Skylar Grey - Invisible

Holly Brook Hafermann, is a Grammy-nominated American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She is signed to Machine Shop Recordings, Interscope and KIDinaKORNER. Holly is better known by her stage name ‘Skylar Grey’. She explained that “it represents the unknowns in life. People seem to be afraid of the unknowns, but I’m the complete opposite. I dive into the unknown because I feel like that’s where all your possibilities come from.” She explained to Beatweek that she chose "grey" with an ‘e’ rather than an ‘a’ because “I like to do things the original way". Her mantra is also represented throughout her music video as her video deviates from common conventions of music videos and portrays a prevailing message that many people within society can relate to.


The artist, worked with Interscope Records to produce Invisible; financial support from Atlantic Records which owned 53% in the stock label. Skylar Grey’s debut album, Invinsible will be released in 2012. The singer wrote the inspiring song last year while living in the Oregon wilderness. The poignant video was shot by director Jay Martin, who has also worked with Death Cab For Cutie and Wolfmother. I shall be using Andrew Goodwins writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992) to analyse this single.

Firstly Andrew Goodwin states that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. This is apparent in the music video of the song ‘Invisible’ as it demonstrates the genre characteristics of extreme emotions and reality. The video conveys how the lead singer, Skylar Grey, feels unnoticed and ignored; which results in her being emotionally unstable. Her emotions are robustly portrayed in the video as various scenes are shown of her attempting to commit suicide.

Secondly, he reported there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals throughout the song. The costume of Skylar Grey emphasises her twisted life as she is clothed in fully black; t-shirt, hoodie, army boots, and also wearing heavy top eyeliner and jet black dyed hair. The outfit and makeup are the representations of ‘emos’ which creates a gothic persona. Skylar also looks down most of the time and her body language seems tense, which demonstrates that she is not confident within herself but also relates back to the lyrics of the song; ‘why do I always feel invisible?’

A scene is shown where the protagonist is setting fire to herself, with people either side of her who do not take any notice; the framing is black and white although the flames are orange. This amplifies the importance of the iconography of fire, such as danger, harm and death whilst using parallel sound as the singer says ‘Even when I set myself on fire, why do I always feel invisible?’ What the audience see is related back to the lyrics of the song as this is also a convention of music videos. The visuals are illustrative as they demonstrate to the audience what the singer is singing about and amplify the narrative aspect of the music video.

Another example is when Skylar Grey is conveying the fact that whatever she does, such as taking pills and cutting her wrists, people do not take notice of her. Skylar also portrays that she goes to extreme lengths to attempt to obtain attention by singing ‘Even when I’m walking on a wire’ and at the same time, a frame of her is shown stepping off a towering skyscraper and walking onto a narrow plank from that height. The visual amplifies the emotion of hurt and pain Skylar Grey is suffering from, and allows the audience to empathise with her situation.

Andrew Goodwin also stated that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. Most songs, including ‘Invisible’ has an introduction of only music and visuals to prepare the audience for the actual narrative of the video. The first shot the viewers see is a high angle shot of a lustrous grey skyscraper. Then the shot changes to either close up and mid shots of 4 people that seem distressed and unhappy and all appear as to be looking at the skyscraper. The first person is an afro-carribean young adult, about 18 years of age, looking up at the skyscraper; however the skyscraper itself is not shown. One may say he is looking up to see that he is thinking of committing suicide by jumping off building as he is stuck in a troubled life and cannot find a healthy way to escape the situation. The second person is a woman in her 30’s rubbing the back of her neck and looking down. Her body posture conveys she has experienced a situation and does not have any hope left. The third person is a 25 year old man adult shown at a high angle with DrDre Headphones around his neck. This may suggest that he is tired of life and he attempts to block the world out by just listening to his music. He looks as if he is in a deep thought about something that is troubling him. And lastly a young girl, around 8 years of age is shown with her hair blowing in the wind. It seems there is no hope left in her eyes as she may either have a dysfunctional family or bullied in school. Each person that is shown is accompanied with 2 sharp guitar strums that is generally low pitched. This amplifies the emotional aspect of the video as the music is dull and seems to link these 4 individuals together; even though each believes that they are the only ones that are in a stressful situation with no escape. As the narrative of the video is dark and disturbing, low key lighting is used. This creates sharp contrast of both dark and light colours which creates a suitable atmosphere to express the dismal life situation of the individuals.

A long shot of the singer is shown on top off a skyscraper and also surrounded in an industrial setting. The audience unconsciously realise that she is attempting to jump of the cliff due to the previous lyrics of the song and the sombre theme throughout the song. As it is a long shot, it connotes her insignificance and emphasises her triviality.

The music itself is slow moving which amplifies her monotonous existence. Visual effects is also used when Skylar is walking through a busy road, whereby the cars speed by and are progressing in time rapidly whereas she is in the present moment. This emphasises the importance of her emotion, and how she is attempting to commit suicide once again as she feels unwanted. Cross cutting is used numerously in the music video ‘Invisible’, whereby the protagonist is in different locations; top of skyscraper, setting fire to herself on a bench, walking through a busy road, however all these scenes link together to portray the common narrative of the singer wanting to die willingly.

Various close up of Skylar Grey are shown within the video. Not only does this enable the audience to see her facial expressions and consequently be able to relate with her exhaustion of life, but Andrew Goodwin also stated that the demands of record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist. This allows the audience to familiarise with the artist and also recognise her; as music videos are a form of identification which advertises the singer to the public. This enables Skylar Grey to be become a star image gradually, as her motifs and traits can be presented to the viewers through each of her music videos.

Skylar has also featured in ‘Coming Home’ by Dirty Diddy Money which is also about a character entering the burnt remains of a home, while singing about moments of his life. This represents that the genre of the songs she tends to release are about the harshness of reality. This expresses that she wants to be able to vocally express feelings that many young adults struggling with coping with life due to high knife crime, gang violence, bullying, dysfunctional family relations etc, and to be able to reassure her target audience that they are not alone.

The singer commented on her song claiming:
"I wanted it to be Peter Parker by day meets Spiderman by night. An everyday kid, who isn't really that cool but there's something else going on, that people don't know about," Skylar explained. "That's kind of the journey that I went on. I discovered that my insecurities and my flaws were things that I actually need to embrace, and I let them become my superpowers."