Textual Analysis 1- Close to Me

The video for the song ‘Close to Me’ by The Cure involved the band going to the bottom of the ocean by falling off of a cliff in a wardrobe. The setting matched the music as it appeared a very relaxed scene underwater as the group were exploring the deep, (somehow without any breathing equipment).

There was a small amount of relevance between the visuals and the lyrics, the only exceptions being the ‘close to me’ whiles the group were in the wardrobe together and the close to me when the octopus is holding the lead singer. This also led to many close-ups of the lead singer both in and out of the wardrobe as he struggled to get away from the octopus. The rest of the song had little relevance to vocals; however the song itself did only consist of a six verses.

Despite the lack of lyrics, it made up for it in using the music and linking it with the visuals well, timing sways to the beat of the song as well as cuts to new shots consistently when the bar moves on. This can also be seen with the octopus as when the brass instruments play, the shots shift focus to it with a set of brass instruments playing.

There were no intertextual references found in the piece itself, but critics describe the scene as a ‘Goth pop version of The Little Mermaid’, despite the film being released after this. There were little aspects seen of looking. Very few shots had the cast looking at the camera itself, and were more interested in their surroundings.