Analysing a music video

Meaning/Concept/Content
There's a lot to interpret with the lyrics to this song because it could be related to his personal life, love life or written for someone. There are many different interpretations where people have related the lyrics to their own personal life and it's become relevant to them. My interpretation based on the lyrics would be that he secretly loves a girl, perhaps his best friend/someone who understands him or who he feels comfortable with or someone that he has fallen for at first sight that he can't quite comprehend the extent of his love for and it becomes an obsession for him.

"I don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand." To me this line shows that he is afraid of other people knowing who he really is, who his real personality is around this girl he loves. Or 'world' could refer to him not wanting to know that he loves her, he doesn't want the 'world' to see him because she wouldn't understand his love for her.

"When everything is made to be broken." Could suggest that it's wrong of him to be in love with this girl, he knows he'll get hurt, maybe he's gotten hurt before in the past and is scared to fall in love again. Or 'everything' could mean people's hearts, they're made to be broken. Everyone get's heartbroken at one stage of their life and it's devastating; perhaps he felt as if it would happen to him. If you're in a relationship, you either get married or break up. Simple as that. Maybe his ideology of loving this girl is clouded with negative thoughts or he's so close to her that he doesn't want to lose her because she's his world.

"I just want you to know who I am." If I took this lyric directly then he could be falling in love with a girl he knows but he's never met enough times to have a conversation. He has probably seen her across the street, around town, perhaps in her house but never had the courage to speak to her. Or maybe if he's falling in love with his best friend, he just wants her to know his real side, the side with feelings.

"When everything feels like the movies." This could refer to rom-coms which are based around deep romance. Love in movies are portrayed as perfect and the ideal way to have a relationship with somebody. Perhaps he is so deeply in love with this girl that he calls the love perfect and wouldn't do anything to change it. When he's around her, it feels safe, perfect and could refer to an imaginary world that he wants to escape to with her. 'Everything' could refer to not just the love but the happiness he feels when he's around her and the way their friendship has progressed over a few years or so. He feels everything is going smoothly, no bumps etc; 'Feels like the movies' suggests he has never fallen in love before, he doesn't exactly know what it is but the only thing he can compare it to is the movies because it's the only thing he knows and is aware of. And maybe it's the only place he can see love for himself, to watch how perfect it is portrayed on a movie screen.

Imagery
The imagery that I found in this music video is about love/romance but not just a silly crush but passionate, deep, unconditional love that would cause a very big heartbreak if it was to be disrupted in any way. It's  has a very serious tone to it, like it's purposely trying to put across this message about love {or something else} that the audience can relate to. 

Narrative

The narrative is the singer in a tower of some sort either looking around his tower or looking down on someone. He seems isolated, he's the only person there at the top of the tower and he's just by himself doing what he loves. The band are in another location near what appears to look like a tunnel, where they are just featuring the band segments of the music video. I think the narrative fits into the song lyrics quite well. As one of them says "I just want you to know who I am." which could mean, he's a little bit weird but he thinks the girl that he loves will accept him for who he is. It's a sweet story, very simple and it's well known.

Genre/Style

The genre of this music video particularly is just a simple narrative video. Which is what most music videos are, something to portray the lyrics. In my opinion it doesn't exactly follow the lyrics but it's how different people interpret it, which is what is important. 

Pace
The pace of 'Iris' is quite slow, it fits in well with the lyrics, the timing of the song and the lengthy and flowing camera shots help to make the video seem slower than it actually is, very pleasing to the eye!

Duration

The length of this video is 3:36 which is about normal for a music video. It fits in well with the song because it's not too repetitive and it's enjoyable to watch unlike some music videos where the song is way to long and the music video really doesn't fit into it. 

Researching the artist
(Clothing/Costumes)

The Goo Goo Dolls don't have specific costumes unlike some bands such as Slipknot {their masks}. They do have a certain 90's look about them though. Leather jacket, untucked denim shirts, band tshirts {promoting Ramones}, their hairstyle is long, uncut, rough, like a rock bands are sterotyped to be. They all wear jeans, some sort of necklace/chain on their neck and the lead singer has tattoos on his arm which suggest he's tough.

Make-up
I think the only thing they wear in terms of make up would just be a touch of concealer for photoshoots like any normal person. It's nothing compared on the scale to KISS's makeup.

Tone of existing videos
Black Balloon is one of the first I searched. The way the song is sung, is very similar to Iris. It's relaxed, gentle guitar strums, very pleasing to your ears, very gentle and sweet. But the video is completely different to Iris. The Black Balloon features women at the beginning, all shown in very sexually promiscuous poses, with knee highs/stockings, it makes you think the video will be a heavier style of rock and very sexual to women. However, in Iris, the lead singer is singing about a woman and it's just his band members and himself rather than extra cast. Which makes it seem a bit more soulful.

This song 'Come to me' is also very similar to the other videos. The lyrics are both about love in general and this music video especially shows us a deep narrative of an old couple and their memories together. The guitar is also very gentle in this song, the beat is nice, the camera movements flow with the rest of the music and it's overall appealing to the eye and the ears. It's a little bit more upbeat than Iris though, simply because it is showing happy emotions and they wanted to portray that in the song in general. However, Iris is about sad emotion to do with love so I think that's why the song is a little more heartfelt and slower than this one.

Locations in existing videos
They don't have any exact locations that they film in for all videos, however I've noticed that they film a lot outside, generically in fields or just in homes. 

Concepts/Narratives
The narratives for each video are different, however the concept is about love; whether it's a good kind of love or bad love. Each of these videos explore the concept of love through individual narratives telling their own story. Iris, is telling the story through his own eyes about a person he loves and wants them to know about it. Black Balloon is about a forgotten love. "And I'll become what you became to me.." "The love you never knew, the things I never showed, that swallowed the light from the sun, inside your room." It's about how the woman has played/cheated on him and he can't forgive her, she's gone cold and he doesn't want her anymore. Come to me, is about an old couple who have been together for years, they're facing their memories and looking back at the past from when they were young and looking back at the good moments that they have enjoyed together and making every moment together from now on, perfect.