Week 9 Video Reviews
Everybody Hurts
Artist's Name:
R.E.M. was one of the first American alternative rock bands.
Song Title:
"Everybody Hurts"
CD/Album Title
Automatic for the People
Year
1992
Record Company
Warner Bros.
Director
Jake Scott
Narrative of Video:
The camera is obviously in a vehicle that is moving along a highway as the opening of the video is of the highway moving past. The camera moves to the tires of a car and then inside to a man who is driving the car. The camera shifts to the back of the driver's head and then onto a male passenger in the back seat. The words of the first line of the song appear on the screen. The camera moves to a passenger in the front seat. The camera moves to an overhead shot of cars stopped on a bridge. The words of the song appear on the screen. The camera moves back to the original car and focuses on the driver. The next shot is of a woman driving another of the cars. The video continues to show different drivers of different cars. Words continue to show on the screen. The words seem to depict what the person in the shot is thinking or feeling. The camera continues to pan from one car to another. It stops on a younger boy and the words "They're going to miss me" show on the screen. A truck driver is shown and the words "17 years" can be seen on the screen. The camera continues to pan along to different vehicles. A shot of a male standing on top of an overpass is seen. He is dropping pieces of paper from it. The camera returns to the people in the various cars. When the song comes to the part "everybody hurts" that lyric is shown on the screen. The scene changes to the lead singer of R.E.M. who is out of the car. He is walking along between the cars. The words showing on the screen are a combination of the lyrics to the song and the feelings/thoughts of people inside the cars as the camera moves past one of them. The words displayed are in Spanish. The camera alternates between the singer and people in the different vehicles. The words change back into English. The singer starts to show emotion on his face. The camera moves from him to the people in the different cars again and once again shows what they are thinking/feeling. When the song reaches the part "Hold On", the singer starts singing. The people in the vehicles open their doors and start getting out of them. The camera moves high overhead so that all of the people can be seen walking on the bridge. The video ends with the sound of a news woman who is reporting how approximately 300 or 400 people got out of their vehicles and started to walk. The camera moves higher to what seems to be a helicopter. The shot shows cars stopped on one side of the highway and cars moving on the other.
How the Music and Video Relate:
The video does an excellent job of emphasizing the words of this song.
Review:
This no frills video does a very good job of spotlighting the words to this song. The way the video focuses on other people and displays the words of what they might be thinking or what they might be feeling on the screen shows that everyone is the same inasmuch as they all have times in their lives when things aren't going well. This does a great job of providing more meaning to the words "everybody hurts sometimes" and takes the song to a level where it can help people rather than just entertain them. By including the singer of R.E.M. in the group of people, it ties the band into the normal everyday crowd and conveys the message that they also have problems sometimes.