I Will Possess Your Heart

This is the first of a series of essays in which I look at music videos as an avenue to expanding the meaning of a song. Thanks to friends who have sent me dozens of recommendations, I have a larger quantity of possibilities than I have time to rewatch and analyze them. Nevertheless, I hope that I can dig something out that people enjoy, even if their suggestion didn't make the cut.

I'm starting with an easy one to try to get myself situated. I selected Death Cab For Cutie's "I Will Possess Your Heart". Below are the video and the lyrics. This particular video is over 8 minutes long, but I think you need to watch it in its entirety before going on.

The Set Up

I've embedded the YouTube version of the song for you to watch. Again, it's a little bit on the long side, but it needs to be watched, not simply listened to.

And, for convenience's sake, the lyrics (found here):

How I wish you could see the potential,
the potential of you and me
It's like a book elegantly bound,
but in a language that you can't read just yet
You gotta spend some time love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find love, I will possess your heart
You gotta spend some time love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find love, I will possess your heart
There are days when outside your window,
I see my reflection as I slowly pass
And I long for this mirrored perspective,
when we'll be lovers, lovers at last
You gotta spend some time love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find love, I will possess your heart
You gotta spend some time love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find love, I will possess your heart
I will possess your heart
I will possess your heart
You reject my advances and desperate pleas
I won't let you, let me down so easily, so easily
You gotta spend some time love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find love, I will possess your heart
You gotta spend some time love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find love, I will possess your heart
You gotta spend some time love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find love, I will possess your heart
I will possess your heart
I will possess your heart
I will possess your heart
Songwriters: Benjamin Gibbard / Christopher Walla / JASON McGERR / Nicholas Harmer
I Will Possess Your Heart lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

The Intro

The introduction of this song--lasting more than half the duration of the entire video--is built upon a strong bass riff and catchy drumline. When I first heard the song, I was definitely confused as to why the song would take so long to "start"--as if the singer's voice is the indication of the beginning, or that a song isn't a song until it has vocals. But the introduction is necessary to establish the (albeit creepy) love story that the band is telling.

The video has only two pieces to it: The band playing in an icy lair of some sort, and a pleasant-looking woman--by no means a super model, but neither is she decidedly unattractive--who is unimpressed with the world tour she goes on. The video's entire run time intercuts the band playing the music (their breath billowing out to show that they aren't on a secretly heated set) and the world traveler. She starts in London, then hits Paris, Tokyo, and other famous countries, all the while taking in the sights with the same expression.

It isn't until the 4:41 mark that Ben Gibbard begins to sing, which comes after a growing crescendo of overlaid guitar- and keyline, the pounding bass riff unchanged from the beginning, and the specific chord progression thumped by Gibbard at the piano. The introduction has ended, but it has already established what the song will go on to repeat again and again: "You gotta spend some time."

For me, that's what the introduction is designed to do: It creates a musical motif that the lyrics will pick up. To use Gibbard's words, it's the "mirrored perspective", embedded into the structure of the song, yet is often skipped over. By that, I mean the "Radio Edit" of the song omits the first four and a half minutes of the song. They cut from the opening bars to the crescendo before the singing, further insisting on the idea that it's the vocals that make a song. But cutting out the introduction removes one of the pillars of the story--the speaker of the poem  is trying to wear down the one he has an unrequited love for through a dogged persistence. Now, that's an editing decision, and has nothing to do with how the music video itself enhances the meaning of the song. Why include the two parts the way they did?

Ice Cave of Groove--Lyrics and Music

I love the bassline to this piece. It's vintage Death Cab, but it has a smooth groove that holds the beat right in its pocket. The song begins after an introductory chord progression, then starts the bass, which will continue throughout the entire song. Its consistency acts like an anchor to the rest of the song, a pumping rhythm that could symbolize the heartbeat of the lover. 

The rest of the band slowly comes in at different times, adding layers of sound that, while never escalating the tempo, always increase the tension and passion. The final minute of the introduction's crescendo is almost like the summoning of courage, the need for the speaker to finally confess the love he's been hiding, repressing, or keeping cold. When Gibbard finally starts to sing, he (perhaps because of the literal temperature) moves, kind of dances, and generally interacts more emphatically than he has before. The terror of speaking is overcome, and the actual confession begins to pour out.

The band itself becomes more invested in the music over time, underscoring the concept of "spend[ing] some time" with the would-be lover to understand the depths of would-be love. They dance, they drum more forcefully, and in some ways it feels as if the cold is catching up to them. In order to outrun the temperature, they have to increase their own passion. During the bridge, Gibbard, our surrogate for the story and the lyrics, stands up, anxious to explain that "I won't let you, let me down so easily, so easily." 

