Love is a strange thing it can make people act in ways that place themselves in danger for another. It alters the mind in a way where a person can experience withdrawals if they do not see their significant other. Love is a blessing and a curse as it can make a person happy beyond their wildest dreams or crush their spirits in an instant. Love is a complicated but simple thing that spawns from an emotional and physical connection with someone. The idea of love has been portrayed by the media for decades often using different ideas and morals. