Music Video Analysis: DENIAL IS A RIVER by Doechii
Grammy award-winning artist, Doechii, stars in Denial Is A River Show. The show is the theme of the music video. “DENIAL IS A RIVER” is a story about Doechii’s come up in the music industry. She talks about her battles before she’s signed, industry life and substance abuse.
The title card is written in a retro yellow font, with a shot of a yellow house behind it. The retro font represents the past, or in this case, the beginning.
Yellow and Green are the first colors we see. Green represents growth and nature, while yellow represents energy. Brown is also shown, representing stability and earthiness. All three of these colors represent a part of the earth, plants, sun, and soil. Black is shown in the decorations and appliances, representing elegance. The green is a lighter shade in the living room, and a darker shade in the kitchen. This represents how her innocence presents to others versus where she comes from, Florida.
Here, the Green represents the swamp, as her album cover is a deep bold green. The outfit she’s in and the flowers she’s carrying are white. White represents innocence and new beginnings, as she hasn’t signed her label yet. The furniture and decorations are minimal and cozy-looking, like a regular family home.
The second outfit is a bit flashier; the white tainted with red and purple after she’s signed to her label, Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). Red represents power and authority, while purple represents royalty. She’s signed now and is releasing music, feeling on top of the world. The green wallpaper, changing slightly in saturation, represents her losing the essence of the swamp and configuring what the label wants out of her. The furniture is also flashier with an abundance of plants surrounding the living room. This represents that she carries the swamp with her, just not as much.
Things get chaotic and out of hand after she’s signed. She’s famous now and the media can’t leave her alone. The label has expectations of her, she can’t let them down, but she’s growing exhausted of it all.
The green wallpaper is now red, representing that she’s out of the swamp. However, the photo she put up from before remains. This means she hasn’t forgotten what TDE has done for her. The furniture has changed once again, this time with its records on the wall as decoration. There is a filter making it appear shiny with gleams. This represents her status as a celebrity, with accolades to back up her success.
The outfit is blue denim, white, brown and red. Red represents power and authority, while blue represents trustworthiness. TDE uses red, blue and black in their brand, according to their official merchandise website. She trusts TDE to grow her into the artist that she wants to be, not what they want out of her.
The format switches from a square view to a landscape view. At this point, Doechii is going through a tough time. Getting vulnerable to the audience, the camera goes behind her, so we see her point of view. This represents the path that she is on to talk about her substance abuse. She admits her problems and is aware that she’s not in the right mind.
Taking the TV show from real life to behind the scenes, she begins to roll with the camera. As she raps, the audience and crew members start to leave in the background. This represents the journey she had with drugs, the more she did, the more people left. She gets cleaned up after realizing how damaging it is to her self-worth.
