Music Video Analysis - 'I Don't Love You' My Chemical Romance

The music video I am analysing is I Don’t Love You by My Chemical Romance, which Marc Webb directed. My Chemical Romance is an alternative rock group so their music videos follow the normal conventions of a music video of this genre:

- Dark colours – reflecting the mood of the song

- Close ups of the band member

- Close ups to also show emotions

- Performance from the band

- Some use of special effects

The lyrics, to me, have a narrative of a boy who finds himself difficult to be loved. The lyrics ‘better get out, while you can’ show this. This narrative is shown through the actual video however there is no close reflection of lyrics. Therefore this video is an amplification of the lyrics, which the enhancement of a concept.

The video is in a colour format to stimulate the colour contrast between the two characters. The boy is in black to show that there is something dark about him and neither him nor the girl smile in the whole video showing that maybe their love/relationship is strenuous, but they love each other too much to let go. The girl is the complete opposite of him; physically she is all in white but the connotation of white is showing that she is pure and vulnerable. From the lyrics we get the sense that he is somewhat poisoning her perfect image ‘sometimes I cry so hard from pleading’ pleading for her to leave him as he is no good. This is reflected in the video as when he touches her back at 1:56 he leaves ‘scars’. He eventually realises that no matter what he says to this girl she will never leave him and he knows that he is no good for her, so he must leave her. ‘I don’t love you like I loved you yesterday’ he say this to her and leaves, breaking them both completely (shown at 3:10). The last time he sees her he looks guilty and pained to be doing what he is doing but he knows he must leave her (shown at 2:36) and slowly goes whilst she looks confused.

At 3:24 when the drum comes back in after a softer moment, the guitars start to explode which could also symbolise the love the boy and girl had breaking. The black rain dripping down on her at 3:29 could be showing another way that he is marking her. Through leaving her he has broken her heart and the single black tear falling from her eye at 3:50 also symbolises this.

The first shot of the video is a wide shot, showing the location – appears to be hillside – the character and the season – appears to be autumn as leaves are falling. Then there is a clean cut to a medium close up so that the audience becomes more familiar with the girl. As the instrumental introduction of the drums start there is a cut to the drummer. We see that the band’s location is very different to the narrative’s location. The narrative is set outside in an open, light coloured location, but the band are playing in a closed off black room. Interestingly, when there are close ups of the main singer lip synching to the song; he appears to be in the same location as the narrative, showing maybe how the band and the narrative are emerging together.

The climax of the song is when the band is playing their instrumental. The heavy guitar solo is somehow reflecting the story, the dramatic end to a relationship. And after the instrumental the singer is alone singing softly while the girl is standing alone. The video changes pace with the music. At the beginning it is up beat (contrast with lyrics) and this is reflected with the story and the cuts between shots are fast. And after the instrumental everything is slower and then it picks up pace again with the reintroduction of the drums

There are close ups of the main singer and the band members – E. A. Kaplan’s theory. There is also a trademark of the main signer where he dyes his hair a different colour to reflect the mood of the bands songs at that time. Here his hair is black, reflecting on the sombre and darker mood of this song.

The mise en scene of the video is very typical of a romance. The tree at the beginning is reflecting how in films couples carve their initials in love hearts into trees. The couple also have a picnic, which is another typical thing couples do. It shows the innocence of their love and maybe that their relationship is new and stereotypical on the outside but deeper and more meaningful on the inside.

In conclusion this video is an amplification of the lyrics and it is mainly narrative based but has performance and concept behind it. The concept is about a ‘forbidden love’ and how opposites attract which is shown through the colouring contrast.