Music video narrative analysis (All American Rejects - Gives You Hell)

Music video narrative analysis

The video is set up to have different scenes, these scenes are the events of the night and the day. The lyrics goes with what is happening on screen and the narrative of the video, we first see this when he sings ‘I wake up every evening, with a big smile on my face’ and the video shows him waking up in the evening and him sitting up smiling. We know it is the evening as it is dark, the alarm clock shows it and we see his neighbors saying goodnight to each other.

The next notable part is when the chorus comes in which says:

‘When you see my face 

Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell’

This does not completely match up to what is being shown but it does to the narrative, in the video we see the band playing their instruments and this is still at night. Although nobody is ‘seeing his face’ or ‘walking his way’ the neighbors still have to go through ‘hell’ in not getting any sleep because of the noise they are making.

The next verse and scene shows the next day and the neighbors are cleaning the car, the neighbor is also singing some of this verse. The lyrics say:

‘Now where's your picket fence love

And where's that shiny car’

This shows that the neighbor is taunting him about how he has a much better life and better material goods.

The next chorus are the same lyrics:

‘When you see my face 

Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell’

But this time it is still in the day and the neighbor is getting revenge on the sleeping man by turning his music up while he is washing his car, waking up the sleeping man and causing him to come out. When he does this the neighbor does some insulting gestures with a hose to basically say ‘two can play at that game.’

Each scene is the next part of the day where they are getting revenge on one another. The next scene is the night time and the neighbors are playing operation and the man is stood on a lawnmower out side being driven about while playing the guitar causing the man who is playing operation to constantly mess up and hit the sides causing the game to buzz. He does not like this and thinks he needs to get revenge. The lyrics for this verse are:

Tomorrow you'll be thinking to yourself

Where'd it all go wrong?

But the list goes on and on

This does not represent what is on the screen but does show that the ‘night’ man is now getting in some taunting of his own.

The next scene is once again the day time and the neighbor is looking for revenge by waking up the sleeping man for two days in a row. The chorus is now playing and the lyrics are still the same, showing the rivalry to between the two. The neighbor is setting up some mirrors outside to shine the light of the sun in to the bedroom of the sleeping man, once again waking him.

The next scene is the conclusion to the battle with the night man taking it to the next level. The lyrics are:

Now you'll never see

What you've done to me

You can take back your memories

They're no good to me

And here's all your lies

You can't look me in the eyes

With the sad, sad look

That you wear so well

When you see my face

Hope it gives you hell

Hope it gives you hell

When you walk my way

Hope it gives you hell

Hope it gives you hell

When you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well

Then he's a fool you're just as well

Hope it gives you hell.

The first half of the lyrics are sang by the usual man but the second half which is the ‘next level’ I have mentioned is sang by many people using megaphones and speakers.

The final chorus comes on while the other neighbor storms out of his house in a complete outrage and has an argument about all the noise. The video ends with the two girlfriends/wives swapping houses and boys. They then live happily ever after.