One of the artists we orginally considered making a video for was 'Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip', which has similarly rap influenced male vocals, although this particular song ('Get Better') focuses more on a positive, didactic tone towards the important issue of sexual promiscuity compared to Jamie T's Ike & Tina, which is more visceral, personal and grievous.
The video takes the educational tone of the lyrics and applies it literally to create a classroom visual, with the artist taking the role as a lecturer character. This is a fairly obvious interpretation of using the song to illustrate the lyrics, although the cross cutting between the seminar and various activities sustain interest.
One of the outstanding things about this video is that, assuming the artist is taking on the role of his lyrics in the song (ie by being teacherly), then we can also assume that the collection of student characters are there to represent the target audience of the artist. This broad cross section of unique people is a brave move by the director, as instead of giving a loose definition (such as 'fans of alternative music'), they present a daring, honest and unashamed amalgamation of different subcultures through extreme costume and makeup (apparently using real people instead of actors, giving the video realism as well as respect), not being afraid to highlight their differences by cutting between close ups of each character.
As well as the lyrical content, the music video can be seen to have a relationship with the musical textures. The clinically clean and repetitive musical beat is matched through regular edits, and represented visually through the use of a single, blank canvas location (a large empty characterless white room), and by showing development through narrative of the lyrics. It is a full 2:50 into the video before a cutaway from the location is used, matching a sharp change in the beat of the song and illustrating the points made in the lyrics. However, I think that this unchanging nature of the video reflects perfectly the musical style, and provides an important soapbox for the artist's didactic lyrics to stand out.
The only real thing that develops in this video is the relationship between the student characters. Whereas the opening section (0:23-0:49) juxtaposes them to highlight their contrasts, through the exercises they turn into an amiable group. This deconstruction of social barriers is key for letting the artist's student audience as well as the video's consumer audience open their minds to the educational content of the lyrics.
