When The Sun Goes Down - Arctic Monkeys

"When The Sun Goes Down" by The Arctic Monkeys is a typically indie song and video about the Manchester underworld. To highlight this, the establishing shot is a black screen with white writing entitled; "...Right beside us are the ones hidden by the night.." These words link directly to the theme of the Manchester criminal underworld (mainly pimps, prostitutes, drugs and violence) aswell as the chorus line of the song "They say it changes when the sun goes down" meaning how unsafe things become once nightfall comes. To compliment this brutal image of the Northern underclass, a voiceover of a womans voice can be heard selling herself. She is introduced in the next shot as the lyrics mention a girl. This theme of the lyrics connecting themselves strongly to the image presented is a reccuring theme throughout the video as often, characters are introduced in the video when in the song. As the song is written in a narrative style, the video copies this to compliment the musics meaning and one of the ways it does this is to connect the images to the lyrics sang. Throughout, characters are introduced through the lyrics to give the audience an indication of who is who and what part they play in this narrative tale. Whilst both the video and the music song are narrative in a sense, the video features a certain circular theme, (i.e. similar shots are played at the end that were played at the beginning) hinting that nothing has changed towards the end of the song, and there is no happy ending. Whilst the focus throughout the video is on the main characters, (actors and actresses who seemingly play parts relating to the music song) the band are briefly seen (and the lead singer plays a brief part as a stranger who turns down the prostitutes offers) to indentify to the audience what bands music the video is of. Aswell as the lyrics connecting to the video, the music and its pace correlates to the pace of the video to once again, compliment the song. As the chorus of the song sets in and the beat goes fast, the shots become more frantic and frequent with one long shot from the view of somebody sitting in a car, sped up to make the image seem blurred, hazy and frantic. By doing this, the audience gets a feel for the emotions played in the song and easily relates them to the music playing. The setting throughout is based in a predominately working class area (presumably in Blackpool as shots feature similar to that of the Blackpool lights) and shots often features the worst areas of these particular areas (including graffiti, high rise flats and back alleys). This is designed to highlight the underclass and grime, presumably giving to the audience a dark and sinister feel. In correlation to this, most shots are featured at night time or in a dark or grey lighting and the weather is either winter or autumn to symbolise the darkness of the music video's themes, or the lack of happiness present. In contrast to this however, certain shots (of a magician or presumable friend of the prostitute) are played in bright or deep colours (such as reds, golds and pinks) to imply to the audience of the characters good nature and to contrast against the darkness of the prostitute throughout, and her "pimp".