Analysis

The music video of "Wake Me Up" by Avicii well illustrates overcoming life obstacles and becoming confident with oneself by differentiating between time zones and cultures and showing the casual lifestyle and its complexity. In the beginning of the video, directors Seliger and Miller, present a poor country home scene with a teenage girl and her younger sister in bed. The older sister wakes up with the young one following and they both take a walk in the old struggling town. As they walk, they are stared down by old working people who don't seem friendly or attractive in anyway. The younger girl is scared and hides behind the older girl who is just as lost and confused. The two girls then take a break and the younger girl asks why nobody likes them. So, the older girl gets on a horse and rides to another bigger city in hopes of finding friendly people. When she finally does find people just like her, they end up going to a concert that is playing this song. And the next day the older girl takes the younger girl to the concert and leaves the old people creepily staring back.

In the video, the environments and cultures are ironic and changing. From the start of the video, you see a big farm and a small beat up country house where two casual looking girls share the same poor bed. When they go to their town, the streets are seen paved, there are glimpses of cars, trucks and recreational vehicles, the buildings are built modern and there are glimpses of wired fence in the background. However, during this scene, there is no vehicle traffic nor people wearing ties or carrying suitcases. Instead, the video shows people wearing overalls, carrying wooden baskets and the older girl riding a horse. Perhaps this contrast in current fashion trends and modern technology develop the idea of being lost in a world of strict manner and the harsh reality of freedom. In this town, these two girls are rebels with their different clothing, free lifestyle and passion to live for oneself. There are no role models or adults to look after them, so they must look after themselves to fight for their lives they have yet to fully experience. During this scene across town, the song plays its chorus of waking up when its all over and finding himself when he didn't even know he was lost. These girls are naive and happy, so as the other townspeople look at them, they are despised to see the girls unintended destruction of their hard working town. The other people who are still lost in another time have experienced harsh realities and learned from completing many of their own life obstacles, so they are unable to relate how these girls are so lost in their life dream.

When the older girl arrives to the city on horse in the next scene, the girl smiles and portrays hope that life for these two girls will become happy ever after. And as she rides through the city, she is overcome by huge modern buildings, big streets and a vast new lifestyle. She ends up getting off the horse and tying it to a post as if leaving her past behind and venturing off on a new journey. As she continues to walk the new great streets, she finds another girl her age walking by. They both stop and look at each other and realize they have the same iconic tattoo across their right shoulder. The tattoo was seen earlier in the video with the younger girl as well. It's an image of two angled triangles pointed in opposite directions, which is the stamp for Avicii and came from the two letters A and V. So this new girl decides to bring the older girl with her and their friends. Where more people show up, this time males, who have the same tattoo and drive off in a pickup truck. So perhaps the reference of Avicii is not only identifying the artist but creating a symbol of freedom and becoming confident with oneself by understanding that life has its obstacles but there are always other people who can relate and help you succeed. And the first glimpse of vehicle use is with these young people who have found each other lost in a world they are still experiencing.

In the next scene, the new friends and the girl are seen with even more people and end up in an Avicii concert with loud, happy and free people. Not only are there more people who share common interests but the video also shows a new phone in use which demonstrates technology changes. This technology, music and friendship helps differentiate the struggles of the old town and how the young girls are now finding themselves through a new age of life which they are experiencing first hand. However, maybe this grasp of free life and new development of lifestyle shows the transition between casual lifestyle of working people to a casual lifestyle of new experiences and confidence. And after the girl and her new friends are done partying, the girl with a more modern and fresh look, finds her younger sister in bed and tells her to get up and come to a new place where they belong. So as the music ends with the girls holding hands walking towards the big city of hope, they have overcome the strict manners of the town and found themselves in a thought process of life; freedom of style.

Works Cited

"Avicii - Wake Me Up (Official Video)." YouTube. YouTube, 29 July 2013. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.