The music video for 'hostage', sung by Billie Eilish and directed by Henry Scholfield was released on 8th October this year. The video was released over a year since the song originally came out, on 10th August, 2017. It features on Billie's album, 'dont smile at me' and in total the audio video and music video have been viewed over 23 million times.
'hostage' by Billie Eilish is a mixture of a performance and narrative video. Initially, the expressive dancing between Billie and Devyck is the biggest convention shown (in this music video) of a narrative video, where their movements tell the story of the song.
On the other hand, the use of movement and expression is also a convention of a performance video. Moreover, at certain points during the video, Billie also lip synchs to the camera, breaking the feeling that the visuals and the audio are separated and connecting the audience with the performance- another convention of a performance video.
Furthermore, the lighting changes during the video reflects the emotions felt by the 'characters', a convention of a narrative video. For example, red lighting represents her abusing him and their toxic relationship, however when the lighting returns to white again, this symbolises equal love between them and the stage when their relationship is somewhat 'healthy' again.
The main theme addressed in the video is relationships, in particular, toxic relationships. It is shown throughout the video the ups and downs of the relationship, reflected by the actual lyrics of the song, dance movements and the lighting changes. The title, 'hostage' also reflects this. The word has connotations conveying someone who feels like a prisoner, or an unbalanced, unhealthy relationship that is not reciprocated both ways. Billie also posted on Instagram following the release of the video, with the caption, 'remember not to suffocate your loved ones' revealing how the story shows her unintentionally hurting someone that she loves in this toxic relationship.
Through the repeated line in the chorus, 'It's not like me to be so mean, you're all I wanted," it is shown that although she may feel as though she is loving him, she is unintentionally hurting him instead. Furthermore the main line, 'let me hold you like a hostage,' represents how she is afraid to let him go and is forcing him to stay with her against his will. This is visually conveyed through the wall trapping Devyck whilst Billie stands and watches. Throughout the video, the walls almost 'come to life' as they push Billie and Devyck, increasing the drama and visually conveying the ups and downs of their relationship to the audience.
A sense of feeling 'trapped' increases as the video continues, Devyck's hands becoming restrained as the lighting changes to blue and Billie walks away. The lighting remains dark blue for the rest of the video, as Billie returns to the top of the staircase, where she was at the very beginning of the video. This could possibly represent the fact that through everything, they've gone full circle and nothing has been resolved or changed within their relationship.
Additionally, there is a lack of representation in this music video, mainly down to the fact that there are only two characters shown. However, there is some ethnic diversity in the fact that Devyck is mixed race, rather than using two white characters in the video. Despite this, there is a lack of diversity in sexuality, as the couple is in a heterosexual relationship, but I believe that it is difficult to represent all groups in society with so few characters in this video in particular.
On the other hand, this music video challenges stereotypes in the sense that the female is represented as the abuser in the relationship, rather than the typical female 'victim' role that is more commonly portrayed in the media. Personally, I believe this to be a very good thing, as it shows that men can be abused too. This could also potentially help encourage men to open up more if these issues are normalised in the mainstream media.
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