This video is an intentionally ironic video that was made by the band following accusations from their fans in light of one of their recent music videos 'Sex'. The video contained colour for the first time and therefore the fans believed that the band were beginning to 'conform to a record company's wishes' and other clichés surrounding music videos. A quote from lead singer Matty Healy being that they "made a video about us not wanting to make a video". The band and director have been influenced by the 80's as can be heard in the music and also in the fashion of the models and some of the setups. It begins by the band ironically exclaiming that they are not a pop band and therefore can not have colour in their videos (conventionally Rock bands have a lot of black and white videos). Progressively, the video adds in more and more conventions of a Pop video. For example, there are models being objectified, there is a lot of colour and routine dancing. All of the video is just the conventions of a Pop music video.
There isn't much relationship between the visuals and the lyrics in this video. It is more based on the concept of the video. However, the exceptions to this being that the song is called 'Girls' and there are plenty of female models. Secondly, on some lines such as 'she can't be what you need, if she's 17' there is a shot of one of the models blowing out a 17 candle on top of a cupcake.
As I have mentioned, this is a music video to a Pop song from an Indie Pop Rock band. The first characteristic of a Pop music video would be the simple white background being changed to many colours featuring the band and lead singer on there own performing. Secondly, the use of models. They do not seem to have any purpose other than to look attractive to the male gaze. This seems to be intentional as they have got the models mimicking the instruments and therefore emphasising how Pop videos usually have females in the video for no narrative purpose other than to attract the male audience. Additionally, another characteristic of a Pop music video would be the synchronised dancing. They are not complex dance moves and once again are just an exaggeration of a Pop video.
It could be suggested that this video is referencing a lot of mainstream media. For example, the models in this video could be compared to dolls in the sense that their movement is very stiff and robot like. Also, they are visually attractive, furthermore, their clothes do not appear to be real but also appear to be close to perfect. This could be because this is how society expects girls to be perfect and this video is almost mocking that concept.
PERFORMANCE, NARRATIVE AND/OR CONCEPT?:
The majority of this video is based around the performance of the song as this is the usual convention of a Pop video. But it is also based on the ironic concept of a Rock band making a Pop video.
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