This music video sets the tone for its genre and target audience unmistakably with the setting being quite clearly a school or college, which relates to the target audience of this genre, which is mainly composed of ‘emotional’ teenagers who will presumably attend some form of college or school.
The mise en scene furthers this, as most of the characters are in school uniform. Also, the band are predominantly dressed in black and red, which are both colours heavily associated with the ‘emocore’ genre, especially the black shirt, red tie and black, skinny jeans. Even the hairstyle of the singer is considered to be ‘emo’, as he has a sweeping side fringe that almost covers one of his eyes.
Lyrics are also tied into this genre and target audience, with the song containing emotional lyrics based around the idea of distance, with the singer telling a magazine the song was about “being so far from friends and family that you feel disconnected from them” which is a subject many members of this target may be able to relate to, with friends leaving school, or if they themselves are leaving to go off to college or university, and are leaving everyone behind.
The visuals used in the video can also be related to the target audience, as the singer is pictured in many shots to be singing in front of a cabinet full of trophies, which is most likely an ironic statement as he is representing the student population who are seen as strange or outcast from normal social groups. This idea of not being accepted may be further echoed in the shots of the girl putting on a bullet proof vest and brass knuckles walking around the school observing, almost as if she is in a post-war environment (walking around after the other events portrayed in the song have happened) and has defended herself from such encounters, although she does not appear to be frightened of this, almost as if her character is portraying the normality of romance gone wrong. This and other narrative shots seem to play on the idea of a school being a form of battleground between both different social groups and between males and females when feelings are involved, but that one party always seems to come out of it worse off. There are shots of couples throughout, with differing emotions, from lust to anger, perhaps showing the varying stages of relationships, and echoing the lyrics “I can’t feel the same about you anymore”. At the songs climax, these shots are put into slow motion in order to emphasise the portrayal of the deep emotion of the various situations, it also cuts between the two couples very quickly directly before the songs climax, with us being brought back to normal speed with a trophy smashing the glass of the cabinet behind the lustful couple.
There is a focus on the band’s performance, with many band shots appearing, of not only the singer but the whole band, in order to emphasise the energy of their live performance, and to almost advertise their live shows to create a greater revenue for them and the record company they are signed to. The focus on energy and performance is particularly prevalent in British bands (which this band are) perhaps because they cannot create as great a revenue as their American counterparts, and need to sell tickets to live shows to remain profitable.
This video could also being either a satirical or ironic view on teenage drama television shows; showing a more gritty, realistic and emotional portrayal of teenage life within a school.
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