In Avicii’s, “Wake Me Up,” music video the plot revolves around a
woman, (presumably of a more liberal approach to life, and, perhaps a single
mother style than the town she resides in) and her daughter who feel like
misfits in the small, country town that they live in. When they walk down the
streets; the camera angles are extreme close-ups of country folks staring at
them judgmentally, in a fearful way. Then, the mother decides to ride her horse
out of the town and enter the city where she meets a woman who seems accepting,
and similar to her, and eventually follows her to an Avicii concert, with
thousands of people dancing together. She comes back to the town to pick up her
child and they move away. After analyzing the symbols in the music video using
a semiotic approach, the video appears to reinforce a cultural preference of
youth and the “new” to traditional, conservative, and, as suggested, outdated
lifestyles, and hence, reinforcing a society built on entertainment and
consumerism. White
is a significant color which continually re-appears in the music video both in
prominent and subtle form. It begins in the music video with the mother and
daughter lying on a white bed, asleep. They are both wearing white as well.
White, in the United States culture at least, symbolizes innocence, purity.
Additionally, it is often spiritually associated with God. In the video, we see
a long shot of the country town that these two reside in—including landscape
and their house. It is meant to look isolated, and that mood is suggestive of
the mother and daughter. When we see the white color on the sheets and
themselves, we may think of them as innocent, but taken with the rest of the
video, it may symbolize a new beginning since they end up leaving the
conservative, rural town. Simultaneously, when they are walking through town,
the mother is wearing darker clothes, and the daughter is wearing white. The
townspeople are also wearing mostly white. Because
of this, it conveys that the mother, or perhaps, even older sister, is
“rebellious.” If she has a child and is unwed, she is certainly all the more
devious, according to these citizens. White also promotes rebellion; later, the
white is repeatedly shown as the road dashes leading towards the city, on an
open road. These road dashes also connect with the Avicii symbol because they
convey the idea of movement and the process of change, the freedom of the open
road, exploration and the “new,” an idea which is associated with a rebellion
of conservative, traditional values like raising a family. Instead, this
promotes a more “devil may care” attitude, often which we associate with
teenage and young adults. In contrast,
the theme of darkness is carried onto her when she attends the Avicii concert.
The white color has both an innocent and rebellion connotation, but together,
the black and white signs enable and promote youth culture over old. The
logo of Avicii (two triangles in opposite directions) I suppose, also signals
rebellion because it is a tattoo on many of the people. The arrows recall a
directional symbol as used, perhaps when driving, like a crossroads symbol.
Therefore it becomes a sign of order, as if a strict decision must be made
between going left or right, as if the center leads nowhere. Following Beasley
and Danesi’s research: “As mentioned previously(1.2.1) this technique can be
called connotative chaining because
each signifier evokes a connotation which in turn evokes another, and then
anther after that and so on” (“Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising,”
47). Using this idea, we can say that crossroads could symbolize a crossroads
in life, meaning someone needs to make a decision as to where they stand. Here
they may either stay where they are, judged and ridiculed, or move elsewhere to
“someone we belong,” as the mother tells her daughter.Simultaneously,
because the two triangles are together, it conveys a preference for both ways,
as if either way does not necessarily matter. In that way, the symbol is
rebellious because it does not necessarily follow traditional conceptual values
and morals indicative of a single wrong or right way.
In summation, this video ultimately
criticizes traditional values which appear to diminish a more liberal and
innovative way of thinking. Here, the video is claiming that people “Wake Up”
to a new lifestyle which is (because of the concert) exciting, vivid, unknown
and more seemingly alive. It is geared towards youth and youth culture, the rapid
development of entertainment, fashion, and, finally, in order to obtain these
things, a consumerist culture.
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