Riptide by Vance Joy

Vance Joy – Riptide Music Video

Vance Joy’s Riptide video is a good example of an illustrative music video as it has strong images to transfer an obvious motif throughout the generally upbeat song. It can be argued that the video does not follow a narrative; however when the images are looked at closely, it could be seen as a story about a relationship.Within the video each line or section of the verses and choruses are accompanied by imagery that is literal in terms of content, for example the line”: “Oh, all my friends are turning green” 

As the line is sung the short depth of field shot of a man and woman looking distressed is followed by a close-up shot of a one dollar bill. The fact that the dollar bill is green is obviously the literal translation of the shot, however it is safe to say that the combination of the two scenes is the singers way of stating that his friends have become greedy or materialistic. This is a basic example of how each image, have more meanings. More complex examples can be found in the chorus, which contains various reoccurring sections, such as people being pulled into darkness as the line “Taken away to the dark side” is uttered. 

However, the most prominent example occurs at the end of each chorus, with a woman singing the last lines of it. Each time she appears on screen she is more estranged, with her make-up smudging and her mascara running due to tears and eventually to her being grasped around the neck by an unknown hand. The relation between the lyrics and the image is far more subversive with meaning having to be inferred from the gradual change. The line that she reads is as follows: ”I love you when you’re singing that song and, I got a lump in my throat cause, you’re gonna sing the words wrong”.”