NAO || Bad Blood MV

Bad Blood by NAO was the alternative music video that I considered using for my PB2 presentation. Not only is it one of my favourite songs, but the visuals are so striking in this music video and has such strong thematic concepts on humanity and nature.

The plot of the video follows a dark-skinned woman, some ethereal otherworldly being, roam a broken down building, meeting various people situated throughout the ruins. There are distinctly three groups of person/s she approaches which divides the MV into sections or like short chapters. The first, a middle-aged man in torn up clothes all by himself beside some industrial machine. He seems frightened by the woman and backs away from her, only to fall under her spell as branches sprout from his mouth just as the beat drops for the chorus. The next group is three men in trench coats looking over a deceased blonde woman. Different to the first man’s frightened expression, these men seem skeptical of her and unafraid, but nonetheless, they too fall under her spell as branches and flowers erupt from their throats. The imagery is repeated in finely detailed veins spresding out from under the blonde woman’s eyes just as she comes back to life and turns to the first woman with a somewhat understanding and grateful expression. The final group the woman approaches are a man and woman in rather luxurious clothing; the woman with a fur coat and the man in silk robes. However, despite their rich appearance, the man is scraping at the dirt with a fork whilst the woman lies over a worn out chair with a look of defeat Once again, the woman approaches the two and as the beat drops for the chorus, their lips part for the branches to sprout. As for the last chorus, the woman crouches on her own, heaving and lurching till finally branches sprout out of her own mouth, and then ending the video with the same establishing shot of the building, this time with vines and branches crawling and sprouting through the windows.

The visuals and concepts of Bad Blood’s MV are so compelling and the fans have developed multiple interpretations of the song and video’s lyrics. Some interpret the black woman as god who gives life and takes it away, hence the trees and branches working as a symbolism of life itself. Others see the video as a comment on social status and the hierarchy of powers within society, the consequences of decadence and money and how we as a society are “dreaming of a past that couldn’t last”. Ultimately the true meaning behind the lyrics composed by NAO is something completely different and the video below explains it all…

Thus, as there was quite a removed visual theme to the official meaning of the artist’s lyrics, I thought that it would’ve been a bit more difficult discussing the connection between the video and the song. Definitely an interesting topic to discuss, however I figured I would have had a stronger presentation on a music video with a stronger relationship with its music. Another reason why I chose not to present on “Bad Blood” was simply to have more diversity in presentations amongst my group with San and Sophia. San chose a fabulous music video that was shot in black and white, thus having visual similarities with “Bad Blood”. Furthermore, “Bad Blood”‘s music video utilises many wide angled shots with slow pans, tracks and zooms, which is mesmerising (I bow down to you, Ian Pons Jewell). However, I don’t own many wide angled lens for my camera and often only use my 50mm f1.4 lens which is much more appropriate for close ups and shallow depth of field shots that SBTRKT’s “Wildfire” (the video I ended up presenting on) uses.

Despite all that, I still needed to get my thoughts out about this video, because not only is NAO such a talented artist, I strive to create such striking and bold visuals in my future projects.