The final music video I’m going to analyze is Paramore’s ‘The Only Exception’. This video follows lead singer Hayley, who after leaving her boyfriend, goes back in time to when she was younger, and lost her belief in love due to her parents’ divorce. It features both performance and storyline aspects in the video.
In the opening scene, the music begins as Hayley wakes up and decides she’s going to leave her boyfriend. She writes him a note saying ‘I’m Sorry’, before leaving through the door. She is casually dressed and natural lighting is used.
Through the door is her dad, who she greets with a hug before reaching for a photo she notices on a shelf. She sits down for a brief talk with her dad, still clutching the photo, before again leaving the room.
Through the next door is what appears to be Hayley’s childhood bedroom. At this point it comes apparent to the audience that we are going back in time. Hayley pins the photo she was holding onto her mirror, which turns out to be a photo of her mum and dad. Paramore fans will be aware of the fact Hayley’s mum and dad divorced when she was a child, so the song itself is in fact autobiographical. In the next scene, we see Hayley lay down on a bed of Valentine’s Day cards and love poems. The mass of pink she is laying on has connotations of love, lust, and femininity. It’s also necessary to take note of the heart necklace Hayley is wearing in each scene, which is another reference towards love.
In the next scene, Hayley and the band are performing on stage, showing the live music is just as important to them. The backdrop to their performance is red curtains, again relating back to the love and passion that is a strong theme throughout the video. The camera cuts back to the story, where Hayley has entered another room, which looks like a restaurant. She is on a date, but there is a queue of men at the table, who keep taking it in turns to sit with her. Hayley is confused by their actions, and the blue walls suggest the coldness of the men. Eventually she leaves.
In the next room, a wedding is being conducted. All the guests are dressed in white, which is a wedding tradition, whereas Hayley has turned up wearing black. Black is associated with funerals and death, perhaps indicating her feels towards love, and how it is in her eyes, ‘dead’. Unimpressed by the wedding, she runs out the door towards what appears to be a bright light.
More performance sequences follow, before Hayley ends up in the crowd at a gig. She appears happy for the first time throughout the video, surrounded by friends, and notices an admirer from across the room. They continue to make eyes at each other throughout the scene, resulting in Hayley running back through the door she had previously exited.
Hayley finds herself sat back in the alter, with the male she had been flirting with across the room. She looks assured and happy, before the camera cuts to shots of her in each of the rooms she had previously visited, this time with the boy sat next to her. Hayley retraces her steps though each of the rooms until she’s back where she began, where we realise her boyfriend is the male from previous scenes. She screws up the note she had wrote at the beginning of the video, and lies back down with him.
This music video contrasts with the other two i have analysed for different reasons. There is no controversy or shocking sequences in this video, same as there’s no dancing or stereotypes. It’s simply done but the message is clear and effective.
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