Florence and the Machine - Rabbit Heart (Music Video Analysis)

ACT: Florence and the MachineTRACK: Rabbit HeartYEAR: 2009DIRECTOR: Tom Beard, Queens of Noize's TabithaGENRE: Indie, Rock, Pop
MAIN AUDIENCE: 15-35LYRICS






Rabbit Heart is the fourth sin from Florence’s debut album, Lungs and reached 12th in the UK singles chart after being released on 22nd June 2009. The genre of the song is classified as indie pop on the music site last.fm and alternative in the iTunes music store. 

Pace and Shots

The video opens with a extreme close up of Florence mouth with the rest of her face covered by a piece of see through material which has sequins at the end, again this gives the ideology of purity a woman unveiling her face. The camera then pans out then pans outwards towards Florence and she lifted the material from her face. This captures the audience interest as the video opens. Tracking shots, close ups and medium close up’s are regularly used throughout the music video making Florence constantly the centre of the audience’s attention. 

The rhythm of the song is slower than most of Florence and The Machine Videos. The combined shots with the filter used on the camera and the occasional use of the fade transition gives the music video a dated video signifying its in the past and part of her life and is used well to get this across.


Performance and Narrative


The video follows a narrative structure with Florence singing in a field accompanied by a number of actors and dancers. The theme seems to collaborated with a spiritual ritual that appears within the video, where the actors, dancers are seen dancing and having a feast which at this point the food is thrown from a table to the floor and finally Florence is boxed into a coffin and wrapped with a white cloth which is a symbolic reference to purity which could fit into to Bathes theory of symbolic code and semantic meaning. The coffin is then pushed into the river floating peaceful away, which a signifier reference, to a Biblical story or ancient Burials like the Romans and the Greeks. These Spiritual and ancient themes relate back to the lyrics “ we raise it up, this offering, we raise it up” as well as the songs chorus and title. This also relates to the relationship between the visuals and lyrics. 

Relationship between Visuals and Lyrics

Only one musical instrument from the song appears in the video. A man in a suit playing a harp appears immediately we are transport to a fairy tale of sorts creating a peaceful and harmonious background and themes, fitting along side the lyrics and meaning. Two other instruments are used in the video but are only used as props to aid the narrative and meaning within the contextual themes.

Locations

The location of the video is down by a river and around a grassy patch either a garden or field. This gives the video a more natural feel and slow vibe to it giving the preferred reading of a spiritual between her and the song. 

Props

A number of props appear in the video, most notably is the ending where Florence is carried towards the riverbank and pushed out onto the water. This makes the whole theme and ceremony of spirituality, purity and ancient rituals look like a joyful and Harmonious occasion as the singing and dancing takes centre stage. The rhythm of the song is slower than most of Florence and The Machine Videos. The combined shots with the filter used on the camera and the occasional use of the fade transition gives the music video a dated video signifying its in the past and part of her life and is used well to get this across.