coldplay – the scientist - stanford...

COLDPLAY – THE SCIENTIST Fanny Chen

COLDPLAY

British alternative rock band

Formed in 1996

Four-man band

Chris Martin (lead vocalist and piano)

Jonny Buckland (guitar)

Guy Berryman (bass)

Will Champion (drums)

Top of music charts for over a decade

THE SCIENTIST

From the album A

Rush of Blood to the

Head

Released in 2002

Music video directed

by Jamie Thraves

Won 3 MTV music

video awards

Reverse narrative

Filmed in London and

Bourne Woods

OVERVIEW

Words: urgent, imploring, wistful

“…back to the start”; “nobody said it was easy.”

Romantic relationship

“That's just about girls. It's weird that whatever else

is on your mind, whether it's the downfall of global

economics or terrible environmental troubles, the

thing that always gets you most is when you fancy

someone.” – Chris Martin on “The Scientist”

Not a storytelling

OVERVIEW

Music: simplicity complexity

Begins with piano ballad; small range of pitches

Ends with piano, guitar, keyboard, vocals; wide range

of pitches; fuller sound

Predictable

Consistent rhythmic pulse

Repetitive melodic lines

Follows verse-chorus-verse-chorus format

OVERVIEW

Images: backward storytelling

Carefreeness

Terrible tragedy

Carefreeness

Director’s intention

“I had this idea that I wanted to do a story that’s tragic but starts off happy and ends happy, and the video is about rewinding to that happy ending” – Jamie Thraves

OVERVIEW

All three components generally go different

directions

Music: constant forward progression

Words: little progression

Images: constant backward “full-circle” progression

Counterpoint brings out themes

Puzzles

Love vs. Science

Relational hardships

MOMENT 1 – REVELATION

0:27 - 0:41

http://youtu.be/RB-RcX5DS5A?t=27s





Words

“Oh, let’s go back to the start”

Music

Simple, only vocals and piano

Innocent, pure, genuine

Images

Jerky, unnatural movements

Gravity-defying “leap” from mattress; backwards

bicycling

relaxed withdrawn


Setting: city, graffitied building

Body position:


Overall effect

Beginning of the resolution to a mystery

Reveals direction to the rest of the piece

“I want to go back to where I belong”

Mattress has associations with home and safety, but

juxtaposed to someplace clearly not his home. Also, sense of

discomfort and unsettlement from change in body posture.

“let’s go back to the start.”

Raw, emotional vocals

Suggests that the person he loves is where he feels at home,

at peace, and secure

Immediately intriguing, pulls viewer into story

MOMENT 2 – JOURNEY

1:51 – 2:05

http://youtu.be/RB-RcX5DS5A?t=1m51s





Words

“Questions of science, science and progress/Do not

speak as loud as my heart”

Music

Added instruments

More colors, depth

Images

Sudden cut from neighborhood to railroad tracks

Abandoned, desolate, higher risk setting

Not mouthing words

Introduction of shadows that darken his face/white

shirt


“Questions of science…”

“… do not

speak as loud

as my heart.”


Overall effect

Contrast to previous scene – attention-grabbing

Heart is stronger than rationality.

Shadows

Railroad tracks

Lack of mouthing words vs. lyrics

Increased fullness/color in sound – moving forward

Foreshadows accident

MOMENT 3 – THE START

3:00 – 4:25

http://youtu.be/RB-RcX5DS5A?t=3m





Words

“I’m going back to the start”

Decisive, resolute, declarative

Music

Fully transitioned from piano ballad to guitar-driven

instrumental with full band

Vocals drop out, then come back in with melismatic

ooh’s

Musical climax

Resolves with softer dynamics and an ending chord

that still involves whole band


Images

dynamic/explosive, visual climax of the accident

taking place

Girl took off seatbelt to put on jacket

Ends in a state of calm and carefreeness again (notice

color of lady’s shirt – parallels to white color of

Chris’s shirt in the beginning)


Overall effect

Dramatic, conclusive ending

Words introduce scene, music and images piece

together the tragic ending/beginning to the story and

the emotions

In context of images, falsetto ooh’s are haunting and

mournful

Powerful, poignant, brings viewer back to the start of

both the story and the music video

FINAL THOUGHTS

Personal take-away

Reverse narrative super effective

Relationships are complex and unpredictable

Can’t trust rationality all the time – sometimes you

need to trust in love

Cultural context

In a culture where relationships form and break just

like that, “The Scientist” flips the paradigm that love

is volatile and suggests that love is something

constant that keep people together even when it

doesn’t make sense.

coldplay – the scientist - stanford...

Documents