By: Kristina Mata
Imagine a Roman gladiator battle. Now, instead of muscled warriors battling each other, picture four band members against one fighter, with the four at the disadvantage. On the brink of losing, the four team up, the battle ending with a David and Goliath-style pebble to the head.
You have just imagined Fall Out Boy’s most recent music video for their single “Centuries,” which was released on October 17, 2014, and reached over one million views in less than a week. The initial song release also holds the same record. The concept is simple, but it fits the with lyrics of its corresponding song. Indeed the words, “You will remember me for centuries” could be referential to making history or history itself, and by choosing to play gladiators in their music video, they depict a big part of history and historical battles.This makes the song easy to associate with battle, but the video suffers from a lack of music cues, which can be a bit disengaging.
The video is also packed with biblical allusions and religious imagery, David and Goliath being the strongest one. Here’s the thing: the Roman setting and Christian allusions are contrasting. Why would a Roman battle end with the Roman warrior being killed in a way that mirrors a story from the Christian bible? Well, initially Christians were persecuted in ancient Rome for their religion, and if you look at the way that “Centuries” is stylized on the single’s cover, you can see that a cross is put in place of any “t”s. I’m not about to say that Fall Out Boy is showing a bias for Christianity, but who really knows? A more interesting question would be if they will continue using this kind of imagery along with the motif of two opposing religious groups in the future.
The video ends with a cliffhanger, but if Fall Out Boy approaches their next set of songs and music videos like they did their last album, Save Rock and Roll, then we may end up seeing an entire story surrounding these events.
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