The 1975 released a music video for the track “Love It If We Made It” on Oct. 15. Written by lead singer Matty Healy and directed by Adam Powell, the video expands upon the millennial angst present in the song’s lyrics.
The entire video is a compilation of short clips superimposed with a blinding array of neon colors. The effects of the colors are quite beautiful—and give the video that familiar The 1975 aesthetic—although they can be slightly jarring. The video even comes with the warning: “This video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.”
These clips not only depict colorful silhouettes of The 1975’s members playing and dancing to the song, but they also show glimpses of various current events and pop culture references. The beauty of the vibrant colors filtered over the video is juxtaposed by both the content of the clips—which show violence, pollution, protests, destruction, and much more—and the stylistic glitches and distortions during the transitions.
Each of the clips is quite short and choppy, but their brevity is not to be mistaken for a lack of significance. Every one contains a cultural reference or actual footage of current events.
A minute into the video, Healy belts the iconic lyric “modernity has failed us.” In the background is Harvey Weinstein walking with a police escort. In October of 2017, allegations of sexual assault and sexual abuse surfaced from dozens of women against Weinstein. He denied the accusations but was later arrested, charged with rape and numerous offenses, and released on bail.
Nearly three minutes into the video, Brett Kavanaugh, the newly appointed Supreme Court justice, is shown giving a speech with President Donald Trump standing just behind him. As this image is shown, Healy mutters “liberal kitsch.” This lyric combined with the clip of Kavanaugh is referring to the right-wing response to the left-wing discontent surrounding Kavanaugh.
Healy then snarls the rest of the bridge’s lyrics before aggressively belting, “I moved on her like a bitch,” a direct quote from Trump in a TV interview back in 2005. This is just one of numerous misogynistic comments that the current president has made against women. The clip of him jumps to footage of anti-Trump protests requesting his impeachment as Healy continues with the lyric, “Excited to be indicted.”
These just being three of the most recent and politically significant references, the entire “Love It If We Made It” video is packed with footage and comments on the state of today’s world. The video has an eye-popping, multicolored composition, and the lyrics are an aggressive, angsty chant. Together, they combine to form a spectacular video that is not only consists of a fun piece of electro-pop, but contains important commentary on the failures of modern society.
Featured Image by Polydor Records
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