Andrew Goodwin: Amplification

Amplification 

The images on the music video amplify the lyrics and a narrative may be used to convey a deeper meaning that would not be picked up from the lyrics alone.  The artists may take on fictional roles within the narrative.

An example of this is Sia's music video 'Elastic heart that was released in January 2015.

The images shown in the video enhance the message that Sia was trying to convey in her music.  Individually the video nor the actually lyrics make much sense, but when putting the two together the audience better understands what Sia was trying to portray. 

Sia chose to use a cage in the video to represent the skull and the actors represent different emotions. It has been suggested that she wanted to show the mind of someone who is bipolar and can't decide between their free and fun loving personality and their side that makes them see sense and reason.

Shia LeBoeuf is meant to represent the reason and thought of an adult mind, and the young girl, Maddie Ziegler, was meant to represent the freedom and carefreeness of a young child.

The whole video seems to portray the two different characters in some sort of fight, thus suggesting that adulthood and childhood can't work together in harmony. No matter how childish one wants to be, reasoning always seems to find a way through to try and tame that childishness.  However, it has been noted that in the video no matter how many methods 'reasoning' tries in order to overpower freedom, freedom always seems to have the upper hand and just won't disappear.

Towards the end of the video there is a moment where the two elements seem to combine together, could be portraying the realisation that in order to be successful in life you have to combine the two elements together.

The final image of freedom trying to pull reason out of the cage, urging him to do something more, and although the gaps in the 'head' are big enough to step through something is pulling reason back, not allowing him to take the leap.

Without knowing what the lyrics were about, a lot of controversy was created around the video with many people complaining that is seemed to be portraying paedophilia.  It isn't until you read into the lyrics that you would realise it is about self awareness and development.

The Lyrics:

[Verse 1: Sia]
And another one bites the dust
But why can I not conquer love?
And I might've thought that we were one
Why not to fight this war without weapons
And I wanted it and I wanted it bad
But there were so many red flags
Now another one bites the dust
And let's be clear, I trust no one

[Pre-Chorus: Sia]
You did not break me
I'm still fighting for peace

[Chorus: Sia]
I've got a thick skin and an elastic heart
But your blade it might be too sharp
I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard
But I may snap and I move fast
But you won't see me fall apart
Cause I've got an elastic heart
I've got an elastic heart
Yeah, I've got an elastic heart

[Verse 2: Sia/The Weeknd]
And I will stay up through the night
Let's be clear, I won't close my eyes
And I know that I can survive
I walked through fire to save my life
And I want it, I want my life so bad
And I'm doing everything I can
Then another one bites the dust
It's hard to lose a chosen one

[Pre-Chorus: Sia/The Weeknd]
You did not break me
(You did not break me, no, no)
I'm still fighting for peace

[Chorus: Sia]
I've got a thick skin and an elastic heart
But your blade it might be too sharp
I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard
But I may snap and I move fast
But you won't see me fall apart
Cause I've got an elastic heart
I've got an elastic heart

Oooh~

[Chorus: Sia]
I've got a thick skin and an elastic heart
But your blade it might be too sharp
I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard
But I may snap and I move fast
But you won't see me fall apart
Cause I've got an elastic heart

I've got a thick skin and an elastic heart
But your blade it might be too sharp
I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard
But I may snap and I move fast
But you won't see me fall apart
Cause I've got an elastic heart

I've got an elastic heart

As it can be seen from the lyrics, she is talking about not letting anything break her down.  The metaphor of having and elastic heart shows that she won't be destroyed by her struggles and she will just snap right back to the way that she was.

When comparing this to the video, it connects in that it portrays the parts in the mind 'fighting' agains one another to try and find out what is best to do but neither gives up on what they want.