Music Videos Analysis' (Nickleback - When We Stand Together)

When We Stand Together
Band: Nickleback
Genre: Alternative Rock

Directed by: Justin Francis
Released: 3rd November 2011

The main theme of this song is standing together for a better life for ourselves and others. The sub themes within for this song are; War, Poverty and Love between people. The themes of the song are portrayed by the narrative of the video, there are many still images of people around the world who are in a variety of bad situations but the narrative ends with them 'all standing together'.

The costume of the band members meet the conventions of rock, they are wearing t-shirts with big bold logos on. They are all wearing jeans and the lead singer is wearing bracelets and a necklace, this separates him from the other members of the band. Through the narrative the people of the stills are wearing the stereotypical clothing for what they are representing, for example the army people wearing army clothing and the poor wearing not very good quality clothing.

For the performance the lighting is daylight, it is very high-key which makes it more aesthetically pleasing than the stills which are much darker and lower key.

The props used by the band are those which are generic conventions of rock, instruments including 3 guitars and 1 set of drums. The props from the narrative relate to the themes of the song well, there are water bottles, bullets, rubbish heaps, hospital equipment and fire gear.

The setting is a natural environment which is associated with peace, this is the message that the video is trying to put across to the audience. I feel that the lone tree next to them adds to how vast the space around them is and is an effective technique to use. There are numerous different settings for stills varying from train stations to 3rd world country's, this it to emotionally pull in the viewer.

There are lots of fades used to switch between the narrative and the performance and this sets a good pace to the video and it matches well with the tempo of the song. There are many moving camera shots as well as most of the shots of the band being focused on the lead singer which is typical for music videos as they are trying to promote the artist.