Riptide (incomplete)


Vance Joy, through his brilliant use of literary devices and fragmented narrative, creates a compelling music video that captures the interest of the intended audience.

Firstly, ‘Riptide’ uses disjuncture (Goodwin) in order to create a narrative that isn’t very obvious to its audience. The video may therefore be looking for an active audience who will try to decode the hidden meanings in the video. Audiences may not feel a sense of escapism (uses and gratification) or a disjointed emotional connection with the star text due to the use of disjuncture. Despite the underlying meanings in the song, the shots in the video match the lyrics.
Additionally, Joy’s use of metaphors establishes an enthralling narrative once they are understood. The video is, in a sense, an allegory of Joy’s relationship to a woman. He describes the positive and negative aspects to this relationship subtly through the lyrics. The title of the song ‘Riptide’ may refer to the gradual destruction of his partner as she finds her way to ‘the dark side’. A riptide will cause someone to drown and horrible and painful death. The frequent shots of the woman singing may illustrate her gradual change as she once again comes closer to the ‘dark side’. The first shot of this woman is normal as she is singing the song. The following shots are to some degree disturbing to an audience. Her make-up becomes smudged conveying the idea that she is losing her control and ability to function properly. She is becoming dishevelled. She still carries on singing possibly trying to escape from her emotions but ends up getting the lyrics wrong as mentioned in the lyrics: ‘I got a lump in my throat because you’re gonna sing the words wrong’.  The riptide may also convey the idea that she will drown in her repressed emotions. The following shot shows this woman to have blood on her hand just after a gun is pointed at her. Her hand is moving whilst being wrapped around her neck portraying the idea that she is being chocked and having a difficulty breathing. Her story, through a very few number of shots, is clearly shown in the video. Thus, the use of close-ups, according to Vernallis and Goodwin, is key in music videos and allow the audience to interact with the star text and the emotions they are experiencing. In this video, the use of close-ups is not strictly adhered to but are employed in relation to the woman representing Joy’s partner. These close-ups may be exercised in order to allow the audience to see her transition and the affliction she seems to be under. Joy apprehension of the situation is evidently projected into the lyrics as he claims that he ‘just wan[ts] to know’ is she will ‘stay’ and how ‘he can’t have it any other way’.

There is also an intertextual reference in the video that, according to Goodwin, may engender a sense of gratification the viewers. The intertextual reference is to the 1969 movie ‘Midnight Cowboy’ where a man runs away to New York to try and escape his past but fails. This may parallel the plight of both Joy and his partner to try and forget the memories they had together. However, no matter how hard they try, they are unable to escape the love that they have for each other.

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