Music video analysis

Analysis of Music Video

Numb – Linkin Park

This song is in the genre of alternative/heavy rock and was released on March the 25th 2003 on the Meteora album. The video was directed by Joe Hahn and was released with the single version of the song on the 8^th of September the same year on the Warner Brothers label.

The video was recorded in Prague in the Czech republic in 4 different locations; A bridge with a backdrop of the city, a church with a studio in it, where the band is performing, a school and a house. The two main performances in the video are the band performing the song, with all there instruments and an actress playing the part of a lonely teenage girl who feels she doesn’t fit in with society. The props in this video are mostly the bands instruments and studio set up with a lot of different instruments synths and wires to give the impression that it was actually being played live, as well as some candles in the church to add atmosphere. The actress in the video uses papers and a backpack to show her school work. She also uses a pencil and paper to draw a gothic style scene from the bible while in science class to show her spiritual and arty side. As well as a paint brush and canvas that she uses to let out some of her aggression. The lighting in the video is mostly natural with some artificial and candle during the church scenes. The colours used are all dreary, earthy to reflect the emotions and feelings of the song. It seems that the colour contrast of the video has been set very low to help do this.

There is a lot of sweeping motion and overhead shots used in the video, particularly in the shots of the band. Other than a few establishing long shots at the beginning of the video it mostly includes mid and close up shots. There are a number of shots where the focus is on the actress while the scenery blurs and distorts around her. During these scenes the video is sped up and multiple shots of the same background are merged together while the actress is static in the same place. This shows how she is feeling that the whole world is passing her by.

The story of the lonely girl is intercut with the scenes of the band performing. There isn’t any narrative following on through these scenes, it’s just showing the overall feeling of the character. Near the end of the video the two scenes come together with the girl running in to the church where the band were performing. This shows that she does fit in with the band and that they understand how she’s feeling. However by the time she gets there the band has left despite leaving all their equipment behind. This leaves some confusion in with the viewer about whether she will ever find the band or someone who understands her. It’s more effective having only just seen the band performing there and knowing she must of only just missed them.

The band is represented as a casual but stylish manor. The clothing they are wearing is dark, in keeping with the style of music. The band could be seen as guardians of the girl, and suggests to the viewer/listener that if they feel a similar way to the girl that Linkin Park understand you. This helps advertise to their target audience of teenagers who maybe feel like they don’t belong. The video would be shown on rock/alternative channels such as MTV, MTV Rock, Scuzz and Kerrang.