Music Video Analysis

"Smile" by R5

This has always been a music video that stuck out to me and that I enjoy watching due to the tricks that they use in it. As a tiny backstory, I discovered this band because of my mom, and we have traveled all over the country to follow this band around to seven different concerts. When they came out with this one, I was amazed at how cool it looked. I would say that this music video is more conceptual with a mixture of performative. While they are singing the lyrics of the song and performing to the camera, they aren't performing with their bodies. Their bodies are doing different actions. 

Some key moments in this music video can be shown when the band rewinds all the way back to the beginning action. One example of this is at 1:32, where they start just sitting down at a picnic. Also, some other key moment in the video are when the seasons change from summer getting wet, spring having a picnic, fall playing in the leaves, and ending with being outside in the snow during the winter. 

Throughout this music video, the colors used depend on the season being depicted. For the spring, they're using softer, muted colors and nothing too dark or nothing too bright. In the fall, it turns to more fall colors, such as orange, yellow, red, and brown. In the summer, they use bright colors in both their outfits and items they're using, and in the winter, they use darker colors that contrast against the white snow that's falling in the video. The tone stays very similar, as it's the same people just changing a bit when it goes through the seasons. The rhythm throughout the video is about the same, using the rewind motion. I'm not sure how it is done; how they can keep their mouths moving normally, but everything else moving backwards. It's very interesting. 

The camera moves throughout the music video, following certain band members, depending on who is the lead singer at that point in the song. At some points, though, especially before a season changes, the camera will stop on a wide shot of the entire band in their original starting position. 

While I don't understand how the actual song itself follows what's happening in the music video, I know it does follow the main point of the song, which is to 'smile'. The music video is fun and happy and uses some pretty cool effects that keeps you smiling. It's not depressing, sad, or angry. It's a happy music video that follows the whole 'smiling' idea.