By now, the story the vocals are explaining has started to clarify. The would-be lover (the singer, though not to be confused with Gibbard) has hoped to start a relationship with, ostensibly, a woman. He talks about the language of love that requires time to learn, the elegance of love that binds people together, and the fact that even in passing, he can see "potential" for what they could be. It's obvious, however, by the time we hit the bridge, that the woman isn't interested. "You reject my advances and desperate pleas", which, if we're being honest, is probably a good move on her part. The song's obsessive qualities, amplified by the repetition of the bass-, drum-, and guitarlines, as well as the piano's catchy but repeated chordal progression, becomes an undercurrent to that obsession. 

This repetition is "mirrored" in the times of repeating: "so easily, so easily,"  "lovers, lovers at last", the insertion of "love" as an almost afterthought or threat in the chorus, and, of course, "I will possess your heart", which is said again and again. These can become tiresome, which may be part of the point. The story of the spurned lover is timeless and tiresome, a cliche that has fueled countless poems, plays, and performances. Why not have it again here? 

The obsessive, spurned, would-be lover provides the narrative background that the music video seeks to explore.

Video of Crossing Off the Bucket List

The woman is traversing the globe, essentially fulfilling every millennial's bucket list in a single video shoot. As mentioned before, she's a not-bad-but-not-stunning woman, and I think this is significant. Aside from the fact that it eschews the typical motif of the majority of music videos, it broadens the two points of view of the story. The obsessive, maybe even stalker-like tendencies of the singer, and the fact that almost every woman has, to some degree, dealt with an over-entitled man trying to win affection through obstinacy. Were she to be a supermodel, I think the reality the story is conveying would get lost.

I googled "Woman in Music Video" and Ariana Grande showed up all over. So, that's my point, I guess. The story'd be different if this were the globe-trotting girl in the music video. 

The locales were selected specifically, tracing a familiar route through Europe and then hopping over to the Far East. A full travelogue isn't needed for the story that's going on in the globe-trotter's side of the video: She's leaving. She's going far away, but wherever she's headed, it isn't her final destination. The question of why she left is obliquely answered by the song's lyrics, but there are some additional components to the story that we gain through the fusion of the music video and the music itself. 

For example, the woman doesn't look particularly happy to be in any of these places. I know that familiarity breeds contempt, but she's in London (London, people!) and Paris and Tokyo and everywhere else. During the first four and a half minutes, whenever it shows her, she's staring glumly--or, perhaps thoughtfully--through the sundry subway windows. She sleeps. She walks in front of famous landmarks. She leans against banisters. But she isn't happy. She isn't talking to people. In fact, most of the shots in the introduction don't include her in crowds. Occasionally, you'll see fellow passengers in the train, or an infrequent pedestrian, but there isn't a press of humanity. Instead, she seems locked into her own head--physically in the most exceptional places on the planet, but mentally elsewhere.

Once the singer begins to sing, however, she starts to smile. More people creep into the frames, so that by the bridge of the song, she's talking to store keepers, smiling in a taxi as it weaves through crowded thoroughfares, and seeming to enjoy herself. As the song closes, the loneliness she exhibits returns, most poignantly with her staring across a small coffee table at an empty chair, obviously lost in the thoughts that have haunted her throughout her global tour.

This detail is significant, because it pushes the lyrics toward a slightly different interpretation. Gibbard's obsessive, stalkeresque phrases turn into a break up song, rather than one of straight-forward unrequited love. The singer may be speaking of the friend zone, but in some ways, the music video bends the meaning toward a fractured relationship. Why is the girl roaming? Not to get away from a stalker, but from a relationship that didn't work. 

This, in turn, makes the music video a sequel of sorts to what's being sung about. "I will possess your heart," promises the singer, and then, as the woman trots the globe, she learns that this is true--she's wrapped in the past, constantly pushing against what she'd made with the singer, to the point that she almost doesn't realize where she is. 

Put Together

Combined, the lyrics and the music video intercut possible alternative interpretations that the music and lyrics alone don't support. There's nothing about happiness in the relationship in the words, but there are intimations of such intimacy in the video. The possibility that the singer croons about what has happened, rather than what he wishes will happen, is also only available in the combination of audio and visual.

I believe this is one of the most important aspects of music videos as an art form. Like any form of art, there are tawdry, self-serving, and purely lucrative incentives. But there are also better (and I mean that) reasons for artistic expression than callous cash payouts. I'm not convinced that there's additional meaning to "My Humps" necessarily--though I'm sure there's something if I look hard enough (which would be a cue for my wife to walk in on my research, I'm certain)--but I find that, sometimes, artists can use the visual medium to enhance their auditory medium. That's the purpose of these essays.