Lukas Graham '7 Years' Music Video Full Textual Analysis

Lukas Graham '7 Years' Music Video Full Textual Analysis

Lukas Graham’s ‘7 Years’ music video contains one predominant narrative, which follows Lukas Forchhammer, the leader singer of Lukas Graham, life as he struggles to come to terms with his father’s death. Lukas Forchhammer is the leading artist in the video. He is portrayed to be an unassuming, inclusive artist who both Reaches out personally to fans of Lukas Graham but also ensures diversity among the region Christiana, in Copenhagen where Forchhammer was born. Forchhammer is presented to be an atypical musician who is both finding his feet on the global stage as well as battling with his own domestic issues within the music video. The music video is male dominated owing to Lukas Graham being a male soul band. All of the reoccurring family members of Lukas Forchhammer and members of Lukas Graham are male, this means that within that the music video is dynamically masculine through their representations. Lukas Forchhammer is from a working-class background in Copenhagen, this is anchored in the music video through the references to both drug and alcohol abuse from a young age. Lukas Forchhammer references his class through the mise en scene of the music video. Forchhammer in the first half of the music video is stood around an oil barrel that is alight to fuel heat, this is a conventional technique used by homeless people to create warmth during the harsh winter months. Ethnicity is a dominant representation with in the music video. Lukas Forchhammer is a quarter black owing to his father having both Jamaican and Irish blood. Owing to this Forchhammer wishes to acknowledge this and promote diversity within Copenhagen, this is achieved within his video through both integrating family member from both his fathers and mother sides standing within each other to not decimate between either families and helps to create a united front behind Lukas Forchhammer both who they are related to. Lukas Forchhammer is perceived to be an archetypal character who is mourning the death of his father. He is sombre in his mood, slow paced, exhausted and reminiscent. ‘7 Years’ contains iconography of Copenhagen, this is significant as the primary audience of his music are young Danish adults who will be familiar with the areas he has filmed his film. This will provide his target audience with gratification as they are able to identify specific areas where the music video is set. 

The use of Cinematography in Lukas Graham’s ‘7 Years’ is significant in order to successfully achieve both the representations René Sascha Johannsen aimed for and to create a narrative which could successful presented to their audience. The music video starts with a tracking shot of Lukas Forchhammer’s song book. This is significant as it connotes frustration and irrationality, both feeling that would deeply affect a mourning individual.  The first shot of Lukas Forchhammer is a medium shot zooming inwards. Owing the shot zooming in Johannsen is aiming to create a relationship between the audience and the band which helps to thicken the narrative by allowing audiences to associate themselves to Forchhammer. The use of a bird eye shot by Johannsen allows a skater to skate over Forchhammers head, perceiving him to be fearless or unmoved by this, which reinforces the theme of his irrationality. High angled shots as Forchhammer walks through wooded area conveys him to be isolated owing to the death of his father. This enables audiences to recognise his struggle and his inability to cope with loss. Johannsen uses a tracking shot to follow Forchhammer into a concert hall. Through doing this Lukas Graham’s fame is made prevalent as the focal point of the shot is the audience and owing to Lukas Graham selling out all four tiers of the venue in Copenhagen, their demand and fame is presented to be widespread. 

The editing of ‘7 Years’ is fundamental to ensure that the representations of the music video are successfully presented to the audience. Johannsen has chosen to slow the pace of the whole video to anchor the sombre atmosphere of the video, conveying to the audience Forchhammer’s struggle. The transitions of the footage with in the video, matches the beat of the song, creating an even flowing video. Furthermore, this technique is capturing the attention of the audience following the snapping motion of the footage which varies in speed. The use of match on action within the video helps the strengthen the moral of the narrative. Johannsen has used match on action to tell the story of how Forchhammer is struggling to cope with the death owing to his tireless music career which has taken him across the world. This is anchored through showing Forchhammer throwing lyrics on a piece of paper off a skyscraper in New York emphasising his inability to write songs owing to his loss of a loved one. The use of monochrome filter deepens the sombre tone of the video, making the video more fitting for the narrative which the video contains. Time lapses show how mourning is a long-lasting pain, that can distract people from their end goals owing to emotions being crippled by loss. Time lapses are particularly effect in ‘7 Years’ owing how they capture the concept of how time is lost and how acceptance to grieve is essential in a diverse twenty first century. The video has been edited to blur out Lukas Forchammer in a range of shots. This connotes how he had lost his identity in the past few years, leading him astray from his career. Within these shots the focal point of the footage is the background. This is significant as it allows audience to see how prevalent Lukas Graham have become since 2011 when the band was formed. The transition of the footage starts to increase as speed as the song progresses, this allow the narrative to take a lighter tone. This is essential for the narrative as it allows Johannsen to introduce a lighter tone, before concluding the narrative, which shows Lukas Forchhammer determined to become a global soul band. 

The Mise en scene of the ‘7 Years’ is significant when regarding the narrative of the music video. Lukas Graham have chosen to use a range of locations to help drive the narrative of their video. The video starts in Christiana, an outer region of Copenhagen where Lukas Forchhammer was born. This is significant as this region is associated with his father, who was an Irish immigrant, but was chosen to be buried in the regions local cemetery. This enables Johannsen to capture a true picture of his relationship with his father through their affiliation to the region of Copenhagen. Johannsen has chosen to film the video at atypical locations within a post-modern society. Johannsen chooses to first introduce Forchhammer at a cinema. This is intended to reflect Forchhammer viewing previous family video that reminds himself of his childhood introducing the theme of nostalgia, which is prevalent throughout the whole music video. Lukas Grahams fame is reinforced by the use of showing their performance live at Copenhagen at the Royal Arena. The focal point of the shot are the fans that can be seen up to the fourth tier showing their high demand which makes the shot contain a certain degree of exclusivity which provides audiences with escapism and gratification. The skate park is central location in the music video. The choice of a skate park is significant owing to the connotations that it provides. Skate parks connote self-expressionism, progressivism and anti-establishment, all ideologies that coincide with the lyrics of their music. The choice of casual clothing reinforces the idea of Lukas Graham’s unassuming nature as a band. This is important to capture in order to confirm their value of anti-establishment, as they need to be seen as empathetic and approachable. Lukas Graham’s careless nature is shown through how they perform at concerts bare chested. Johannsen has included this as it is central to their music, ideas of rejecting societal norms fully embracing individualism.