"Pompeii" by Bastille, Tuesday, December 14, 2021

In 2014, I wasn't listening for what was next in Alternative music. Rock music in the early '10s was disappointing me with all of the Imagine Dragons and Coldplay knock offs. When my friend, fellow music blogger Stephen Barry told me I should check out Bastille, I reluctantly did, but I didn't really listen to them. I just listened to them in passing. My music tastes at that time were: rock should be rock (i.e. Linkin Park and Anberlin), not trying to disguise itself behind big, bright production. I don't think that way anymore. Bastille became a hit in America because of today's song. After reaching #2 on the UK pop charts, the song became a #5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and it topped the Alternative Songs chart. While I would love to bring you another Christmas song, today we take a break from Christmas.

BUT IF YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES..."Pompeii" is a strange pop song. It literally describes the conversation between two people about to be killed in the ancient Italian city as the ash from Mt. Vesuvius consumes everything around them. The band's lead singer and songwriter Dan Smith described the eerie events leading up to the destruction. The song begins with what many listeners might think is just a random phrase sung for effect; however, the ehoh is Latin, meaning alas. Descriptions of the shaking ground and the billowing ash make the singer question "How am I going to be an optimist about this?" Meanwhile, he questions "If you close your eyes, does it feel like nothing's changed at all?" The people of Pompeii had experienced earthquakes and even small eruptions in the years before AD 79. The people with their lavish lifestyles hoped to appease the gods with human sacrifices at the volcano; however, they closed their eyes to the portentous doom that awaited them. The strongest metaphors in poetry and music do not have a key for interpretation within the work. "Pompeii" can literally be a song about the doomed Southern Italian city, or it can have implications for today. What are the red flags you are closing your eyes to?

DOES IT FEEL LIKE NOTHING CHANGED AT ALL? 

Many had attempted to excavate the city throughout history, however, starting in the 1960s, archaeologists started taking greater care to preserve the ruins of Pompeii. In 1972, Pink Floyd filed a concert without an audience in the ancient city. The band performed their older psychedelic, but some footage shows the band recording their 1973 masterpiece Dark Side of the Moon. Director Adrien Maben found, after losing his passport in the ancient city, was that the excavated amphitheater had extraordinary acoustics, as did the bombed Coventry cathedral from yesterday. The Floydian concept would have been an interesting take for Bastille's music video; however, instead the "Summertime Sadness" director, Jesse John Jenkins, sets the concept of the music video in present day Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California. Singer Dan Smith appears in a post-apocalyptic world in which the people's eyes grow dark, possibly turning to ash. The video mimics several scenes from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The doom of the video shows that we all have the potential to become soul-less in the fight for what we believe in. It may be easier to "close your eyes" and pretend "like nothing's changed at all," but if we don't, we might be able to leave the doomed city. We might be able to make a difference when everyone else is complacent. 

Read “Pompeii” by Bastille on Genius

(Image from The Independent, Wikipedia Commons)

Official Music Video:

Live in Paris (acoustic):