1. Music video narrative analysis
Arctic Monkeys- Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High
The music video starts with all four of the band members in a bar, with one of
their other songs from the album playing in the background. The close up of the
clock at the start shows that the front man (who is the main focus in this video)
is currently drunk as it morphs into a smiling face, the key point which links to
the lyrics is when he pulls out his phone to text someone, as he is currently
under the influence and is trying to contact someone.
Before the leaving the bar Alex walks into the bathroom, a medium shot shows
Alex looking into a mirror, which then strengthens the idea that Alex is on some
sort of drug as hallucinations of himself appear in the mirror, added with slow
motion to further strengthen the previous mentioned desired effect.
As he leaves the bar the lyrics that can be heard are ‘tells me it’s home time’
which relates back to the music video as he is exiting the building. It then
continues with ‘now it’s three in the morning’, which could relate to the time in
the video itself, we see from the setting and lighting that it takes part at some
point during the night, with also the use of the prop mobile phone indicating the
time as he endlessly contacts Stephanie.
2. It then continues with the front man Alex Turner continuously hallucinating the
girl that he is texting, strengthening the idea that he is currently high. Three
quarters of the way through the video, a break in the song occurs as Alex falls
and appears to be cemented into the pavement, again strengthening the fact he is
currently on some sort of drug as well as drunk, this part after is not linked to
the song as the lyrics stop, slow motion then occurs as he is confronted by a man.
The director, to imitate a state of high uses slow motion; it’s also used to engage
the audience into feeling how Alex is feeling as he wanders the
streets.Throughout the director is making it well known to the audience that
Alex is high with vivid hallucinations and the performance of Alex also shows
this as he stumbles his way down a dark road filled with a wide variety of people,
most not taking too kindly to Alex.As the end of the video nears, it becomes
apparent that he is going to the person’s house who he has been trying to contact
(Stephanie), the lyrics ‘you said you gotta be up in the morning, gonna have an
early night’ suggest why she is not replying to him as he arrives at what he thinks
to be her door. The shaky canted camera technique used reflects the way in
which Alex is presenting himself, struggling to stand straight and still for more
than a moment.
3. However because of the state he is in he doesn’t realize that he has the wrong
house. A high angle zoom out shot is used from an opposite bedroom which is
revealed to be that of Stephanie’s, again props paying an important role as the
last lyric ‘why’d you only ever phone me when you’re high’ is sung as she checks
her phone to see the 17 messages that have been left by Alex.
Suggesting this is exactly what she is thinking as she sees the messages. The
video in short follows Alex’s ‘trip’ as he persistently tries to contact Stephanie,
judging by the song title and also Stephanie’s performance at the end as her body
language shows she is fed up, this is not the only time this has happened.
The single cover for this song links with the title of
the song as the prop, which is mainly focused on
throughout the video, which is the mobile phone,
takes up the whole image. However instead of the
generic numbers and letters on the number 4, the
letters spell out ‘high’, which is included in the
song title. The
purpose of this
could be to
strengthen the
song title that
Alex persistently tries to contact Stephanie or
maybe even a number of other people. ‘Why’d
you only call me when you’re high’ is very
4. much represented in this image and there is a clear correlation between the two,
however there is no definitive link with the album cover itself. The album cover
does link in with another song from the album but not any other of the songs as
much, as the sound waves are projected onto the title song of the album video.
The cover of the single does in fact tell a slight story that when using the phone
high he will try to contact people he does not normally speak to.
