Hold on is a music video that relies on the relationship between
performance and music. It largely depicts the group surrounded by women dressed
in the same white vests and kahki trousers with knee high leather boots, to me
the setting along with the costume resembles the upper classes of England, and
it shows the group, particularly Rob (lead singer) in control of the woman,
almost using them as object. However, some of the lyrics and visuals show them
as desiring the group, or even using the group to their own advantage (shot
depicting one of the guitarists holding the phone for one of the women).
During the performance scenes of the
video the band wears a smart casual attire. The main vocalist regularly
looks directly into the camera which i think is effective, making it appear he
is explaining himself or his way of life or even talking to the viewers. I
think the editing is very effective, at the beginning the main vocalist opens
to large doors into a room, at the same time a black bars appears in the middle
and separates to the edges. Similar black bars are used to split the screen to
show various other scenes happening simultaneously. I find this gives the video
a very clean look, which supports the very upper class theme that shows
superiority and control.
This video is a contrast to what we could
normally expect from the alternative rock genre, this is very classy, clean,
and organised. Whereas rock tends to be more spontaneous. As mentioned before
the editing continuously brings us to Rob's gaze, and whilst the lyrics talks
about women and sometimes in a sexual manner this could be referring to voyeurism.
Though as the lyrics also say 'hold on, hold on' and 'something fishy's going
on' could be suggesting that the females intentions aren't exactly what the
group shown were expecting, as seen with visuals of the women smothering rob,
and using the other band members.
