Viðrar vel til loftárása – Sigur Rós Music Video Analysis

Viðrar vel til loftárása – Sigur Ros

The song Viðrar vel til loftárása  is by an Icelandic post rock band named Sigur Rós and the music video for this song spanwend a whole load of controversy but was critically acclaimed for its cinematic feel. Icelandic directors Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson and Sigurður Kjartansson who have also directed other songs by the band but also for Snow Patrol, Florence and the Machine and the Editors, amongst others. I would say that the video would come under drama and storytelling. The songs actual name comes from a statement by an Icelandic weatherman on TV during the war in Kosovo who (ironically) said ‘í dag viðrar vel til loftárása’ meaning ‘today is good weather for an air strike’.

Lyrics:

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals becomes more difficult to analyse between because it is in Icelandic and therefore when translated, it may miss areas of the language out. At around 2:35 the video displays the dolls flying through the air as they 'flow onwards' and as they leave the frame we see a close up image of the other young boy turn away as the camera turns to the hooked fish, referring to the 'swim'. Overall however, there is generally a lack of lyrics throughout the song and a lot of it is instrumentals to what resembles a poem more than a song.

Music:

The music in the song starts off with a soft piano tune as the young boy is playing with his two dolls, showing calmness around his real self and then the higher pitched strings then enter once the second boy is shown on his own with a dead fish (the acceptable masculine hobby as opposed to playing with the dolls) and this could be to indicate his unhappiness with trying to hide his true self (as will be revealed later in the video).

The vocals to the song then later come in as the father comes down and throws the dolls in the water, as the music video then shows the boy screaming and the vocals essentially dub over this part and it work well in terms of contrast because his soft and tender vocals is juxtaposed with the visuals of the boy screaming. 

The music then also slows down it's tempo and the vocals cut in the scene where the other boy hands him back his dolls that he got out of the water, and it comes back just after the slow motion close up of the two boys hands touching.

The run up to the goal the music's tempo slows down and from this point onwards in the music video there are no more vocals and as the goal is scored and the ball is seen going into the net, the instruments all pick up after the moment of tension leading up to the goal. This shows how vital and important the goal is just as a symbol of pride of the young boys.

Artists:

You would not actually realise but the band is actually featured in disguise throughout the music video ( Jónsi is the football coach, Orri is the scorekeeper, Georg is the referee, and Kjartan is one of the spectators). I think the reason that they were not actually featured in it is because they had already made their success and fame with the album 'Ágætis byrjun' in 1999 and this music video wasn't released until late 2001. They also don't feature in other of their music videos and so therefore this one was a first in terms of the band acting in their own music video for them. 

Jonsi as the coach

You can see here that they do not feature in other music videos such Hoppipolla

Reference to looking:

Because this music video was set in the 1950's, there is no feature of computer monitors and phones and because of the nature of the video featuring mainly older men and young boys there is no sense of sexual display. However, the two main characters, the homosexual boys seem to show acts of love toward one another (e.g. giving the dolls back) but this is different, to say one of Pitbull's music videos:

Intertextual references:

I spotted very little references to anything else other than one scene which featured Sigur Ros' album artwork for Ágætis byrjun. The fetus design is used on one of the bottles of which one of the boys drinks from.

I would say that the music video is predominantly narrative-based but with slight elements of performance with all the members of the band acting in the music video but in cameo, as opposed to stereotypical music videos where the band simply performs. The performance is clear as it is attempting to make a point about homosexuality in 1950's Iceland in a very religious community, Jonsi is openly gay and clearly had an input into this video. The use of two innocent young boys is what spawned a lot of controversy surrounding the video but overall the video was composed in a beautiful way that made the audience look down upon those who judge homosexuality and I'm fairly certain that they were pleased with the fact that this brought about a lot of controversy back in 2002 when it was voted 'Best Music Video'.