For my fifth music video analysis I have chosen The Sound by The 1975. It was released as a radio single on the 19th February 2016, and is currently the band's highest charting single in the UK, peaking at number 15 on the UK charts. The music video for the single was released on the 25th February 2015 on the band's YouTube channel. This particular single comes under the genre of synthpop and indie pop, which is present throughout the majority of their new album whereas in their previous album it was much more rock influenced.
The group are shown dressed in black and playing in a large glass cube in a dark room throughout. The cube's lighting intersects between black and white to pink as they play, and at one point fills with smoke. They are observed from outside and spoke about by well-groomed strangers all dressed in white lab coats, with pink cards showing throughout the video which highlight negative comments from real-life critics about the band as they play such as: 'terrible high-pitched vocals over soulless robo beats', 'totally lacking the wow factor', and 'this band thinks it has a charismatic singer... they are mistaken'. As the song progresses the band begin to seem more and more tense, until eventually they switch places with the critics and observe them from outside the box.
Throughout the video there are a variety of close-up shots of the lead singer, Matty Healy, to draw attention to the fact that he is the front-man of the band and that he receives the most attention as he performs the vocals to all of the songs. The close up shots highlight his unusual costume for a male vocalist, as he is featured wearing relatively heavy eye make-up, and black nail varnish amongst his all-black outfit. This is the binary opposite aesthetic which most conventional, male artists abide by which highlights that this band is not afraid to go against the regular social conventions and push their boundaries in music through their costumes as well as their lyrics. This aesthetic is present throughout the music video, as the narrative of the video itself is diverse and unusual in comparison to many other current artist's products. This video is relatively similar to their previous videos, as they all tend to use similar, low-key lighting and revolve primarily around the lead-singer. 
There are also a wide variety of long shots shown whilst they are performing in the box, which captures the whole band together. This helps to symbolise unity and togetherness, showing that they have a strong connection and work well together. The music and beats of the song work well with the visuals in the music video, as the thumping beat in the background is featured in time with the lead-singer's body movements, and also in time with the changing light colours and the critics' comments.
The video's narrative does not reflect the song's lyrics, and instead is more conceptual and performance based. The video portrays a concept of feeling trapped as the band is stuck inside the glass box as critics' comments are flashing up around them, and only when they stop listening to the comments are they free. This suggests that you are never truly at peace until you stop caring about negative criticisms. The video is also performance based as the band are shown to be playing their instruments and displaying their vocal talent throughout the majority of the video.
The Sound music video:
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