Start – Video begins with him and his inner darkness sitting behind him from an angle.
17 seconds – Begins to mention the girl he really likes.
23 seconds – Video shows a white pure flower.
33 seconds – Video presents us with a white marble statue of two lovers.
31 -39 seconds – He slides a diss at Drake with a couple lines about hiding a child because of the controversial reveal of his child being brought up by Pusha T.
41 seconds – Mentions the “fire,” the time between breaking up with his lover and their reconnection. It’s also illustrated in the video with a ring of fire.
51 seconds – Talks about how he can’t lose her again
1:02 – The inner darkness begins to take over and begins to corrupt the lovers as illustrated by the black paint beginning to spew out the mouth of the man on the lover statue.
1:04 – Inner darkness rubs hands together as if something was accomplished successfully.
1:09 – Mentions how he felt lonely and now has company again, and this time it’s for good.
1:21 – Begins to talk about his lover’s life during the period of their breakup and how she also had other “personal” relationships with people while he did.
1:45 – Stresses the importance again of not wanting to lose his lover.
1:50 – Black paint begins to cover a corrupt the pure white flower from the beginning of the video.
2:01 – The white marble statue of the two lovers are now completely covered in black paint.
2:33 – The lady kissing the skull signifying love to death.
2:51 – Ring of fire has been reduced to tiny flames
3:00 – The video shows us two skeletons covered in black paint lying next to one another, signifying them dying together after being together for life.
3:10 – Video ends with him standing side by side to his inner darkness.
The genre of music this is considered to be is R&B or Popular music. With that being said, the majority of people that listen to these genres are young people and with the message of the video being about love, relationships, and dating it leads me to conclude that this video is catered towards a younger audience that hasn’t married yet. The context surrounding this song / video is incredible. First I’d like to start off with how Gesaffelstein is the producer, and also the inner darkness standing next to The Weeknd throughout the whole video. Then I’d like to proceed with how the song is about the tumultuous relationship that Bella Hadid and The Weeknd had; however, it can also be perceived as a diss track towards Drake. To support this we first have to understand that Drake had hidden a child away from the world and it was brought up by Pusha T during their rap feud. The fact that Drake had the audacity to hide it could indicate that he was either protecting his child from all the publicity, or that he was ashamed about having a child with an adult film actress, that part is up to speculation. Moving forward, The Weeknd throughout the song is basically a love song to Bella about their relationship and how he wants to be with her forever as depicted by the lyrics and video. The message of the video is to her to reassure his compassion for her as well as illustrate the complexity of their relationship through the white purity becoming covered in darkness, and how it changed their relationship completely.
While I agree with your statements, I also saw the Weeknd’s message as being applied to a broader sense. I feel as if the music video showcases the toxicity of a relationship; we can see this because at first both the white rose and sculpture of the couple are completely white. This indicates the beginning of the relationship, where the two lovers are spending time getting to know each other. However, as time progresses, the rose and the sculpture get corrupted by black, signifying darkness. As a relationship continues to last, the ugly truths and parts of the relationship begin to seep through the cracks. Of course, the Weeknd already knows this as he is referencing largely to his past relationship with Bella Hadid.
I agree with your analysis and believe that you have a done a really good job going in depth while describing what these lyrics mean. I have heard a few of the Weekend’s songs and know that he does write about the darkness of his relationships. The part you added about the diss towards Drake was very insightful as well, as we can either perceive it to be him coming for Drake for being ashamed and embarrassed of his child, or innocently wanting to protect him from the media.