Music Video Analysis- Shakespears Sister Stay

Shakespeare sister is a soft rock/Alternative rock band and which began in 1988, consisting of Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit. Their song "Stay" is one of their best known tracks and music video.

Alternative rock bands tend to have very narrative-driven videos, similar to pop, however they are usually more detailed and meaningful than pop videos.

This is seen in "Stay", there is a basic storyline of a dying love interest, but there is a lot left to interpretation when Fahey's character enters the video. Her aggressive, wide-eyed, grinning presence has led people to spectate that she is Death trying to take away the dying man. Although, due to the somewhat controlling lyrics sang by Detroit, it has been thought that Fahey represents a voice of reason telling Detroit to let go of this person she is overpowering.

The visuals match the lyrics as a typical rock video would, but they are more artistic, creating a conceptual narrative, free for the audience to interpret.

Due to the video being more cinematic, there are many close ups used, which are commonly seen in alternative rock videos, in order to show the emotions of the person on screen, similarly to how a film would show individual emotions.

There are also high angle shots used to establish the scene, showing the characters and setting in full, to orientate the audience.

A commonly seen trait in alternative rock videos is the band/actors being in a surreal location, in "Stay" the scene is in space, this fails to relate to the lyrics or visuals but could either be to define the band's individuality or just for aesthetic purposes. This relates to an intertextual reference though, as the video was inspired by the 1953 film; "Cat women of the Moon".

In "Stay" the pace of edit begins slowly to match the tempo of the song, the camera is also kept kinetic while the music is at a slower pace, using a lot of slow pan shots.

Once Fahey's character enters the video the tempo of the song increases and the pace of edit speeds up, becoming more erratic, to match both the beat of the song and the visuals of the video which is Fahey and Detroit fighting over the dying man.

The use of lighting at the beginning was dim and created shadows over the dying man and across Detroit's face. The lights become over saturated once the song picks up, causing Fahey's costume to sparkle, almost blinding Detroit, the lights also begin to flash as the tempo of the song picks up, while the fight scene goes on.

In most of Shakespears Sister's videos, it is commonly seen that Detroit is dressed much more subtly than Fahey. In "Stay" she is dressed in a plain black dress, with her hair short, straight and smooth whereas Fahey is wearing a sparkling catsuit and tinsel halo, with dark lipstick and messily curled hair. The only similarity in their costumes is the heavy black eyeliner, which can be seen as a familiar motif of the band as they are seen wearing this most of the time.