Inspirational Music Videos; Bittersweet Sympthany// The Verve

We found inspiration from the track "Bittersweet Sympthany" by The Verve as it talks about the struggles people face as apart of the working class and the main themes of the song are that of class struggle and isolation from society.

Firstly the lyric "Tryna make ends meat, you're a slave to money, then you die." Is a brutally honest truth spoken by the mellow tones of Richard Ashcroft. Almost with a drone to his voice, the notes he hits within his key accompany the monogomy of the lyric creating an essence of dispair and hopelessness. This links with how many members of the proletariat feel today within society and expresses the hatred people have towards the class culture we find ourselves in; yet also expresses people's unwillingness to change how the society is run. This links with our music video as the song we have used; "Fightback" by Fold, realises this and is used as a mechanism calling to arms the youth of today to fight back and create a class struggle of which to rid the lower classes of the oppressive society in which we find ourselves trapped in today. Much like famous comedian Russell Brand in his interview with Jeremy Paxman, the song calls for a revolution almost, in which the people stand up, fight back and say we no longer wish to be apart of this repressive, money grabbing society that is designed to put the world's majority of money into the 1%'s pocket.

Secondly the music video for Bittersweet Sympthony dipicts front man Richard Ashcroft alone walking a retail street that symoblises capitalism and being completely oblivious to it. Ashcroft walks into many passers by, sometimes gliding past, sometimes crashing into them, either way he completely ignores the action and carries on walking ignoring the world around him and singing down the camera. This indicates Ashcroft's self inflicted isolation from society and demonstrates how he no longer wishes to be apart of the capitalist reigeim he lives under. The effectiveness of this is that it allows the viewer to see as a visual representation of what the song is about, isolation and rebellion. Within our music video we aimed to replicate this by isolating our protagonist and making him appear to be oblivious to the world around him. By doing this, similar to The Verve's music video, our protagonist demonstrates his will to break away from society's set norms and values and release himself into a new world that is brighter, hense the dream aspect of it, our protagonist is searching for his paradise. I feel that this links to the song we have selected by Fold as it states that we as a generation need to stand up and fight back. This is never necessarily acheived through violent means as shown by legendary protestors and activists such as Gandhi and Dr. King who's peacful protests brought about the abolishment of the British Empire's presence in India and Civil Rights for all respectively.

Still Showing Ashcroft's obliviousness to the world around him, symbolising a retreat from society and a rebellion from it's oppressive ways.