Music Video Analyse: Akad by Payung Teduh

For a long time carrying the indie music genre that blends kroncong and jazz that is solemn, Payung Teduh creates songs that are in the spotlight of young people all across the countries. The band, consisting of Mohammad Istiqamah Djamad (vocal / guitar), Alejandro Saksakame (drums / percussion), Comi Aziz Kariko (bass), and Ivan Penwyn (guitalele).

Payung Teduh retains its characteristics through poetic lyrics and soothing tone notation. They produced a bunch of hits track but were most successful with a song titled "Akad". The song was released as the first single from their third album, Ruang Wait. On their YouTube channel, the song has been watched more than 110 million times.

The song "Akad" is packed with genre of indie pop and jazz music with a cheerful atmosphere and oldies. The genre of the music video would be romance and love. The story of the music video is simple but memorable as it talks about marriage, where it is the same thing awaited by both women and men. The producer also applied on some retro vibes into their music video to create a flashback effect which was following enhanced by the tune of the trumpet that gives a funky classical feel. The shoot of the music video is basic as it only applies the use of a camera.

The target audience of the music video would be the men and women at the age range of adults to elders as it creates a relatable feeling to the audience that all once experience the expression of love. The target audience would find the video appealing as it is a sweet and heart-warming video that could be easily understand and relate to due to their personal experience. Audience would be able to identify themselves based on the different character that consist in the music video. Besides that, audience would also receive gratification in the form of closure and satisfaction as the song and music video mainly promotes positivity of all form by showing the basic kind gesture that we can do in our daily life.

The lyrics of the song basically interprets the thoughts of a men towards the women he loves and tells the story of a man who wants to be the husband of his lover. The first sentence of the lyrics, “Betapa bahagianya hatiku saat, Ku duduk berdua denganmu” amplify the emotion of joy of a man with the love of his life right next to him. In the chorus, it shows the possible absence of a person as “Namun bila saat berpisah telah tiba, Izinkanku menjaga dirimu, Berdua menikmati pelukan di ujung waktu, Sudilah kau temani diriku”, it portrays the fact that the man wants to take care of the other half till the end of time as he hopes for her companion through health and death. Based on the lyrics, it is obvious that it promotes the feel of happiness and romance which are positive connotations.

The music video uses mainly close-up shot as for camera work in order to show the mood and expression of the cast as the whole song talks about mainly emotion. The song is set in the background is very suitable and matching to the visuals shown in the music video. The editing of the music video also contradicts the simplest form of video-editing as they did not apply any transitions maybe except fades out. The props in the music video also stands an important point as it shows certain meaning and works as a signifier. The video is also based with a few changes of location but mainly in the taxi.

Positivity is the main sign that is presented in the music video. As some statement that would be listed as below, most of signifier relates to one another as they share the same value and element that the producer is trying to portray out. The sign existing in the music video relates to the codes and genre, hence a successful move in creating the perfect music video. Other than that, the music video mostly shows symbolic codes such as verbal and body language.

The music video was directed by Yoga Mohamad. The video tells a man who goes about his daily life as a taxi driver. It shows the man’s expression as it is a good day to him although his job is just a basic and normal job. This scene shows that the man is satisfied by the simplest form of life and nothing else is needed to enhance his daily life as he keeps a positive mindset. Besides that, it also portrays the life and experience of a taxi driver.

The social code of happiness and the sense of romance is shown in the music video as the applied cast of couple shows the expression of happy and fresh passionate love during their interaction. It helps support the terms of the lyrics as the lyrics recalls to memories of little moments that a relationship consists. This scene would also make audiences feel relatable to the sweet times that they’ve been through and in a sense, feels very personal.

Forward on, the music video also shows the scene of a happy family with their child. This scene shows the implication of complete and love for one another. It also shows the timeline of adult turning into a parent with implies that although they have gain much more responsibilities, they still remember the core element as a human, which is being happy and loving.

Also, a part of the music video shows a bunch of friends lip-syncing while having fun with the taxi driver to the song. This scene also illustrates that the song initial purpose is to tell you that even though there are hard times in life, it’ll all go through as long as you keep a positive mindset and open personality to all situation. The laughter and wonder at this scene symbolize the contentment of how everyone should experience daily.

The trumpet scene above also enhanced the vibe of the song. The man sits steadily while playing the instrument implies the classical vibe while everything signified as a mixture of modern and traditional element in the song that creates a harmonic and soothing tune to enhance the mood of the listen and watcher.

Additionally, they also shown the scene where the taxi driver was willing to give help to a man asking for directions. This signified that a positive personality and mindset produce actions that are beneficial to themselves and people around them, such as being helpful and kind. These criteria would help us in all aspect in life.

Lastly, at the end of the video, the driver gets a surprise wedding anniversary from his daughter and celebrates it with a photo of his dead wife. In the scene above, the denotation shows a photo of the wife and a cake. While the connotation stands for the past of his wife and a celebration of their anniversary. These relevance to the importance of having and appreciating people that we love and care for, no matter alive or dead. Besides that, the rose behind the frame of her photo also represents the uncle’s love and passion towards his wife as forwarding, he broke down and cry despite being positive and happy all day.

To summarise, this song is with the purpose of touching people’s heart and most personal moments. The core value as spreading positivity is also shown through the lyrics and music video. The song also reminds individuals to cherish moments with their loved ones as we only live once and everything in life should be cared for and keep in remembrance. The techniques that I would replicate if I were to produce my own music video would be the simplicity of the music video. The storyline and idea are very basic, but it is still attractive enough that it will still catch majority of society’s attention. In my opinion, the music video matches the song perfectly and matched to the time of publish hence in current days, it would be advised to improve in the use of technology to film the music video.