Analysis

Heidi Ault

Composition I
Dilbeck

7, October 2013
 

“Coming Down”

     The text that I used for analysis is the music video of  Coming Down by Five Finger Death Punch .The video starts off with what seems like two sad individuals. One woman, putting on make-up  with medication beside her laying down a envelope on a table. The other, a man with sunken eyes staring ahead with a gun in his hand. The woman is looking in the mirror and the man is walking towards his parents who happen to be sitting in the kitchen. He pulls back the trigger and kills himself in front of his parents, and she begin to get herself ready.

As you can tell already the song has a lot of sadness  and anger with both the world around them and themselves embedded into it. As the video goes on you see the preparation for each of the individuals suicides and the responses of those who had found them. The first line of the song, “It’s caving in around me, what I thought was solid ground,” talks about how the world of these individuals is starting to collapse before their eyes. The next line, “I tried to look the other way, but I couldn’t turn around.” This line says that the didn't want to see their world collapsing but there was nothing else the could do, the could not go back to the way that their lives used to be.

    Then the song says “It’s okay for you to hate me, for all of the things I’ve done,” referring to maybe the mistakes that they had made in their lives or their suicide. It goes on to say “I’ve made a few mistakes, but I’m not the only one,” referring to the fact that you can be mad at me for the things that I have done in my life but that the other person to which they are speaking to has done things also that have led to this ultimate ending. Then you hear, “Step away from the ledge, I'm’ coming down.” This is not only the title of the song but it refers to the suicides of these two individuals whose process of suicide is dragged out throughout the video showing each step, what they went through, and seeing what was going through their mind as they were going through with the process of ending their young lives.

The next lines are, “I could never be what you want me to. You Pull me under, to save yourself.” Stating that they don't think that they could ever live up to the expectations that have been placed on them, and that those around them have dragged them down in order to bring themselves back up. Then the lines “You will never see what's inside of me.” saying that you could never see or feel the feelings that I Have. You hear “was there ever any question on how much i could take, you kept feeding me your bullshit, hoping I would break.” saying that you kept making me feel bad about myself and  my life before you could see where my breaking point was.

“Is the anybody out there, is there anyone who cares? Is there anybody listening to hear my final prayers,” are the lines next said stating that does anyone see what I am going through or do people see it and just not care? Is anyone even listening to me before I'm done with the world and want out? “Its caving in around us, its tearing me apart,” refers to when the woman finds the mas blog labeled “Teen Suicide Blog” and she realizes she not the only one in this and gets angry that people are putting them through the torture and slams the laptop shut. “Its all coming down around me, does anyone, does anyone care at all?” This pleading  is in hopes that someone is out there listening and may try to help them or even care about the problems that they face.

You see both individual bullied by their peers. The boy through kids at school that try to hurt him who he runs from what seems daily. And the girl who is not confident in her beauty and posts a naked picture on the internet from the stomach up to show people that she has a nice body apparently. In turn people post comments and ridicule her that she is a slut and she gets texts messages from boys saying “Spread em’,” and “Soap em’ up.” In turn making each individual feel worse about themselves that they already did. On top of that it seems that their home life with their parents is not good with a lot of screaming and yelling through out the video. this makes them feel that no one is there for them not even the ones who are supposed to care for them, their family. This leads to what seems a long battle for each of them through cutting, smoking, drinking, huffing and eventually the ultimate act of killing themselves.

     The video is encouraging teens to seek help and that suicide is not the only way out, while paying tribute to those who have found their way out through the act of suicide. It wants them to see that it is not the only option that they have and through listening to the song, someone is out there listening to their pain and that someone really does care about what they are feeling and what they are going through. it send a good message in a disturbing way showing the consequences of their actions taken and that they are not the only ones in the world that are going through what they are going through. That there is people out there just like them for them to find comfort in their lives with, and that suicide is not their only option.



Coming Down by Five Finger Death Punch

Source:

 

Five Finger Death Punch- Coming Down. Dir. Nick Peterson. Pref. Samantha Gill, Leland Montgomery. Prospect Park. Music.