'Stay The Night' is a song by German/Russian electronic dance music producer Zedd, featuring vocals from Hayley Williams (of Paramore) . In terms of genre, it falls under Electro House Ballad with a mix of electric/clubby beats and pop style vocal. Due to it's crossover in genre, it was positively received by a mass audience as it appealed to more than one music type.
It features an elaborate, contemporary dance between a man and a woman which represents them battling through their relationship, alongside a vibrant close-up performance by Hayley. I absolutely love the editing within this music video; the majority of the shots include some sort of overlay with another which ives it a very dreamy feel. There is a prominent concept of contrasts too, with the red and blue setups throughout, possibly representing different emotions or people etc. The video is extremely dynamic, with constant movement from either the camera itself or the subjects in focus.
The links between the lyrics and the visuals are not particularly statement, but still exist nonetheless, but more so through concept rather than the narrative. For example, "you kill the lights" relates quite heavily to the dark backgrounds throughout the whole video which makes the subjects stand out even more, and also relates to the concept of night time. Following on from this, in both the pianist and Hayley's setup, there are tiny stars and moons which are out of focus most of the time, but which become more prominent through some pull focuses. A link which does occur between the lyrics and visuals is the element of staying the night, as we can assume from the gestures and setting that the man is trying to convince the woman to stay; red could represent anger and blue could represent sadness or regret. In a lot of the dance moves the man tries to grab or hug the woman who just turns/moves away.
There are strong connections between the music and the visuals. For example, when we hear the piano playing in the background, a shot of a pianist comes up. Furthermore, the pace of the cuts really match the pace of the song; at the beginning they are more flowing and faded, but throughout the song they start to build up alongside the rhythm until the end where they are extremely quick and choppy, which mirrors the build up of electronic tempo within the song.
There are several points in the song where clever editing is used, whereby Hayley's actions will link to the dancers, and flow in as one movement, for example at 1:35 where she rolls her head back and before you know it we're thrown back into the dancing scene. As a narrative, this could connote that the dancers represent the emotions in her head; the man is blue, which could represent safety and calmness whereas the woman's section is red, representing anger and passion. Either way, it is extremely successful as it keeps the audience on their toes and engaged within the meaning of the song. Hayley is kept recognisable to the audience due to her statement ginger hair, bright red lipstick and bold black and white clothes. Although this is her first solo track, she has not made any dramatic changes to her image which shows how she has stayed herself throughout her musical career.
There is not a theme which closely follows the notion of looking; the music video is more artistic and genuine, although I suppose arguably there is admiration and love between the two dancers, but it's more emotional than sexual.
This music video clevely intwines narrative, concept and perforance elements together; all three elements complement and bounce off each other creating a dynamic and exciting visual to accompany the sound. Overall, I really love this music video and wouldn't do anything to change it. The overlay effect is definitely something to consider using in our music video as it keeps the visuals moving and adds lots of energy.
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