Prop Analysis: Take Me To Church
Ultimately, the video is about two people in a same-sex relationship. The conflict which evolves in the narrative is within the community's disapproval over that relationship. The Cut puts the video meaning this way: 'The song serves simultaneously as a message about human rights, a commentary about Hozier's upbringing in what he calls a "cultural landscape that is blatantly homophobic," and a strong statement about the institutional homophobia in Putin's Russia.'
Throughout the video the recurrent prop is a box. It's chained together and we never see the insides of it. Also, in an iterview, the artist, when asked about the meaning of the box in the context of the video, didn't reveal why the box was so important in the narrative: 'I think it's better that it's open for whomever to decide what it means.'
In my opinion, the box represents love in all of its forms - pure, secret, innocent love; struggles, arguments, obstacles, issues with love. It's all chained up to represent how important it is to keep that love safe and guard it from the 'evil' who wants to take it away/destroy it. 'It is said that analysing pleasure, or beauty, destroys it' (Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, 1975) - perhaps that's also the concept behind the box - revealing it's secrets or its meaning might destroy the beauty within it. The use of this prop in the video is very effective because not only it represents a concept, or an interior meaning, but also drives the narrative. As the audience,we eventually expect to find out what's inside of the box and that intrigue is what keeps the attention attracted.
Another important prop used in the video is a Molotov cocktail. As discussed above, the video represents the struggles of the LGBTQ community, especially in places like Russia where people take personal actions and ignore the law to enforce their own beliefs onto people. The use of this prop is quite effective as it is seen as a schocking weapon to use against someone who does not actually pose any threat. We can also see how the camera is handheld to give that extra feeling of danger and urgency.
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TV only appears very briefly in the video, just to serve as a location-setting prop. As the artist have said, the meaning behind the video is closely linked to the occurencies in Russia in regard to the treatment of the LGBTQ community. The TV broadcasts a Gay Parade and the banner says 'Gay people for equal rights; no compromise'. Since TV, and now the internet, play a big part in the society and the way representation and meaning is constructed in media, the use of TV as a prop in the video is relevant because it's the ultimate tool to work as an influence of enforcing social norms.
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As established before, the video explores a lot of social issues and their importance. The significance behind drugs in the video appears to be that people, especially youth and such, often find temporary excape from the use of substances etc. Sine the intent of the video is to make it as schocking and truthful, the use of drugs seems quite effective; perhaps a divison within the audience might appear to those opposing the use of drugs, however, the actual issue seems to be concentrated on the men's sexual orientation rather than their abuse of law.
Overall, I found it immensly interesting to analyse this video in terms of props because it was so concentrated on the messege it wanted to send out to the audience that their use of props was shocking and creative at the same time. I find it riveting and refreshing to see music videos not being afraid of not fitting into the decided conventions and set expectations of their audience. In terms of my learned experience when analysing the videos' props I found that props can be more than supporting reinforcements of the narrative; they can shape meanings with the help of lyrics and even on their own. In conclusion, I am going to look into my music video's song and find where I could represent the issues/themes/context with a creative use of props.
