The 1975 is a British band from Cheshire and have been making music for the last 20 years. They are signed to an independent record label, Dirty Hit alongside some of my favourite artists at the minute. I have chosen to apply Barthes' semiotics to this 1975 music video because there are so many referential codes in their music videos and it's interesting to find out about the media texts they refer to within their videos and lyrics. The videos are very creative and entertaining to watch.
The music video is a very literal one, nearly all the images match up to what the lyrics are saying. Barthes codes is a good theory to apply to this music video because his idea about 'codes' help us to understand the connotations and potential meanings of the images and lyrics within the music video. We are able to get an idea of what the video is meant to be about based on what code it is a part of.
There are some enigma codes throughout the music video which would perhaps make the audience question what is happening. For example, the band is not actually featured in the music video, there are only shadows of them playing the instruments. The only time we see any of the members is right at the end for about 2 seconds before it fades out. Previous to that, there were close ups of people from the public so if someone didn't really know the band they may not even know that was the singer. Music videos are meant to promote the artist and as they aren't exactly featured in the music video it may confuse an audience who aren't familiar with the band. In addition, the music video really focuses on many relevant issues so perhaps that would be an action code. It moves the video along and answers the question as to why the band aren't featured and that's because there is a lot going on that needs to be addressed and they believe putting that in a video to draw attention to is more important.
There are semantic codes within the lyrics and video. For the most part the lyrics sort of match up with the images. For example, when talking about immigration there are images related to that or even when simply the lyrics come up on the screen. However, during the part where it says 'modernity has failed us' there is a picture of Harvey Weinstein who was a film producer and is a convicted sex offender. If people didn't know who this person was then they may not understand what the video is trying to talk about. It requires a deeper understanding to understand it. Whilst Barthes' semiotics is useful it doesn't take into consideration the audience and how they may interpret the codes in a different way. The semantic codes could really change the meaning of the video for someone. If they don't have that deeper understanding then it won't make as much sense as someone who knows the context of the subject.
There are many referential codes within the lyrics such as reference to things Donald Trump has said. There are also references to other people such as Lil Peep and George Floyd. There are many references to black people and the issues they face with race which is very significant to talk about and really makes the audience react.
Finally, the music video includes symbolic codes. All the disasters and collapses of buildings and fires etc may not just represent what has happened to bring awareness to all these things but may represent the world as a whole and may reflect that the world will also come crashing down if we don't do anything to stop it.
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