He catches her glance while working at a meat market, he finds where she lives, he stays outside her window, he watches her sleep, he follows her to a club, and so on. The amount of pictures hanging on the walls shows how intoxicated he is with her. Throughout the entirety of the Music Video, Adam Levine’s character is dreaming of what it would be like to have this woman to himself. There are two sides in which he sees himself. One is clean-shaven and well kept. The other is purely not put together, rugged, greased hair, dirty clothes, etc. Is Adam Levine making this Animal-istic feature known to the world or is he simply just targeting “those” girls in the bars and telling them to watch out?

If there was any doubt in mind about Levine’s lyrics having to do with the notion of stalking, the music video surely clears this hypothesis up, but the track also hints at primalistic tendencies; raw and visceral emotions that cannot otherwise be controlled. There is a general theme of black and red throughout the video. That being said, “Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown, ie black holes.” [1] Within the context of the song and music video, Levine’s character is mischievous and full of unbridled thoughts of what could be. On the other hand, “Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.” 1 Levine’s obsession with meat is shown through the blood that is constantly spilled and rubbed throughout the video. This only amps the question of what does he really want with this girl? Does he want to really shower and make love in blood or does he want to rub the meat blood over her skin like he does with himself? No matter what he wants, it will not serve his mania.

The bass pattern is identical from start to finish; this could be interpreted as someone beating down a door. That urge of wanting and yearning for that intoxicating drug makes one violent and hungry. Not exactly a hunger for food, but nevertheless there is an appetite. One would do anything it takes to satisfy that hunger. That being said, this bass could be referenced as a heart beat that is frantically rushing due to the wanting of the drug. Representing the constant shaking, ie when without coffee, one feels weak. In this case, Levine gets high off of the pictures of her. He beats down the door and has repeatedly taken photos of the girl. Lays himself down next to her and, with out waking her, stares at her and imagines how life would or will be.

The Huffington Post described this video as disturbing and resembling Carrie, a horror movie about an abused, teenage girl that discovers she has telekinesis. Later on in the movie, she is awarded prom queen as a joke and has pig blood dumped on her. Then reeks havoc on the entire school and starts killing those who made fun of her. The big dilemma continues to be the shocking use of his wife. “What is he trying to say? Objectify your wife, put blood all over her, stalk her, and compare her to pieces of meat?” [2]

Sociologically, women are thought of as meat and playthings to those not willing to appreciate. There is constant meat craving with Levine’s character, not because he works in a meat shop, but the man is hanging around and humping meat in the stock room. This aspect could be viewed as animalistic cravings for the desired prey and also as a metaphor for women. The idea that this woman is being treated and thought of as another “piece of meat” has enraged groups like The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). After the release of the Music Video, Maroon 5 was slammed and criticized for releasing a “dangerous depiction of a stalker’s fantasy.” [3] The act of making love in pouring blood seems to be a twisted newlywed game for recently married couple. This whole stalking and creeping pursuit is dangerous due to the fact that it allows viewers to believe that this sort of action is allowed in society. These messages are not distant from Maroon 5’s musical release history.

It’s quite different from some of the positive, up-beat tracks we’ve heard from Maroon 5 in the past, but does it maybe speak to a darker side of Adam Levine that isn’t out there? This isn’t the first song released by Maroon 5 that was based on violence. Misery released in 2010 fully shows Levine being beaten by a girl to get a point across; he will do anything to be with her. Similar to Maroon 5’s music, The Police’s Every Breath You Take is another song with a similar controversial message. “The lyrics of the song “Every Breath You Take” by the Police demonstrate the danger that accompanies independence, especially if that involves rejecting a man, implying that being owned is beautiful.” [4] There seems to be a glorification on rape culture, which in itself is ironic due to the fact that Levine is such a desirable person to begin with.

The point of view of the stalker is an ‘Animal’ instinct that is repeated through the lyrics. “Baby, I’m preying on you tonight. Hunt you down eat you alive. Just like animals, animals, like animals.” [5] We all have an animal inside of us that attacks and preys. Not to say that these choices of prey are humans, but whether it be video games, snacks, the gym, etc., we all have something that we cannot live without.

[1] “Color Wheel Pro — See Color Theory in Action.” Color Wheel Pro: Color Meaning. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

[2] Marcus, Stephanie. “Maroon 5's ‘Animals’ Video Slammed By Sexual Assault Support Group.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

[3] Alter, Charlotte. “New Adam Levine Video Confuses Violence and Love.” Time, 2 Oct. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.

[4] The Police, “Every Breath You Take” from Synchronicity, Vinyl, A&M, 1983.

[5] “Animals” is track #2 on the album V. It was written by Levin, Benjamin Joseph / Schuster, Johan Karl / Levine, Adam.

