OneRepublic- something I need music video

I was so excited when I heard this Track was going to be a single and that a video was being made, it was also great timing that came out the day after counting stars finally got number 1 in the uk and I hope this does well in the charts too.

 I really liked this song when I heard it on the album, this song is the essence of OneRepublic because they have a habit of writing songs about the importance of life and living in the moment like good life, waking up, won't stop,life in colour ,I lived ect and then they have songs that are "looking at how bad certain things in life can be but it doesn't really matter because they aren't really important" like all I need, secrets and all the right moves, this song however has a sprinkling of morbidity for good measure.

The message of the song is that when you love someone, really love someone like the kind of "I can't imagine not being with you" kind of love you should treasure it, simply because when you die it's much nicer to die without regrets and if you love that person that much shouldn't let them go.

The video portrays this differently to how the song felt in my mind, in my mind it seemed to say "I'm sorry for all the stuff I put you through so thank you for putting up with me. I love you." when the video seemed to say "life is short, don't put things off like asking that person out on a date because your sacred or you will probably regret it in the long run." and I suppose it's a similar message it's both about love and keeping it alive but it just wasn't what I expected.

I think the video also parodies music videos by the likes of Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke, the way that hashtags are flashed up in white mirrored Can't stop by Miley and then Blurred lines and give it to you by Robin Thicke only it is much more sarcastic in nature like when #blessed and #winning pop up while a man is being attacked by a dog and coughing blood up respectively, it's clearly meant to be a joke and the close up of Ryan Tedder in a white room is a clear parody of wrecking ball by Miley Cyrus, the lighting does nothing for him and the thumbnail of his face is goofy looking and I think that was their intention, it's meant to be funny.

They could have used anything for the thumbnail and there tons of shots they could've used that would've looked edgy or attractive but instead they opted for Ryan grinning creepily into the camera, it kind of sets the mood for the whole video without spoiling anything.


The video follows a man who see's a woman he likes the look of but is shy and reluctant to get her attention, he tries approaching her be gets embarrassed and then he gets attacked by a dog followed by "#blessed", obviously this man isn't blessed and I think it's meant to show how you feel people try and tell you (like OneRepublic do all the time) how great life is and you should be happy and grateful when you really aren't feeling it.

I think the dog is the personified (or cainieified/dogified) fear of rejection, he's scared to ask her out because he doesn't want to be rejected so the dog attacks him and he doesn't get the girl.

The man is then seen hobbling down the street, the fact he couldn't ask her out has made his fear of rejection worse and it's shown by the physical wounds inflicted on him by the dog.
He stops at newspaper stand and buys a newspaper which says there is a rabid dog on the lose with a picture of the dog that attacked him which must be scary because now he probably thinks he is going to die, if the dog is meant to be rejection and the he's scared the dog is killing him it must mean he has accpted/started to believe he will die alone.

This has double meaning, in the sense of the dog literally being a rabid dog (without symbolism) he will die alone because he has rabies and has no one to love but if you think of the dog as representing a fear of rejection it's like his fear is stopping him taking a chance to find someone so he will die alone.

The woman turns up an he is given a second chance to ask her out but he becomes scared and the dog comes out and chases him, he is still scared about rejection even though he is now worried about being forever alone, he is fulfilling his own prophesy.

For some reason the man stops running to pull some OneRepublic posters off a wall which seems like a stupid thing to do when you're being chased by a rabid dog but I guess it would've caught up with him sooner or later.
I think he pulls the posters because OneRepublic's songs (like I mentioned before) are about how amazingly great and how painfully short life is and he clearly disagree's because he feels like he is going to die a lonesome horrible death, Maybe the director/band are trying to tell us that you shouldn't give up so easily and to live a little not like this man.

As the man dies coughing up globs of lung the "#winning" hashtag flashes up, The hashtags seem to be based off things that people might say on twitter like when things are going their way or things looking up they might add a hashtag that says YOLO or winning or something and I guess they are taking the mickey out of that kind of culture, like with the blessed hashtag earlier I think it's meant to show people tell you to be grateful of what you have and to be happy when you aren't grateful or happy it's the same notion behind the pulling of the posters it's like he telling everyone to stop telling him to be happy because his situation feels impossible.

You know that feeling when you're in complete and utter despair and everyone is trying to tell you to cheer up, it could be so much worse and you don't understand how it can feel any worse, but at the end of the they were right and it wasn't really that bad or things got better eventually. This video is for those people who don't understand they were wrong yet.

At the man's funeral didn't have a massive turn out of people, possibly because he didn't take risks and also to show that he spent his whole life worried about dying alone and being rejected that he never found anyone to be with so he died lonely.

Ryan Tedder is singing at his funeral with a choir, I for one would love it for Ryan Tedder and the rest of the band to perform at my funeral but this guy probably didn't like them because he pulled their posters off a board in rage so he probably doesn't want Ryan there at his funeral.
This is probably Ryan's way of saying "I told you so", the man was so worried about being rejected and being alone he never got to ask the girl out, if he had listened to OneRepublic and took some more chances and lived a little he might not have ended up dying alone.

Despite the fact that the man is dead the dog runs into the church and starts attacking the man in his open coffin, possibly to show that now he is dead he regrets not taking the chance to ask the woman out, the dog pulls the man out of the coffin and the man wakes up.

The woman turns up to the funeral with a dog of her own and the other dog stops attacking the man and presumably the man and the woman can be together now, the fact the woman has a dog too shows (if the dogs really do symbolise fear of rejection) that she was also scared and that probably everyone is sacred of rejection but you shouldn't let it get in the way, the fact she has her dog on a lead and he has his dog attacking him shows that she has better control over her fears.
Showing the two dogs at the end of video sitting calmly probably indicates that the people started dating because they no longer had an issue with rejection.

I'm not sure whether the message is "to not let your fears get in the way of your happiness so go out there and make it happen", "don't give up on life, you can still be scared but things do get better just wait for it to happen" or "start apprenticing your self a little more you're going to find love some day".
I'm just not sure what they mean exactly but I guess all three of those could be right and maybe you should just do all three.

On a side note Where was OneRepublic? I just saw Ryan in this video, where was Brent, Zach, Drew and Eddie, they could have fit them in somewhere.

I don't know about you but I'm feeling guilty now , I need to get off the computer more out start going outside and doing social stuff, I promise I'll start tomorrow.I swear.