Music Video Deconstruction: Royal Blood – Out of the Black

Context

Royal Blood are a relatively new rock duo with a unique sound as one member plays the drums and the other plays bass guitar and is the lead vocalist. Out of the black is from their first album and is arguably their

most famous song as it is also the first single they released.

Goodwin’s TheoryGenre Characteristics: Goes against the genre conventions of a Rock Muisc video, as there is no stage, band performing or showing of instruments. However the violence shown throughout the music video conforms to the genre characteristics, almost edging into the level of what you would expect from a metal music video. Relationship between lyrics and visuals: “You made a fool out of me” – the rabbit steals stuff from the store while the store worker looks on helplessly. “Don’t breath” – Strangles shopper. The chorus repeats, “Don’t breath” - more people are killed. “And its hard this world never lets you go” – The store worker stands up, tries to do the impossible and takes on the aliens, relating to the every day person watching the video. 

Relationship between music and visuals: Drums are both in time with the action and scene change. Guitar/bass starts playing when the Squad – X logo appears. Vocals start when the scene switches from the cartoon to the real world. When the rabbit kills the woman, the gun shot he fires is in time with the music. When the red button is pressed the guitar riff fits perfectly with the visuals as it helps to create a sense of danger. The editing is slow when the chorus isn’t being played, however when the chorus is being played there is always a showing of violence coupled with fast editing. The music starts to speed up when the MIB are facing the costumed aliens and the editing gradually speeds up till the chorus kicks in. When the store worker takes out the nunchucks the guitar solo starts suggesting a shift in power in the scene. The drumbeat the starts again in time with the shift from the real world to the cartoon. The music the stops at the end of the music video when the guy sits down to eat the chocolate bar. 

Selling the artist: There is no mention of the artist, nor do you see their faces throughout the video which is surprising as this is a new band, and therefore it is against conventions for them to not appear. This may have been to appeal to the American market, furthermore the use of the Adult Swim cartoonist Christy Karacas also supports this theory.

Reference to notion of looking: Because this music video is largely full of action, everyone in the scene is usually looking and focusing on fighting there opponent in the scene. However at the beginning there is a shot where we are drawn out of the tv. Furthermore there are also a few point of view shots that take place throughout the song. Intertextual references: Cross references with the film MIB as there a tvre men in black killing and hunting down aliens.