Inspirational Genre Videos

The song 'Paradise' by Coldplay is one of the most popular music videos on YouTube, with 416 million views. This is a narrative music video, which means that it tells a story. I have discovered that a lot of music videos in indie rock use the same narrative method. In this case, it shows man in an elephant suit trying to get back to Africa with the rest of his elephant friends, later, we find out that it is Chris Martin in the suit (the lead singer), and his elephant friends are the rest of Coldplay. It uses a lot of series of shots and camera angles. The first shot of the elephant is him behind bars in a closed frame, which shows that he is weak and has nowhere to go. It also uses a lot of long shots to show the scenery of the landscapes shown. There is also links from the lyrics to the video, for example, the elephant is trying to get money to buy a bike, and has signs with the lyrics on. There is also a part where the chorus comes in, and says the lyric 'paradise', and you see a long shot of a beautiful view, to show a form of paradise.




The song 'Hopeless Wanderer' by Mumford and Sons became very popular because it had some famous comedy actors in, such as Jason Sudekis and Jason Bateman. This music video also has a lot of series of different shots and camera angles. At the start of the video, the director tries to make us not realise that this is not in fact Mumford and Sons on screen, by using a low angle shot of the singer and the sunlight behind him. The mise en scene show them wearing traditional folk clothing, and set in a barn, even though Mumford and Sons are still an indie rock band. Also, similar to 'Paradise', the lyrics refer to the setting. The song is called 'Hopeless Wanderer', and you see the band, wandering hopelessly. There is also a sense of humour in this song too, There is an interlude where they are dressed like a barber shop quartet, and at the banjo solo, the banjo starts smoking, which is humorous for us watching.