Foo Fighters-Everlong (2009) Music Video Analysis Essay Example

This essay I will be analyzing the Foo Fighters-Everlong (2009) music video. Which was  Directed by Michel Gohdry. I will be analyzing Mise-en-scene. This will be concentrated on props, characters and setting/set design which will explore aspects of nostalgia, divorce and love. 

This song was written by Dave Grohl and used a guitar rift he had come up with recording his song ratchet monkey. Dave was trying to record his debut album with the foo fighters when he received an envelope at the studio of his wife's divorce request. During this time Dave was living at a friend's house. He quote that “I wasn't sad or happy I was just confused” As during this time dave was falling in love with another woman Louise Post and this song is seen to be Daves confrontation with the idea of falling in love again but now knowing after his wife that it wasn't always going to be good and would not last forever.

This music video is effective in telling this story in a “Serial” manner. Michel Gohdry rather than conveying the underlying themes of the song in a literal way Michel uses Mise-en-scene to revoke emotions and themes relating to the song. A good example of this is the use of picture frames in the opening of the video. Picture frames are nostalgia fuel since they are literally images from the past. I think this was to show how even though Dave wanted to fall for this other woman, He still had emotional baggage from his last relationship. “Nostalgia is sentimentality for the past, typically for a particular period or place with positive associations, but sometimes also for the past in general, ‘the good old days of yore” this quote from The Meaning of Nostalgia | Psychology Today summerise’s the use of nostalgia in this media well as he has nostalgia of feeling the same way about his wife but in the end this feeling began to fade. 

Also the plot of his wife needing saving is a plot of some sort constructed in his psyche that he could always be there for her and save the day even overcoming temptations as seen in the scene when he is surrounded by women. Which he fights off to end up saving her, This also shows you an insight of how Dave sees women as a damsel and distress and needing save. This could possibly be a bad trait of Dave’s showing a potentail reason why his wife divorced him.

I think why this music video is so popular is that it uses Michel Gohdrys distinktive surrealist style to convey a story that is based upon memories and feelings. Surrealism is based upon this idea that there is meaning in the parts of our brains that we don't control such as memories and feelings and dreams (which is one of the main plots of the whole video) and thats why its the perfect way to translate the themes of the song(divorces love ) by using nostalgia and surrealistic art to convey these emotions in an abstract way.