In the music video ‘Money’ by Pink Floyd, the main ideology is the criticism of materialism and consumerism.
For example, throughout the video the technique of ‘psychodrama’ is mimicked. This is where images are flashed quickly on screen, giving the audience no time to be conceived by the conscious mind. This is usually used in advertising in order to send out subliminal messages to consumers to influence them without them realizing. In the video, images and clips of money are shown combined with superficial items such as expensive diamonds and cars, which overall criticises materialism and greed.
Additionally with the combination of the visual codes with the song's lyric ‘Money, so they say, is a root of all evil today’ suggesting that having money brings burdens, yet people, especially the growing economy of the 70s when the music video was produced, craved money and material possessions.Â
This also depicted through the scenes of busy streets of men all in suits heading for the work, juxtaposed by the men in manual jobs who are also working, suggesting the work force and drive for money was large and the fact that money is central in our society. This scene also reinforces the ideology of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat staying rich and poor, and not moving between classes due to society’s class system.