It depicts two childlike groups of friends – which are elderly people – strolling around a town and, just like children, pulling pranks on other people. Near the end of the video, the two groups meet each other in a graveyard to battle with water balloons and wooden swords. When one of them is injured and gets a bloody nose (which is referenced in the lyrics), the opponents run away in fear, while the others celebrate the victory. The video shows several shots of the friends jumping in puddles of water.
The lyrics of Hoppipolla by Sigur ros relate to childhood and the stereotypical memories that come with the thoughts of growing up such as jumping in puddles and holding hands. The lyrics also convey a sense of self pride because they are mostly about a person not getting down or bothered about what happens in life and always getting up stronger than before.
The artist has conveyed this by showing a music video which makes you feel proud and confident on the inside but which provides the watcher with a smile and a sense of well being.
The lyrics are not that important to the central message of the music video and the visual forms they are linked but not majorly for example the lyrics are about always getting up and letting nothing stop you where as the video also portrays these attitudes but in a sense of happiness.
You could sense the meaning of the song without hearing the lyrics quite easily because the video has strong visual codes and conventions such as portraying old people as young and fun switching societies stereotypes, reminding ourselves that everybody was the same once and would like to go back to childhood, where there seemed to be no cares in the world.
The narrative of the video is about 6 people aged above 70 acting in ways of their childhood such as spraying graffiti playing with fireworks and performing vandalism and ending in fighting with sticks. The narrative portrays a strong sense of satisfaction the video emphasises “Young Forever” with the actors well into their older years performing acts which would be reminisant of thei teenage years, the video swaps common stereotypes between the old and young for example an old person is seen knocking and then running away as a young person anwers the door, an old person is also captured throwing fireworks at a young person fixing their bike. The narrative shows stereotypes backwards and reminds everybody that you can be young forvever.
The narrative of the video shows the visuals as often fragmented and surreal. This allows the viewer to decide how they want to interpret the visuals and will encourage repeat viewing… seeing something new every time. For example the video has many different “segments” and acts of interest encouraging repeat viewing.
The themes of the narratives are love and happiness and care free attitudes towards life they are not completely relevant to life apart from the lyrics are something which you would be told when you were younger. The video emphasises the true “life” of having fun with your friends and getting into mischief it shows a set of old people doing what teenagers do.
The band members are featured in the video: keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson plays the victim of a Ding Dong Ditch trick (knock and run), guitarist and vocalist Jón Þór Birgisson plays the cashier at a shop where an old man steals and eats some pears, drummer Orri Páll Dýrason can be seen repairing his bicycle, and bassist Georg Hólm can be seen cleaning
The costumes of the actors are very interesting because although the actors are old portraying the youth they still dress up as old people with stereotypical clothes, this could be used to emphasise that they are young at heart but still none the less old. And what they are doing in the music video is a fantasy, the video is also shot in an old fashioned way with fuzziness this is used to crate the sense of memories like an old photo album.
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