Within Sia’s song, Elastic Heart, there are moments of agony, suffering and love. All of this can be found within the two actors in her Official Music Video for Elastic Heart; Maddie Ziegler and Shia LaBeouf. For example, LaBeouf’s character reveals suffering by being a slave to Ziegler’s torment. Sia is yearning for and yet suffering from love’s unrelenting torment. What is this torment? Sia has come public with the truth of her father and their relationship. It is also public that Elastic Heart is all about her relationship between she and her father, but is it true? A constant finger tapping on the chest shows LaBeouf’s uncontrollable heartbeat. Ziegler has a constant need to spread her eyes and scream with her wide-open mouth. With out knowing Sia or her father, could this be ways her father expressed himself within his two different minds?

Before chiseling any deeper into Sia’s cave, there has to be some sort of connection and understanding to the two actors portraying Sia’s father. Even before that, we should have some idea of Sia’s relationship with her father. This has been rumored and discussed, but what is so important about it? Sia said during an interview that she does “find him amusing. [She] thinks it’s the only way to function within the relationship. Growing up he had two very unique personalities. One was called Phil and one was called Stan. Phil was like the best dad ever. He was fun but he was eloquent and he was present and interesting and interested. When Stan came around stuff got scary.” [1] Sia’s father could have had, or still has (whether or not he is still alive) Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder, which is when a mental process doesn’t produce a connection in a person’s thoughts, feelings or sense of identity. Phil Colson, his full name, was known to having multiple sides and names.

Sia once covered the song by Madonna, Oh Father. Some lyrics within the song express sadness and how no hurt can come anymore. For example, “you can’t hurt me now. I got away from you, I never thought I would. You can’t make me cry; you had the power. I never felt so good about myself.” The typical reason for covering a particular song is based on relativity to ones life, but some are also done because of a liking to what the song means, how it makes one feel and so forth. There is underlying connection between both song lyrics. Elastic Heart: “You did not break me; I’m still fighting for peace” and Oh Father: “You can’t me cry; you had the power” are two very strong emotional sentences that capture her struggle. There is no record of Sia’s father being abusive, but there are context clues within “When Stan came around stuff got scary.” [1]

Ziegler’s connection to Sia is underdeveloped though the connection between father and daughter is spelled out more clearly. Maybe Ziegler is portraying Sia as a childish character fighting off LaBeouf’s character. As a child, Sia could have wanted to stand up to her scary sided dad (Ziegler), but couldn’t. Now that LaBeouf was able to fight against the anger-driven Ziegler, Sia was able to complete her process of “how will this work?”

Ziegler and LaBeouf are within the pulling-each-other mindset that attracts the audience. The movements and story told by the two actors were so capturing that there was no recollection of Sia singing. The way that the story is separately told in the midst of fighting against one another captures the audience into controversial awe. The actors are given skin colored clothing, but upon further notice, LaBeouf’s hands and Ziegler’s feet and hands are painted neon pink. This must have a connection to Sia because upon further discovery, Sia wears pink in the simplest ways. Whether it is a hair tie or the faintest color on a skirt, she wears it. This could be a coincidence, but maybe because pink is associated as a girl’s color, she puts it on Ziegler the most to make a point?

Ziegler’s relationship with Sia is not some long-term relationship that started from Sia knowing Ziegler from her birth. No, Sia saw Maddie Ziegler perform on the hit Television show Dance Moms. She knew from the moment she saw her on screen, dancing her head off that she was the one she wanted. Ziegler in many ways could have been the perfect person to not only reflect Sia’s life story, but to also be able to explain the story. Ziegler could possibly be the only person who could explain Sia’s relationship with her father.

Ziegler said while in an interview that though they have “lived in the cage for a year, [she is] the strong one and [she is] supposed to kill [LaBeouf].” [2] That leads off many different thoughts. For example, in the music video, there is a cage with both Ziegler and LaBeouf inside. Why a cage? Why two people? Aren’t cages meant for just one animal? From a personal opinion, the cage is represented as the father’s brain with his two characteristics clashing. Here reintroducing the idea of her father having multiple personalities.

Sia continues not to show her face in public and in her videos. If I were a betting man, I would have to say that this would be a continuing phase. Is this because of her connection or abusive past with her father? Sia could very well be ashamed of herself enough to cover her face with bananas during an interview. Soon we will see her walking down the red carpet with instead of bananas on her face, she will have a dress made of bananas. Katy Perry has her hair colors and dancing sharks. Lady Gaga has her extravagant outfits. This triangular and controversial relationship could just be her way of having a celebrity “thing”.

[1] Moskovitch, Greg. “10 Things We Learned From Sia’s Howard Stern Interview.” 10 Things We Learned. Music Feeds, 19 June 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8EmmhP4Cyk