Music Video Analysis: Let It Happen (Tame Impala)

Let It Happen was the lead single for the band Tame Impala's third studio album, Currents. The song was released back in March of 2015, followed by the music video in August that same year. Let It Happen runs on for almost 8 minutes, although it had to be shortened to 4 for the music video, however this didn't stop the director, David Wilson, to create what would call a 'masterpiece'. The video had a huge success, that racked up almost 100 million views, and received a very positive response by fans.

This video is completely narrative as it includes no performance aspects whatsoever; no lip-syncing, none of the band appears in the video, their is little to none acknowledgement that this is a music video. Instead, the video tells us a story that connotes with the lyrics of the song, a man experiencing multiple emotions such as anxiety, panic and hallucination. Throughout the video we as an audience are taken along with this flustered man in a feeling of acceptance to just 'let it happen'.

Within the first 30 seconds of the music video, the sense of panic and distraught is immediately there. We see a clearly stressed out man in a suit rushing round an airport, trying to catch a flight. His facial expressions and body language connote emotions of anxiety, panic and almost fear. The man is walking at a very fast pace, wiping his forehead from sweat and is looking around frantically. There is then a smooth transition through a wall when the man goes from walking in a panic, to then hurdled over, grabbing his chest, clinging onto chairs for support, until he completely falls to the ground. This is possibly showing how sudden and random anxiety attacks are when they come on you out of nowhere. When the chorus begins, there is a POV shot of the man when he collapsed. In this scene, the video appears wider due to the wide lens used, along with the black borders of the video disappearing. During this shot, distortion has been used to create the illusion of a hallucination going through his head when he collapsed. Shortly after the POV shot, there is a medium close up shot of the mans face whilst he is still on the ground. His facial expressions create the impression that he is in some sort of discomfort about things; either mentally or physically ill, as he stares blank into the camera whilst almost frowning. Following this, he then falls through the floor and suddenly appears in a airplane seat looking very confused as to why and how he just appeared there.

Collapsing POV Shot

Transition Shots

The lyrics then carry on to saying "I can hear an alarm", in which then he is looking down and is holding an abnormally large, digital alarm clock. Again, this can be a link to the hallucination aspect of the music video as just seconds later he appears in a hotel room with a regular sized alarm clock in his hands.