Will Belle and Sebastian's "Nobody's Empire" music video end oppression? First of all: no. "Nobody's Empire" will not end oppression. This is not to say that the video isn't an inspiring or hopeful piece of art, or that it won't motivate its viewers to be active in fighting injustice. Belle and Sebastian and video directors Blair Young and Stuart Murdoch certainly aren't saying/showing anything that would harm the progress of ending oppression. The video is an archive of both the exquisite and the macabre, and it uses this juxtaposition of beauty and horror to convey the sensation of suppression and dread in images of flowering trees or flying birds next to images of young people being shot in the head or hospital IV's. In the recurring master shot in the video, a crippled woman, a young man wearing 1940's-era garb, and a woman dancing with a machine gun are grouped together in a way that evokes revolution and resistance. Meanwhile, the song lyrics, too, project a sense of urgency and a call for action: "Intellect, ambition, they fell away; they locked me up for my own good," Belle and Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch sings in the third verse, and then later, "On the edge of nobody's empire, if we live by books and we live by hope, does that make us targets for gunfire?" The images combined with the lyrics make a good case for fighting oppression; they're stirring and exhilarating and noble. That said, there will be no big uprising in reaction to this music video, there will be no sea change, as it were, just because of the line, "You're a quiet revolution, marching with the crowd, singing dirty and loud for the people's emancipation."
The "Nobody's Empire" video is simply too nice. It's too pretty and inspirational and upbeat. Revolutions don't start on the backs of good lighting and modern dance and pictures of sunny meadows. Even including the more "disturbing" images in "Nobody's Empire," like a bomb going off and destroying a city, the video is still too full of flowers and babies and couples holding hands to really spark any uproars. The video doesn't say "Look how horrible everything is, we must fix it," it says, "Some things are bad, but the good stuff overshadows the bad stuff." That's a wonderful, important message to send, but it's not going to start or end any wars. It's not going to change anything at all, really.
One of the biggest problems is the intended audience of the music video. "Nobody's Empire" is aimed at Belle and Sebastian's target audience: primarily North American and European listeners to have access to the luxuries of funky, nontraditional alt. pop. It is not directed at those being critically oppressed in the world, simply because those who suffer from major oppression like tyrannical governments or extreme poverty don't even have access to the publication of this music video. So they're not benefiting from viewing it because they're not viewing it.
Moreover, the video demands change, but doesn't gets its hands dirty. It portrays violence and hunger and war in cursory glimpses, but nothing graphic. There's nothing really shocking or dangerous in it because---as terrible as it may be---we (a collective society) are very accustomed to the consequences of violence and hunger and war. We're used to it.
A good example of an anti-oppression movement that had the balls, if you will, to really put their beliefs into action is the Russian feminist Riot Grrrl punk band/protest group, Pussy Riot. In 2011, the group of eleven masked women started doing guerrilla performances around Moscow, making statements about women's rights and LGBTQA rights, plus opposing the inconsistencies and injustices established by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The demonstrations were vulgar and combative and profane. In a strict and oppressed system like Russia, all these acts were illegal and resulted in the arrest and incarceration of three of Pussy Riot's members, and later, their public assault. However, due to the radical nature of Pussy Riot's demonstrations, the world clamored around Pussy Riot and their subversive ideals for change. "Free Pussy Riot" became an international campaign, and a slogan for gender rights and freedom of speech. Following the arrests, there were protests all over the world and political upheaval in Russia that finally ended with the release and amnesty of not only the Pussy Riot members, but also other "high-profile" Russian political prisoners who had "disturbed the peace" like members of Greenpeace. Pussy Riot is an example of an artistic movement that wasn't afraid of getting a little bit ugly---they didn't juxtapose their messages next to pretty landscapes or happy children like in the "Nobody's Empire" video---but sometimes ugliness and trauma is the only way to make change actually happen.
"Nobody's Empire" has a phenomenal message---it's a good reminder, it makes you think---but it's too tame to actively fight oppression. It's not going to change anybody's mind, only reinforce their current beliefs and opinions about oppression.
