018 // it's not living (if it's not with you)

the end of the abiior music video era.

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Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to episode 18 of Television of Your Mouth, a 1975 podcast. This is the last episode in our a brief inquiry music video era. And you know, for someone whose favorite album and era is I Like It When You Sleep, I have found this era to be very enjoyable to do. Like the more research and critical eye and attention I gave to these episodes, the more love and appreciation I had for a brief inquiry. And I don't know, have I ever gave my 1975 album ranking on this podcast? I don't think I have, because I tend to focus more on the music videos, uh obviously, than the music itself here, but you know, why not share my ranking, right? I feel like making some people mad today. So the last album and my first are always consistent. Those always pretty much stay the same. So working from last to first here, okay. So number five is being funny in a foreign language. And I'm not really going to give you reasons why this is my ranking right now. Um, number four is self-titled. And this is where I it can flip-flop for me a little bit depending on the day. But usually number three is a brief inquiry. Number two is notes on a conditional form, and number one is always I like it when you sleep. And again, I'm not going into details as to why that's my ranking right now. But if you really want to know, if you're really curious, the podcast DMs are always open on Instagram. So today we are wrapping up the A Brief Inquiry music video era with what I think is the crown jewel of this era. And that's the music video for It's Not Living, parentheses, if it's not with you, released as a single on October 18th, 2018, with the music video being released on December 3rd, 2018, and directed by Warren Fu. And I've said this before, but one of the big drivers for doing this podcast in the first place was my deep love and obsession with movies, or film, as us snobby letterbox users like to say. And music videos are like movies for songs, and this music video is filled with movie references, so taking the time to research and do a deeper dive on this one has been really fun for me. It's maybe the most fun of all of them that I've had so far. Just like the Sincerity is Scary music video, It's Not Living was directed by Warren Fu, which makes sense since both videos play into each other. And while Sincerity is Scary was a music video that was playful in nature, there was always something strange bubbling under the surface. Maybe it was the too-perfect Stepford wifeness of it all, you know, being filmed on a movie set and everything being pretty perfect. The It's Not Living video goes in the other direction with a definitive answer, making it very clear that no, not everything is what it seems. I live in a big Talking Heads household. And if you're wondering, because I'm sure you are, right? Britt, what's your favorite Talking Heads album? Sure, I'll tell you. Um, my favorite Talking Heads album is Speaking in Tongues. So when this video was first released, that's most of what I took away from it. Like until this day, I still talk about this video as the Talking Heads one, because the live performance portion is a blatant, direct homage to the Talking Heads 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, which if you have never seen it, it's one of the greatest concert films of all time. You should definitely check it out. I'm sure it's streaming somewhere. But yeah, it's the It's Not Living video, it's a direct homage to that, from the styling, the use of the twins, down to the copy David Byrne mannerisms and choreography. I could do, and I'm sure there are, full podcast episodes or series about Stop Making Sense. And so I'm not going to go deep on it. You know, the Talking Heads are awesome. They were formed in my home state of Rhode Island. I know a lot of people think of them as a New York band, but they met at RISD, and that's where they formed. And I do love them, but this is a 1975 podcast. And this music video is so much more than a Talking Heads tribute. This video honors a lot of important influences to the band, and there are probably more references in it than you realize. Okay, so let's get started. The music video begins the same way as the Sincerity video, but with a few key differences. So while Sincerity started with Maddie waking up in bed, the lighting in that video was a bright, warm morning light with one alarm clock on the nightstand. It's not living takes a more darker approach, literally, with Maddie waking up in bed in a dark room with quite a few alarm clocks on the nightstand. I think I counted six of them. He walks over to a full-length mirror, reminiscent of the 1975's box logo. His reflection screams back at him, and he wakes up on a couch with a start. So this inception, dream within a dream motif, is used throughout the music video. As I've said in past episodes in this era, so much of Maddie's heroin addiction and getting sober is weaved throughout the album. And as Maddie has said, It's not living is the quote, big heroine one. The use of surrealism in the music video and the idea of dream loops could be viewed as a way to visualize Maddie's past struggles with heroin addiction and the disorienting nightmare cycle of withdrawal. And I just want to say this is all a hypothesis, of course. The only person who really knows is Maddie. So Maddie wakes up with a star on a couch in what appears to be a green room, uh backstage dressing room. And around the 52-second mark, we get an Academy Award performance from Adam letting Maddie know that it's time to get on stage. As he walks to the stage, a glass falls onto the floor and breaks. He walks into a side table, it bumps the glass over, it falls and it breaks. Maybe a reference to a change of heart with the Smashed a Glass into Pieces line. If so, it wouldn't be the first one in this video because after this happens, we hear a round of applause and the title card appears using the same font as the film Pierrot Le Fu, directed by Jean-Luc Goddard. Uh Piero translates to Sad Clown in France. And if that sounds familiar, if you're a regular listener to this podcast, it's because I talked about the motif of a Piero clown in the A Change of Heart episode, as Maddie is dressed as one for that music video. So Jean-Luc is one of the most acclaimed pioneering directors of the French New Wave movement that emerged in the 1950s. That moment explored new approaches in filmmaking and explored social and