Blog 1

Alison Tobin

Advanced Mass Communication

3/6/16

Blog 1

Coldplay is a British alternative rock band that started in the late 1990s.  They were made famous with their song “Yellow” that was released in 2000.  “Yellow” is still one of their most popular and most well-known songs to date.  People have come to love Coldplay for their meaningful music.  “True Love” is a song off of one of their more recent albums called “Ghost Stories” which was released in 2014.  The music video for this song follows two people who struggle to be accepted and feel like they belong in the world.  Both of these two people appear to be extremely overweight and look different than everyone else as the actors are wearing inflated body suits.  The video opens with the man who is played by the lead singer of Coldplay Chris Martin as a janitor of a ballet company.  He tries to get on the bus but is rejected by the driver because of his weight and the way he looks so he is forced to ride his skateboard and hold on to the back of the bus.  The woman in the video goes to a casting call for a ballet and she is immediately rejected because of her appearance.  There are other small indications of rejection felt by both characters throughout the video also.  The music video for “True Love’ captures the issue in the world today of people wanting to feel accepted in society.

            Humans are naturally social people.  We essentially need interaction with other people to survive; we depend on it.  A book titled “The Social Outcast: Ostracism, Social Exclusion, Rejection, and Bullying” discusses that subject saying, “It seems reasonable to argue that the need to interact with others, and the ability to form and maintain complex and rewarding social relationships are among the most fundamental human needs” (Williams).  The book also notes that when we get rejected or are excluded it can be one of the most painful and devastating things that we experience in our lives because of our natural need of social contact.  This is why people long hope to be accepted in the world and will not be completely happy until they have reached that point.  People like to feel like they are a part of something and they like to have a sense of meaning that they matter to other people.  According to an article from the Association for Psychological Science, being rejected is bad for our health due to loss of sleep and an affected immune system and it is also bad for our mental health (Social Acceptance and Rejection).  Why does acceptance matter so much to people?  Our reliance on people dates back to the beginning of our existence as the human species when harsh circumstances of living had to be endured, and people needed other people for physical survival (Social Acceptance and Rejection).  A psychological assessment and treatment specialists group out of Utah says, “The quest for validation underlies our attempts to project a ‘put together’ image to others.  We expand significant amounts of energy in ‘impression management,’ wanting others to think highly of us, to like us” (The Need).  This is something that has always been a trait of human beings and is recognized as something that can have detrimental effects on us and how we feel when we do not achieve the acceptance that we want.

            In Coldplay’s “True Love” video we see this common entity of people searching for acceptance simplified and summed up into one short story.  This video seems like a simple and silly love story on its surface but it has a much deeper meaning behind it that many people can connect to.  The two main characters in the video have dreams and plans that are hindered by society and rejection.  It is clear that they are both hurt by the rejection that they face and it seems that their lives are full of it because of who they are and their appearance.  For example, it shows how feeling not included or accepted by the world affects them and their happiness.  You can see in the girl’s face how upset she is when she is denied at the casting for the ballet because her dream to dance in that ballet was crushed because she was not deemed fit for the part according to the judges and society.  She was rejected because she was different than the other dancers and she was not even given the chance to show her true talent before she was denied the part.  The video truly depicts the struggle of life that all people go through.  In an interview, the director of the “True Love” music video Jonas Akerlund said, “The way we approached the story and this whole idea was way more about being different in the world, where life is a struggle and then you meet somebody who understands you and then it all sort of falls into place” (Interview – The Story).  Everyone in the world is different but we all try to find a group of people that we can connect with so that we can feel like we belong. 

            The music video luckily has a happy ending.  The two people fall in love and gain a sense of belonging that they were looking for.  The music video is a very accurate depiction of the struggle of yearning for acceptance.  Although it is a simplified version of it as it does not show how long of a process finding acceptance can be, it is effective enough to resonate with many people.  At the very end of the video, Coldplay put the message “Anything is possible.”  This sums up their whole intended message of the video and it serves as motivation to people who are currently going through something similar to the story shown.  The ending gives people hope that something like this will happen and their struggle will be fixed.  As human beings we aim for acceptance whether we want to or not.  It comes naturally to us and it affects how we feel about ourselves and the world around us.

Works Cited:

"Interview – The Story behind the ‘True Love’ Music Video." Coldplaying.com. N.p., 14 Sept.

 2014. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

"Social Acceptance and Rejection: The Sweet and the Bitter." Association for Psychological

            Science RSS. N.p., 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 05 Mar. 2016.

"The Need to Relate and Feel Accepted." Utah County Counselors. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar.

            2016.

Williams, Kipling D., Joseph P. Forgas, and William Von. Hippel. The Social Outcast:

            Ostracism, Social Exclusion, Rejection, and Bullying. New York: Psychology, 2005.

            Print.