Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Robbers - Andrew Goodwin
Robbers - Andrew Goodwin
Robbers - Andrew Goodwin
by Sophie Honor
Drugs, alcohol and sex is a theme that runs throughout this video and is a
convention of the indie pop genre.
Indie pop videos often relate completely or partially to the theme of
performance and music. This is because they like to focus on the music rather
than the aesthetics.
thought beats
The structure of the song does have a somewhat repetitive nature. At the end of the verses
there is repetition of a similar line : Stay, stay, stay, stay, stay. and in the last
verse there is repetition again of you look so cool, you look so cool, you look so cool,
cool, cool, cool. The chorus of the song is also repetitive. The repetitive nature to the
music helps the artist get it ingrained to us so we cant forget it.
The frontman of The 1975, Matty Healy, who is also the singer in the band has a very
unique voice and can form identification that works well with star image.
The Video is a narrative video and has a clear storyline that relates to the lyrics.
Narrative is key in many Indie Pop videos to conveying a deeper meaning behind the lyrics.
The lyrics relate to theme of love and relationships. Which is something typical of the
Indie Pop genre. The 1975 are acting as storytellers here and telling us the story of a
dysfunctional relationship heavily based on drug use but also on how in love the couple
are.
Star Image
Its important to focus a video on the artist for the most part in order to
make him or her more recognisable in the music industry. In Robbers by The
1975, Matty is seen as constantly smoking, drinking, and lying around lazily,
which is shown through close-ups. This is also typical of the indie pop genre
as the ideology is that the star of the video is often facing issues such as
substance abuse. The message here seems to be that he is different, and
doesnt care what anybody else thinks of him, because he looks so cool.
Through the things he does in the video Matty could be reaching out to the
audience as the typical audience for his band would be teenagers and people in
their 20s, who are more likely to do these things, bringing the audience
closer to the artist as he appeals to them. While star images are meant to
focus on what people are supposed to be like, The 1975 show that they are
different, even if this may not always be a good thing.
Intertextual References
The song has intertextual references to the 1993 film True
Romance.The song itself and the accompanying music video were
heavily inspired by the film starring Christian Slater and
Patricia Arquette.
The character (played by Matty Healy) is styled in a floral print
shirt and his girlfriend is wearing leopard print- which is
similar to the characters costuming in True Romance.
There is also intertextual reference to the famous line Youre
so cool from the film. This is very similar to the lyric that is
repeated in the song You look so cool.
Technical Aspects
The setting of the video is an isolated, rural city. Throughout the video
there are props used such as a guitar and a microphone, which is iconic of the
indie genre as typically you get to see the artist performing. Guns and drugs
are also used, which again relates to the genre but also the narrative. This
links to the gratification theory, which allows the artist to identify with
the audience and makes the band appear as rebellious and carefree. There are
also a lot of closeups used in the video, to highlight how in love the couple
are, showing their emotions - its almost like showing that in their eyes they
cannot see anyone but each other.