Research - Take Me To Church

Case Study 1

Take Me To Church - Hozier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVjiKRfKpPI

Take Me To Church is a narrative music video telling a story about the Catholic Church's discrimination against any homosexuality. It highlights the lack of understanding and prejudice held within the Catholic society and church in general, the struggles with passion and religion during our era. Hozier was frustrated with the Catholic Church, having grown up himself as a Protestant Quaker, for altering and manipulating the Irish social values and decided to use the music video to target the issue. The music video has a sense of realism which alongside the lyrics, create a moving atmosphere to the song, promoting change and action to be taken against this harsh reality.

The video has been shot in a naturalistic narrative style, setting the focus on reality and the message that is being portrayed rather than trying to impress an audience. They are definitely targeting a mixture of an audience- of people who are uneducated about identities, including Catholic's who discriminate against the LGBTQ community to make them see how extreme their teachings can become in certain situations, and anyone who is currently going through any form of discrimination themselves. Hozier is trying to reach a wide audience to make as many people as possible empathise for actions such as these and to take a stand. The whole video has been edited to a black and white palette reflecting on the serious and dark topic of the narrative.

At the beginning of the video, there is an eye-level wide shot of the fire, a cyclical structure, focusing on the meaning of the fire to the narrative. It foreshadows from the start that the fire will be a key aspect to the story, representing fear, uncertainty and danger. The fire symbolises the conflict against the LGBT community, like a fire that spreads only to become out of control, societies values and teachings spread to become something similarly uncontrollable and fear inducing. The camera has then been edited to focus on the two main characters, running wildly and cycling with fear. As the first man is running, the camera is shaky, reflecting his emotions and showing that he is running from something. As Hozier is singing 'knows everybody's disapproval, there is a close up of the box burning in the fire, further foreshadowing of the reasoning as to why they are suffering and what will happen to the box, before there is another close up of the box being taken and chained up, before it has been burned. The box could symbolise the homosexual characters themselves and how their feelings are having to be locked away and eventually burned out by the haters.

One minute into the video, there is a mid shot of the legs of a group of people all wearing dark clothes and holding weapons, only to switch to a close up of one of their faces. The close up of his eyes shows the anger and danger that he and his gang are about to bring onto the men, the low angle emphasises the power this man holds, making the audience feel threatened and aware that something bad is eventually going to happen within the narrative.

From 2:11, there are two cuts between the violence of the gang breaking into the house and the homosexual couple in an intimate scene, allowing for both sympathy from the audience for the characters who are just in love, and an understanding of discrimination and the dangerous extremes it can become. Much like the attitude towards homosexuality, there is a consistent, non-changing pace of the editing, showing us that nothing changes in the attitudes towards the topic. This switches suddenly to one of the protagonists being dragged along the floor away from the house, shown with the wide shot capturing the villains and victim which adds to the tension and engagement as an audience. The protagonist being dragged along the floor while the gang members are dragging him along shows their juxtaposing levels, reflecting society. Hozier is implying that Catholics hold greater importance and have a higher level of respect in society than any homosexual person does, restrained from sharing love with who they truly care for like any straight Catholic person would.

The closing sequence ends with an over the shoulder shot of one of the protagonists having arrived at the fire, witnessing his partner being beaten beside the fire, from his point of view. The lighting in this scene creates many shadows and darkness, reflecting the mood and serious tone, additionally focusing on the brightness of the fire which could symbolise their love: dangerous. This video doesn't follow genre conventions, being an indie/rock song, they don't include shots of the artist and as the video ends it is abrupt, which isn't typically a convention for indie songs, however is more popular in rock videos, showing us that this song is a hybrid of both. The sudden cut out to black could also represent how the couple's love has suddenly and unfairly been cut off due to the acts of homophobia.

Website Analysis

Hozier's official website has been newly updated to reflect his latest album. As shown, the exact picture used for his album cover has also been zoomed in on and featured on his main website on his web page. The sans serif font for the name of the album has also been used for his page subheadings, creating an overall link between the album and his website. They are central and when you open the page it is the first thing you notice, leaving an impact on the audience. In addition to the matching font, Hozier's signature font has been used for his name, creating the sense of recognition throughout all of his products. This font has been used on the 'Take me to Church' album cover which is another clear link, creating Hozier's image over multiple of his covers. Hozier's album covers tend to be a very alternative style which fits with the indie conventions and can be seen by his website. Despite having a more neutral colour palette, the website focuses on only the most important features and promotes his latest music as well as his individuality as an artist. He has targeted a wide audience but primarily a younger, inquisitive one with his alternative image of the feet only just being shown in the mud. It is a popular convention within indie rock to use clear iconography. The iconography used in the website is the muddy feet in the soil, which creates the typical mysterious style typically used throughout the Indie genre. Hozier has included social media promotion along the bottom of the website, including variety of different links so they are encouraged to interact. They would even possibly press these links in expectance of an explanation or more of an understanding as to why this is the chosen image on the website, leading to more viewers on his video.