Two Music Videos Essay

The song “Stay Together For the Kids,” performed by the blink-182, is about a divorce
and how it affects the children. The song has two music videos, the original that debuted on
MTV, and the rerecorded one after 9/11. While there are noticeable differences between the two
videos, in general, the touch on the same beats and have the same message. However, the
original video has a much stronger presentation then the rerecorded one due to the omission of a
key element of the original that was not properly replaced.
The first video had to be reshot due the imagery used in the video which depicted a
building getting demolished and the recent attacks on the Twin Towers happening after filming
rapped up. The video opens with a statistic stating, “50 percent of all American household are
destroyed by divorce.” The opening, while less subtle then the first video, tell the audience the
main theme of the video. The first shot of the video is wrecking ball in front of a dilapidated
house in what appears to either be in a suburban or an urban neighborhood. This not only
foreshadowing of events to come, but a representation of an unstable marriage with the house a
metaphor of a marriage. Similarly, to the first video there are kids in the house of varying ages
and backgrounds skating and hanging around. Leading to the chorus, the camera cuts from the
wrecking ball to the kids in the building. Once the wrecking ball hit the building the kids start to
franticly panic and franticly avoiding ruble. This first impact of the wrecking ball is to represent
the first initial shock and fear of a kid finding out their parents are getting divorced. The second
part of the song shows the aftermath of the initial reveal, the kids are noticeable more solemn
before the next wrecking ball strike, only this time the kids are frantic movement is less panicked
and more anger frustrated. After the second strike the kids start to engage in behavior that is
widely considered as “rebellious,” including two teenagers are implied to have had sex in the
shower. The behavior shown by the kids could be because of the uncontrollable situation of a
divorce would lead to them to engage in behaviors that would give them some control over their
lives.
Due to fears that the video would be received with controversy due to the terror attacks,
they decided to rerecord the video for their song. While the second video works well enough to
convey the message, it is not as obvious as the first, it is more reliant on the song itself and more
subtle imagery to convey its message. The rerecorded video opens in a large, dilapidated
mansion with a hand full of children of varying ages in it. In both video children are the main
subject, second only to the band, due primarily to the subject matter of the video, that being the
effect of divorce on children, and the negative affects it has. As the band begins to play, more of
the building is covered in graffiti and an assortment of trash and rubble. The state of the building
is to create a sober and chaotic tone of the video, as well as foreshadow what is soon to happen
on the video. As the chorus comes the kids suddenly jump up and get rowdy, punching walls
throwing objects. The wind also starts to intensify, blowing trash across the frame. The camera
also starts to shake wildly to further create the feeling of chaos. The whole sequence is to
represent the intense frustration and anger at the situation (the divorce). Although it is abstract in
its messaging, the video is to create the feeling that a kid whose parents are going through a
divorce. The mansion plays a some what less important role in the second video compared to the
original. While the original the house was being demolished to represent the collapsing marriage,
the divorce is instead represented by the wind blowing trash across the frame. This has less of an
impact, because it does not directly affect the children, they just start shouting during the chorus.
This makes the metaphor opaque and harder to catch on to.
Both videos are a metaphor for the lyrical content of the song itself. The target
demographics for both videos are teenagers going through a divorce or any other hard time. Both
videos are attempting to empathize with the plight of the kids who go through their parent getting
a divorce, and the dramatic changes it will have on their lives. The first video uses a house
getting demolished to represent the dramatic changes it has on a kid’s life and even show the kids
becoming more afraid and starting to act in ways that many parents would interpret as rebellious,
possibly as a way for the kids to try and maintain some control over their lives or to distract
themselves from the situation. The second video incorporates much of the same elements, as the
kids acting rebelliously and the home in disrepair but has less of an impact due to the removal of
certain elements that while were objectionable at the time due to circumstances out of their
control, had a noticeable effect on the messaging of the video. Despite the circumstances of the
time, the first video is much better in delivering the core message of the song and what the band
was attempting to say since the second video had to remove an aspect of the video that was vital
to the core message and did not affectedly replace it with another way of saying the same thing.
While it was understandable why the wrecking ball destroying the building had to be omitted, it
was not properly replaced with some thing that effected the kids in the video. If the kids were
outside the mansion and were being blown by the wind or if a different event happened in the
mansion that would directly affect the kids inside had happened, it would have strengthened the
in the same way the wrecking ball in the first video did. The first video shown the kids running
from the debris or reacting when the ball hit, it had a direct affect on the kids. The wind in the
second video only affects the band, while the kids do their thing inside the mansion, there is no
impedance for the kids’ reaction and the video suffers from it.
 Works Cited

Baker, Travis. Blink-182 - Stay Together For The Kids (Official Video). YouTube, 2001,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1BFHYtZlAU.
Baker, Travis, director. Blink 182 - Stay Together For The Kids [Official Music Video
HQ]. YouTube, 2001, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjl5HEEOzt0.
“Stay Together for the Kids.” Wikipedia, 16 Feb. 2021, 7:07,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay_Together_for_the_Kids.