As She Is Walking Away Analysis

Semiotics in As She is Walking Away by the Zac Brown Band

By: Charles “Jonah” Wendt “As She is Walking Away” is a song written and performed by the Zac Brown Band. Throughout the course of the song, the Zac Brown Band sings about an experience that the main singer of the band, Zac Brown and his buddy had one night at a bar. For the entirety of the night, Brown’s friend was staring at a girl across the bar from him. They kept making eye contact as if they were talking all night but, no words were said. This, is because the girl who the friend was making eye contact with, was with her boyfriend. Now as Zac Brown and his buddy were leaving the bar, the friend began to feel as though he was falling in love with the girl as she was walking away.

We see the woman play her hand on the man’s arm and then see the man throw the woman’s arm off of his arm. The result of this is that the glasses nearby are knocked over. Nothing major really happens though as they stay together the rest of the night. Following this, the girl’s boyfriend grabs her by the shirt and reaches for a necklace inside of the girl’s shirt. Then the man proceeds to drag the woman out of the bar and take her to his car. While he is taking her to the car her necklace comes off. This scene has many different symbols placed throughout it. First, we have the empty glasses. It can be hypothesized that at one point these glasses were filled with liquor that was then consumed by the woman and her boyfriend. However, on a deeper more symbolic level these empty glasses could symbolize how these two people’s lives were empty and that they were looking for things to fill the emptiness that they felt in their lives. Rakow writes that, “Women have often been taunted with lack of creative and reasoning faculties” (pg 201 Rakow, L.F.. 2006). An example of this the music video is when the boyfriend is dragging the girl to the car. This shows that the man obviously needs feminism as who is he to force the girl to do what he wants her to do, rather than letting her make her own free will decisions. The man is obviously taking advantage of the woman due to his physical advantage and

Throughout this scene there are many different camera angles used. At various times there are closeups of both the man and the woman. Often times these shots are shifting back and forth between the man and the woman. In the same scene medium range shots are also used. In these shots you can see both of them. Also, there are long range shots in which you see both of them against the backdrop of the bar. Throughout this scene the editing style montage is used. The scene begins with the man outside then cuts back to when he is back inside and watches the girl leave the bar then cuts back outside to the man finding the necklace the ground. Obviously, the man did not go into the bar then leave the bar and go back in. That was just the manner in which the clips were presented by the creator of the music video. This is an example of montage. Montages are This shot really contributes to the deeper story of love that the Zac Brown Band is weaving. Due to the face that the music video ends almost exactly after the man begins to talk to the woman immediately raises an uncertainty about what becomes of their relationship. The question is immediately raised as to what will happen between them due to the degree of uncertainty presented by the shot. Will they exchange numbers and go on a date, will they get married or will she take the necklace back from the man and never talk to him again? This girl