Moaning Lisa Smile music video analysis

For one of my music video analyses I decided to go with Moaning lisa smile by the band Wolf Alice. I found this video the most interesting because it seemed to follow a particular narrative about the girl who features in the video. The video starts off with a wide shot of a house, which we can presume is the characters, and then several other shots of other locations, only 1-2 seconds long even before any music starts. At this moment, we only hear slight buzzing along with the ambient sounds of birds chirping and cars driving past. After this, the music starts and we are introduced to the main character who is shown in a wide shot in her back yard. This particular bit is interesting as a record player is introduced and as she puts the arm on to make it play, the tempo increases as the main guitar is introduced to give it an upbeat atmosphere. We are then shown a variety of shots of the female dancing, which seems to be paced with the beats of the song as it quickly continues to the first verse of singing vocals.

At this point, we are shown a back of the head shot of the female character walking as the first lyrics "Clinging to love, escape a father and mother" are brought into it. The verses are quite slow as we see the character walking somewhere, we presume it is the main part of the narrative as the tempo immediately increases as she arrives in a building of dancing women. The upbeat chorus and guitar riffs give the video a sense of "rock" which swiftly links into the bands genre of alternative rock and keeps the audience interested as we wonder about the narrative of women dancing and where it's going.

The chorus is then introduced as we start to understand what exactly is occurring in the story the video is telling. We see several groups of women taking part in their own dance routines but all with something different about them, as the main character goes up to one of the groups in a medium shot and a facial expression showing she's slightly hesitant of them. The next shot we see is off the group of girls, they have no dialogue but shake their heads meaning no. We begin to understand that the female wishes to join a dance group but is being turned down, and as the video continues and she's turned down by several other groups; she sit's slouched disappointed at which point the tempo decreases showing a slight turning point in the storyline.

As the relatively slow second verse is introduced, we see a close up of the main character who by her facial expression, is hosting negative feelings about the situation, as she has been rejected several times. This soon changes when the chorus bounces back as a group approach her who host a slightly odd feel about them. This shows an apparent change in the narrative, as things start looking up.

The setting changes to an outside location, after the character and the group who approached her seem to be doing a dance routine of their own. We now feel the narrative has reached a turning point as after being rejected many times, she's finally joined a group. A pan shot of the group is shown as everyone is walking by each other and we see each one as the camera moves from left to right. The main character is in the middle of these, perhaps showing that she has gained confidence and is an overall climax to the story because she has suddenly gotten what she wanted. The lyrics, "it's time to glow, lose your way" play here, showing that it's the groups time to dance and prove everybody wrong, including the people who refused to have the character in their group in the first place.

The next and final scene in the video portray the setting of a dance competition room with a stage and judging panel opposite. We first see a wide shot of another group dancing which escalates to close ups of the judges facial expressions, harbouring what we can tell are quite nonchalant feelings, as they hold up scores on a piece of card. As the bridge of the song plays, the group enter the stage with quite a vibrant and bold out fits, linking into the mise-en-scene. We are introduced to a pan shot of the lower half of the characters legs as they are dressed in high boots and colourful pants. The previous "nonchalant" expressions from the judges soon changes, as the elderly woman judge seems to hold forward her glasses in confusion, and the judge on the left looking shocked. The group begin dancing, as we discover the main character with a completely changed look to what we presume is to fit in with the groups look.

The bridge lyrics stating "It never is enough No, it never is enough" could link with the narrative, as the female character who wanted nothing more than to fit in and be part of a dance group has realised it's simply not important anymore, and is left feeling down as the song fades to an end and holds a bearing smile to the judges, who still remain in shock. Overall, the video harbours a very interesting narrative, which seems to be in pace with the song. For example, the high parts of the story were often paired with the high tempo chorus, which made it more interesting to watch. It had a variety of shots and filming locations and offered several meanings to the lyrics as it could be interpreted in many ways.