political climates through the use of irony and often explored existential themes. In short, very 1975. Throughout this video, there will be times where you can hear crowd reactions or the sound of the performer's feet. This is all very French new wave and pulls from techniques used in one of Goddard's biggest films, Two or Three Things I Know About Her. Which I haven't seen, by the way. I definitely am putting it on my to-watch list. Around the one minute 25-second mark, the song kicks in and Maddie starts moving his body in sync with dancers and the rest of the band. And you can tell he's not really sure how he's doing this. We also see he's joined on stage by No Rome, who is also in the Sincerity video. The TVs on stage now remind me of the most recent era of the 1975. So the At Their Very Best slash Still at Their Very Best tour. During the consumption portion of those shows, if you went to any of them, Maddie would stop and do some push-ups. And around the one minute 44-second mark in this video, if you look at one of the TVs, he's doing push-ups in in one of the televisions. Um I don't think those two things are related. That would absolutely be insane if what was it, 2018 to 2022, four years later, he pulled from that, but who knows? Around the 1 minute 56 second mark, Maddie looks over at the twins who stop and kind of solemnly stare at him. And I'm going to say that has to be a shining reference. The distortion of time and the slow motion effects add to the surrealism of it all. Maddie told Vivo in 2019 that the slow motion movements were not added in post, that the guys pretended to play their instruments in slow motion to get that effect, which is hilarious. Around this time in the video, we also see that Amber, more commonly known as the Japanese house, is also joining them on stage. Then a jarring moment happens after this where Maddie's mouth disappears. This is where it goes from a cool hey, I'm in the talking heads dream to, oh, this is a nightmare. So he runs off stage at that moment, as one would if your mouth was to suddenly disappear. But when he comes back, he's right back into the choreography, like some outside force is controlling him. And in my notes here, I just put heroin, question mark. Like on the surface, I'm dancing and performing, and this is fun, but actually I'm in a fucking nightmare. And remember, everything I say regarding the analysis of this music video is my own interpretation of things. Maddie has never said that this is what he was going for. The nightmare continues when he is suddenly on fire and no one seems to notice or care. And honestly, who hasn't felt like that at some point in their lives? After this unfortunate event, Maddie looks on stage to see a Maddie clone performing with the band. This could play into fears of being easily replaceable as an artist. And at this point in the video, Maddie is clearly and rightfully freaked out, so he decides to take a walk outside to collect himself. This is one of my favorite parts of the video and probably the most meta of any 1975 music video. Because when Maddie opens the door, he's on the set of the Sincerity is Scary video, dressed in the exact same attire of that music video. And throughout this era, Maddie had to stop and take a look at himself in order to get sober, and perhaps this is a play on that, with him watching himself film the Sincerity video in this sequence. When he steps back onto the stage, he gain he again slots right back into choreography like he's not even in control of his body. He then sinks through the floor, and we get a nod to Fellini's Eight and a Half film, with a disembodied Maddie hand pulling Maddie down from the top of the stage with a rope. Maddie has the power to save or ruin himself. Eight and a half is considered one of the greatest films of all time, and I'm not surprised it was used as a reference in this music video. Not to give any spoilers for a 50-plus-year-old movie, but Eight and a Half deals with a movie director who is going through a sort of creative paralysis and he's trying to navigate his own memories and fantasies. It sort of turns one man's artistic crisis into this grand epic. And there's that old trope that in order to create great art, you need to suffer. And again, this is all conjecture in my own interpretation, but it is pretty common for any artist to worry that their art will suffer or they won't be able to create good art when their life is in a good place. Whether that's getting sober, getting in a healthy relationship, whatever. Taking inspiration from eight and a half for the brief inquiry era and finding comfort in the fantastical and the make-believe makes perfect sense. And I love that they went in that direction. At the five-minute, 25-second mark, Maddie jerks himself awake on the same couch, in the same position as the beginning of the music video. Adam tells Maddie it's time, just like the beginning of the video, and Maddie bumps into the table again, just like in the beginning of the video. But this time the class does not fall until Maddie leaves the room. And if there's one thing I know, it's that a white boy loves Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan. And as Maddie said to Vivo in 2019. Ah, it was all a dream. Was it the last minute or so of the video is everyone performing the end of the song with the title cards appearing uh for everyone, followed by old-style film credits for the crew to really drive home the love for cinema to inspire them to make the music video. So what do you think? Was it all a dream? I don't know. And wow, that's it. That brings us to the end of the A Brief Inquiry into online relationships era for this podcast. Like I said, I had a lot of fun revisiting the music videos for this era on a deeper level, and I'm kind of sad to say goodbye to it. Also because I feel like things really changed for the band after this era. You know, as a society, we went through a global pandemic, which helped absolutely nobody. But that's a conversation for the next era, which will be about notes on a conditional form. Am I going to get through all the music videos before the next era even starts? I I just might, guys. But I hope you've enjoyed all of this and thank you so much for listening. Hopefully, I won't take too long of a break until we're back together again. Thank you for listening to Television of Your Mouth, a 1975 podcast. Episodes are written, recorded, and produced by me, Britt. You can follow the podcast on Instagram at Television of Your Mouth. And I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you later. Bye.