Music video narrative analysis

Arctic Monkeys- Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re HighThe music video starts with all four of the band members in a bar, with one of their other songs from the album playing in the background. The close up of the clock at the start shows that the front man (who is the main focus in this video) is currently drunk as it morphs into a smiling face, the key point which links to the lyrics is when he pulls out his phone to text someone, as he is currently under the influence and is trying to contact someone.

Before the leaving the bar Alex walks into the bathroom, a medium shot shows Alex looking into a mirror, which then strengthens the idea that Alex is on some sort of drug as hallucinations of himself appear in the mirror, added with slow motion to further strengthen the previous mentioned desired effect.

As he leaves the bar the lyrics that can be heard are ‘tells me it’s home time’ which relates back to the music video as he is exiting the building. It then continues with ‘now it’s three in the morning’, which could relate to the time in the video itself, we see from the setting and lighting that it takes part at some point during the night, with also the use of the prop mobile phone indicating the time as he endlessly contacts Stephanie.

It then continues with the front man Alex Turner continuously hallucinating the girl that he is texting, strengthening the idea that he is currently high. Three quarters of the way through the video, a break in the song occurs as Alex falls and appears to be cemented into the pavement, again strengthening the fact he is currently on some sort of drug as well as drunk, this part after is not linked to the song as the lyrics stop, slow motion then occurs as he is confronted by a man.

The director, to imitate a state of high uses slow motion; it’s also used to engage the audience into feeling how Alex is feeling as he wanders the streets. Throughout the director is making it well known to the audience that Alex is high with vivid hallucinations and the performance of Alex also shows this as he stumbles his way down a dark road filled with a wide variety of people, most not taking too kindly to Alex. As the end of the video nears, it becomes apparent that he is going to the person’s house who he has been trying to contact (Stephanie), the lyrics ‘you said you gotta be up in the morning, gonna have an early night’ suggest why she is not replying to him as he arrives at what he thinks to be her door. The shaky canted camera technique used reflects the way in which Alex is presenting himself, struggling to stand straight and still for more than a moment.

However because of the state he is in he doesn’t realize that he has the wrong house. A high angle zoom out shot is used from an opposite bedroom which is revealed to be that of Stephanie’s, again props paying an important role as the last lyric ‘why’d you only ever phone me when you’re high’ is sung as she checks her phone to see the 17 messages that have been left by Alex.

Suggesting this is exactly what she is thinking as she sees the messages. The video in short follows Alex’s ‘trip’ as he persistently tries to contact Stephanie, judging by the song title and also Stephanie’s performance at the end as her body language shows she is fed up, this is not the only time this has happened.

The single cover for this song links with the title of the song as the prop, which is mainly focused on throughout the video, which is the mobile phone, takes up the whole image. However instead of the generic numbers and letters on the number 4, the letters spell out ‘high’, which is included in the song title. The purpose of this could be to strengthen the song title that

Alex persistently tries to contact Stephanie or maybe even a number of other people. ‘Why’d you only call me when you’re high’ is very

much represented in this image and there is a clear correlation between the two, however there is no definitive link with the album cover itself. The album cover does link in with another song from the album but not any other of the songs as much, as the sound waves are projected onto the title song of the album video. The cover of the single does in fact tell a slight story that when using the phone high he will try to contact people he does not normally speak to.