Matters At All - Kids in Glass Houses

The music video for ‘Matters At All’ by Kids in Glass Houses has a balance between narrative and performance. For the first half of the music video the narrative is a very generic ‘boy meets girl’ story, but has a twist at the end which correspond with earlier shots but is seen from a different perspective.  This twist makes the video far more interesting and impressive, which in turn makes the song and band more memorable.

The setting of the performance takes place in a large, spacious room with brick walls. Alongside the instruments there seems to be furniture covered over by sheets – as if the room had been abandoned. This doesn’t reflect the narrative, which suggests that it may be linked to the lyrics which seem to echo the setting as it appears to be about a former relationship which has yet to be forgotten.

The lighting in the performance aspects of this video is very dark as it is lit by separate lamps and spotlights instead of the room’s normal light source. The lead vocalist is introduced when he is illuminated by the lamp beside him as he begins singing the first verse. The lamps allow silhouettes of the band to be made, which adds to the mysterious aspects of the performance and is emphasised by the shady and empty room.

The clothing which the band is wearing is for the most part very dark and casual. The dark clothing, pared with the dull lighting allows the band to blend into the background – which could suggest that the band doesn’t want to be the main focus of the video. The plain clothing is similar to other indie-rock artists, who also dress relatively plainly; this could also be due to the band wishing to be secondary to the music video.

The quickest moment in the music video is the rewind effect at the beginning of the music video, which draws the audience’s attention to the narrative instantly as it takes them back to the beginning of the narrative. The rewind effect is also used when the band first enters the room for the performance, which connects the two aspects. There are many quick-cuts, especially when the pace of the music video picks up. The pace of each individual shot is far slower during the narrative than in the performance, which keeps the audiences focus on the narrative, without the performance aspects seeming tedious due to the speed which they change. The shots flit between the narrative and performance often and it’s rare that there is one piece of narrative next to another, this makes the different shots seem like they are moving faster and keeps the suspense up. 

I found that with this video it appeals to our target audience of teenagers as the band members in the video are also very young - which allows them to become a role-model for the boys and a subject of romantic interest for a girl. 

From this video we would like to replicate certain aspects:

• The use of narrative and performance as our music video type - the hybrid video seems to be the most popular music video type for the indie-rock genre.
• The dark lighting during the performance as it is common in most indie-rock music videos we have looked at so far - it got a lot of praise in the feedback and if done correctly could make the video more eye-catching overall.
• The pace of the narrative as it allows the audience to follow the story-line easily, however we have to keep in mind whether it would become tedious.
• The unique narrative to keep the audience engaged and allows the band to stand out - we would like to use an interesting plot twist at the end to keep the audience thinking about it in the future. 

From the feedback I have found that the music video appeals more to girls than boys, which matches our target audience. There was a mixed response on the performance aspects and the pace of the video, for example how the video cuts in a similar fashion throughout which allows the pace to become tedious. However, a particular aspect which is liked is the dark colour scheme when the band is performing - the dark and muted colours catch the audience's attention as it is dramatic and matches the darker sense of the narrative itself. 

Another aspect which is liked is the twist in the narrative at the end - which in turn makes the video far more memorable and therefor the song.  

By Rebecca Gatfield