Arctic Monkeys – When the Sun Goes Down – Music Video Analysis

The music video starts off with a quote that says, “…Right beside us are the ones hidden by the night…”This is reference to what the song is about which is a prostitute, and links to many other lyrics in the song which I will go on to describe. This accompanied by a quote by the woman playing the prostitute in the music video.

The song then starts and the lyric ‘So who’s that girl there’ is said this is accompanied by a medium close up of a girl, the prostitute. This obviously links to the lyric.

The next notable lyric in the song is ‘She doesn’t do major credits, I doubt she does receipts’ this is a reference to the woman’s profession of prostitution, the lines in this song are pure sarcasm showing that the whole affair is dodgy and off the books. In the music video the shot is an off centred shot of the woman talking with a man in a car. The camera is looking through both the car windows, showing her leaning over, this matches with the lyric because it shows the prostitution in action.

‘And what a scummy man’ this line in the song is shown in the music video of a long shot, of the girl and some man, the adjective ’scummy’ is used to describe the man, as he appears to be her ‘pimp’ in the video and it describes the fact that is disgusting to treat women in the manner in which he does.

In the music video none of the band members of the Arctic Monkeys show up, this is to not peer away from the story, which this music video features prominently. The next shot is a medium shot of the prostitute being dragged away by the ‘scummy man’ with lyric ‘And he’s a scumbag don’t you know’ this is an obvious reference to fact he is dragging her into a car against her will hence he is a scumbag. As the music kicks in the slow shots used previously in the music video become faster paced with a shaky, handheld look to it. The shot is at night, so it looks effective due to the lights of the urban environment looking blurry and goes with the story as it appears to resemble fast paced movement, like a struggle, like she is trying to get out of the car.

The songs title is of reference to the fact that prostitutes work, ‘when the sun goes down’ so at night. This is juxtaposed in the song as in the music video it is mainly set in day, which is direct opposite to the fact that prostitutes are regarded to mainly work at night, to avoid any police. The songs little could also be a reference to the storyline of the music video; ‘they say it changes when the sun goes down’ could mean that when the sun goes down it becomes night and that is the point of the music video when it all kicks off and a magician appears. A scene in the music video changes from showing the prostitute throwing stuff around in a room to the car speeding through the streets using the steadicam effect I talked about earlier. This jump cut goes with the fast paced repetition of the chorus.

In a scene in the music video, the lyric ‘scummy man’ is used however in the shot it shows irony. The medium close up shot shows the man kissing her on the cheek, a sigh of affection not normally presented by someone labelled as ‘scummy’ this backs up Goodwin’s theory of disjuncture of what is being showed in the music video directly juxtaposes the lyric presented. This is the first time this has happened in the song and it is shown at the end to present that perhaps he has changed his ways or that he is displaying a false persona.

The music displays a storyline throughout this is like the other music video I analysed, this is most likely the type of music video I will produce, as I feel they are more effective to produce and give meaning to the song more than perhaps a music video without a storyline.