Music Video Analysis Essay

Today I will be describing my design for a music video set in ancient Sumer. My video will depict elements from the Hymns of Inanna and the video of “Blurred Lines.” These two elements will allow a reflection of the cultural metanarrative and the sexual script of ancient Sumer. The video will play out between two gods and a priestess. My video will have four main sections that will breakdown what the video consists of and how it all comes together. These sections will be my main characters, setting, imagery, and lastly the theme of the video. There will be subsections that serve to only expand on each of my main sections and to give clarity to them. First, we will have three main characters. The first character is Kullasina-Bel. I have chosen

The imagery will consist of Nintuda, Hunabatum, and Kullasina-Bel. First, Nintuda a great friend of Hunabatum and she does whatever she can to help Hunabatum out. Nintuda is always dressed properly, has a near perfect body, and comes from a very respected and good family. Nintuda has chosen to be celibate and she does her best to help Hunabatum find the right man for her as Hunabatum takes good care of Nintuda and treats her well. Nintuda just by herself in the video is a piece of valuable imagery because she represents the priestesses that worked in Sumer. Her aspects of devotion to Hunabatum, celibacy, and mesmerizing qualities allude to her being a priestess in relation to the cultural metanarrative of Sumerian culture. There is a clip in the video where we see Nintuda admire Hunabatum from afar as she proclaims her as “mighty, majestic, radiant, and ever youthful” (Hymns 110). These words are part of the song lyrics and refer to the Hymns of Inanna that were sung during the festive celebration of Inanna and Dumuzi’s coming together. Now we move on to Hunabatum and her imagery. During the video, it is shown that Hunabatum’s favorite food is gug-bread with date syrup. This bread is instrumental in creating the video because it suggests that Hunabatum is an extension of Inanna because this also alludes to the Hymns of Inanna where the people of Sumer prepare various types of meals which include gug-bread with date syrup.

If we just simply look at the video from a viewer’s perspective, we will just see a poor farmer boy falling in love with a rich and powerful girl. We must look further than just the basic of the video and pay attention to the behind the scenes meanings of each image and object. In the last couple of seconds of the video, we see Nintuda preparing the time and place for where Hunabatum and Kullasina-Bel will meet to confess their love for each other. She prepares a nice rug on the floor of a room in the Ziggurat. This represents the bridal sheet and represents the high priestess preparing the holy bed where Dumuzi and Inanna come together. When Kullasina-Bel makes his way to the temple, he is carrying with him Billy the Goat to take as an offering to Hunabatum. This is one of the most powerful scenes in the video because it depicts exactly when King Dumuzi brings many offerings to Queen Inanna to prove that he is worthy of her. Once Hunabatum and Kullasina-Bel meet, there is an instant energy that rejoices their hearts and makes them fall in love with each other. Just as the music video ends, we hear two last lines of the song which utter “Let it flow from eat to mouth, Hunabatum and Kullasina-Bel kiss sensually with no doubt” (Hymns 36). This last clip seals the theme of the video as a scared union between both Hunabatum and Kullasina-Bel as they follow the same foundations of Dumuzi and Inanna and where they