I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
-Coldplay
In Viva La Vida, one of the more unique music videos of the year Chris Martin and the rest of the band perform from inside a painting. Coldplay is rocking out in Eugène Delacroix’s French romantic painting Liberty Leading the People, which depicts the July Revolution of 1830 and the downfall of Charles X. For this song Coldplay abandons their tradition use of piano, which has driven most of their other ballads to suit the needs of the music video – creating a feeling of an ongoing revolution. Coldplay uses instruments that were around at the time of the July Revolution – a brass drum and the liberty bell; such instruments are hardly ever used in rock songs. The ‘revolutionary’ sound is expanded upon by the filmmaker’s ability to paint a revolutionary world. When you look at the painting by Delacroix one cannot help but notice the cracks and fissures throughout the painting which immerses the painting in the authenticity of a distant past. The music video takes the whole notion of the song one step further by actually tying our two worlds together – the painting and the twenty-first century technology. The music video looks like a real live French Romanism painting – including cracks and fissures. The director of the video Hype Williams blends the colour and texture of the original painting and adds his own distinctive touch incorporating the aesthetically appealing aspects of the painting into a modern alt-rock music video. At a time when our world is rot with people feeling cheated by the government there is almost an underlying fear, or excitement depending a pone who you are, of a revolution occurring. Unfortunately, Liberty Leading the People and other paints of that era are slowing being forgotten, and too is the knowledge of how to learn from our ancestors. Because of how far our technology has come Coldplay has been able to renew society’s interest and give back the things society may have forgotten. It has been said that painting is a dying medium, but activists like Coldplay are keeping it alive. In the conclusion of the music video the members of Coldplay start to flake away, like a painting flaking off in a breeze. This seems to hint that in the near future events of our time could very well be forgotten and mediums like television could be a thing of the past – a forgotten medium.
