The music video for the Foo Fighters’ “Everlong” is a long-time favorite of mine. The song itself has always been dear to me, as it has to millions of other young people who grew up on alternative/2000s rock, and the music video is a perfect match for the song’s grungy, melancholy, nostalgic tone. Watching the music video was always a cathartic kind of experience for me during my adolescence, simultaneously invigorating and calming. I recently rewatched the video after having not seen it for a long while, and I was once again struck by the perfect marriage between the tone of the video and the song’s tone. My slightly older eyes and ears now realize that the video is so encapturing because it puts you in the protagonist’s role, and thus you feel a sense of victory when the protagonist overcomes his challenges and opponents.
I will explain, but first you should see the video for yourself; The Music Video to “Everlong”.
For those of you who haven’t seen the video and don’t want to see it but for some reason want to read my analysis of it, here’s a synopsis: The first 25 seconds of the video is a roaming, black and white view of a quiet suburban night. The song’s hushed instrumental intro plays as the camera goes into a house where our protagonist, Foo-Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, is asleep. The camera zooms in on his head, and the screen fades into color as we enter his dream. At this point we as a viewer unconsciously understand that we are are viewing things from Dave’s perspective. During the first verse Dave, and thus the viewer, saves a girl from some thugs at a house party by slapping them with his oversized hands. In the second verse he does the same thing in a log cabin. A cabin which, by the way, is a homage to the setting from the Evil Dead (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5688654/). In the songs triumphant final chorus we return to Dave’s bedroom where he and his bandmates shed the costumes they’ve been wearing in the video, instruments appear and they jam to the end of the song.
The video is directed by Michel Gondry, who would later go on to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and his surreal style is pervasive throughout the video (http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-10-05/foo-fighters-videography). From the cartoonish costumes, to the scene in a which there is a massive telephone that Dave climbs on, to the wonderful moment where Dave’s bed collapses to reveal that there was a drumset underneath it the whole time, the video takes you to another reality where the normal laws of our world don’t necessarily apply. This otherworldly style is befitting of a “pensive ode to a blossoming romance”, because isn’t the beginning of love rather like being on another planet (https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10473-the-colour-and-the-shape-10th-anniversary-special-edition/)?
Anyway, what makes the video so satisfying is the connection established between the viewer and the protagonist. Because we feel like we’re right there with Dave, we feel the victories that he has against the cartoonish bad guys all the more. The peaks and valleys of the video also follow the song’s contours to a tee. The quiet, tense B-minor verses accompany Dave’s struggles and his girlfriend’s peril, while the jubilant D-major choruses play as he defeats the bad do-ers and jams with his bandmates.
However I know what you, dear reader, have been thinking the whole time you’ve been reading this blog. You’ve been thinking “what did the YouTube commenters have to say about the video”? Well dear reader it is the YouTube comment section so most of the comments were rather pointless, like Leanne Mutis’s all-caps masterpiece; “WHOS WATCHING IN 2017” with no question mark. There were some comments, though, that demonstrate that the music video resonates with other people in the same empowering, if not goofy way it resonates with me. For example unnamed715 says “my favorite part is when he starts b**ch-slapping people with that big a** hand”. User marsh marlou says “I imagine myself driving in a a car with my dog with the windows open and this song blasting” (the double a is their typo not mine). While both of these comments are lighthearted I believe they attest to the energizing experience that watching Everlong’s music video provides.
By some combination of corniness, surrealism, and genuine emotion, the music video to “Everlong” is a perfect match for the song. The campy visual style and sets that don’t look even remotely realistic balance perfectly with the adolescent sincerity of the song and Dave Grohl’s genuine emotion at the end of the video. In short, I believe it is a timeless video, and I hope angsty teenagers of many future generations will find some solace in it.
For further reading on Michel Gondry’s music videos: https://bluechat.io/list/top-ten-music-videos-directed-by-michel-gondry
For More on “Everlong” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9qB2aVamjM
Great job! Having never heard this song before it was great to watch the music video and learn about the song through your post. I really liked that you wrote about your personal connection to this song and how after a few years, your appreciation for the song/video has only grown. I also liked that you included how the musical aspects corresponded to the video, down to the key of the verses! This said, I would have liked to have read how the YouTube comments are specifically reactions to the video, not just the song. It sounded like the comments were very visual and produced a multisensory reaction for them. Why is that so significant? Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and I feel inspired to watch some of their other music videos!