Analysis of White Lies - Bigger than us

 The song "bigger than us" by White Lies is off their album "ritual". This is a video with a narrative and a story line, and the lyrics at certain points match with the visuals on screen, along with the sounds of the instruments matching at some points as well, for example, as we see the guitar being lifted out of the box, that is the first time we here the guitar in the song, therefore keeping the audience interests as they can recognise that link. Secondly when we hear the lyrics "bigger than us" the video cuts to a high angle shot of the big chocolate bar with "Bigger than us" written on it. Another use of convention is the movement, it starts off slow, a long with the slow, the the camera remaining slow and steady and just following the action with no sudden movements. But when the tempo picks up, and we see the boy character showing anger and desperation, the camera shows a vast amount of more movement to help symbolise to the audience the emotion in that small scene. The final convention that is used is the use of showing the band in the video lip syncing to the lyrics, as the camera follows the singer of the band lip syncing it shows the audience real emotion in his facial expressions, which can help the audience relate to the lyrics, or come up with different interpretations of there meanings, as the singer looks quite distant and depressed, therefore adding emotion. 



  This video could represent many different things, and could have many different interpretations. But I feel with the use of the lyrics it has a very deep meaning, and the video represents this brilliantly. In my opinion this video shows how advertisements and consumerism in today's world, people lose sight on that people in advertisements are real, as we see the young girl who appears to be trapped inside the chocolate bar. Suggesting to the audience, that people have forgotten that ( as we see at the end) even though she may be advertising it, she is a real person, but this is lost because of the obsession with marketing. Hence the lyrics "bigger than us" that this sort of situation is beyond are control, and we can do nothing about it. But of course this is only one interpretation. Secondly this movie was a homage to Steven Spielbergs E.T, as we see the bright red light with in the base drum, and a scene set in the woods where E.T returns home. 



  The audience would mainly be the fans of the Alternative rock genre, as this song fits into that category. The audience for that tends to be a young audience, as this genre is quite mainstream so always remains popular throughout the year. But as we see the band themselves dress quite smart in this video, which means they would dont seem to buck to any trends so young people may not find them as role models as such.



  "Bigger than us" was released by fiction the bands record label they are signed to. The video was solely so advertise the band and to help make them and this song more popular. But also featured on the Playstation game Need for Speed : Hot pursuit, and F1 2011, which acted as a major bit of advertisement for this song, as it would of been heard by many young gamers. This song was released on their third album called Ritual. And was released on the 19th November 2010.