Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off - Panic! at the Disco.
Panic! at the Disco are a very unique and quirky band. Many of their music videos consist of a lot unusual props, costumes and set designs. I thought I would analyse one of their music videos for this particular post as I know they are very creative and strange and it may give me some ideas for my own music videos so I can make it stand out and be more creative/interesting. I think this particular video is narrative as it does tell a story about how a woman finds her husband dead in the middle of the street and decides to kill herself also. It is not performance as although the band do feature in it they are not singing they are just being the paramedics who transport the dead couple. This video breaks conventions as it doesn't show the band performing into camera at any point and it doesn't feature any costume changes or involve hardly any props. It only has two locations which is again unusual as most music videos have many different locations.
The first 20 seconds show a few people walking around with fish bowls on their heads, it is unsure why they are doing this and this is why this music video is interesting as it keeps you watching as you don't know what is going to happen next. There is also little props in this video except cars.
The costume in this video is quite old and vintage as the men are seen to be dressed smartly and in suits and the women are in vintage clothes that would've been popular in the late 60's. You can see below the type of costume and set design featured commonly in this video.
The camera then shows a man laid on the floor with a smashed fish tank around him, representing he is dead. It is clear that he was the partner of the woman who we first saw with a tank on her head (top left in collage above) as then there is a montage of pictures of those two together.
The video then goes on to show his partner pouring her own fish tank out representing suicide as she feels she can't live without him.
The paramedics arrive and take them to the sea (location 2). They still have the same costume on and they are placed in to the sea together, I think this represents how they are now at peace and happily together again like the woman wanted to be.
Overall the quirky costumes in this video would be something I would consider, however I would like a wider range of set designs, more props and costume changes in my own music video. John Hartley's theory can be applied to this as he is against sticking to conventions and I think this unique video definitely breaks some conventions. Hartley says 'Genres are agents of idealogical closure, they limit the potential of a given text.' In my opinion if Panic! at the Disco decided to stick to codes and conventions with this video it would have been very boring and not as weird and wonderful as it turned out.
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