack of freedom or lack of guidance and that the government is forcing innocent people to lose their jobs due to their mistakes, the lyrics “they will not force us, they will stop degrading us” means that the song is working against this world in the sense that the world as it is now is crumbling and the song is trying to revolutionize the world to make the world free. As various long shots, mid shots and close ups show the fire continually burning across the streets of the miniature world with a few cross cuts to the live performance eventually there is a high angled shot which shows the line still burning but also shows a sign that says “building for the future!”, the sign has a pig headed man next to the slogan and black crosses for eyes, this is to show how politicians regularly lie and “degrade” the public and how they will proclaim to be fighting for them and for a better future but overall remain spiteful liars whose words are meaningless now as the people can see who they really are, in this case a pig, something which is often shown to be very selfish and careless towards other things, something the government tries to be the opposite of. The band is then shown to be in a camp fire type place with a fire around them and tents again they remain in sync with the music, the band being in this environment instead of usually being in an authority area shows that the band is part of the rebellion and they’re part of what the government has done to the public. In one shot a miniature caravan is shown to almost blow up in an explosion, later on the band are shown to be playing the music inside the caravan indicating again that the band is part of what is happening in the world. The world continues to evaporate with some long shots showing the aftermath of the burning buildings whilst in some shots the live performance is still played on the back of the truck whilst others show them back in the burnt caravan, later a long shot shows sparks spraying from the outside of the caravan which then cuts to Muse performing in the caravan in which sparks are flying everywhere which again the band appears oblivious to as though the music is what matters and that is what they care about and are focused on despite the fact that the caravan is probably about to blow up as the music picks up dramatically. A very dramatic shot later shows a large fire with what looks like piles of ash underneath it burning uncontrollably whilst miniature dolls stand around it with some leaning forward as though trying to save people from being burned alive, the fact that the dolls are obviously motionless could represent the common everyday people as having no power over the government as they literally cannot save their friends from being burned. Another pan shot shows a woman doll’s face with half of it torn off as she lays close to the fire, more and more of people’s faces continue to burn with some looking as though they’re leaning in towards the fire as though they’d rather die than live in this world. Another shot which is seemingly completely unrelated shows a large teddy bear rising from the surface of ash, this is very peculiar and there is no real reason as to why the teddy bear appears however later on more teddy bears break through the surface and are shown to be very gruesome and satanic looking, these bears are shown to be bigger than most of the miniature buildings and because they’re frequently destroying everything it could mean that they’re a vague metaphor for the government being monsters and destroying everything amongst the motionless people most likely represented as the general public.
An image referenced in the blog depicting a very 'flash' scene of the live performance, on it's own this shot could help reflect a party atmosphere typical of alternative rock however in the context of the video it appears that this reflects more the fact that the flame has reached it's detonation point and is about to explode metaphorically reflecting a rebellious nature.
A very grim image referred to in the blog possibly representing how the common man cannot save or stop their fate of death from happening and subsequently have no power.
No comments:
Post a Comment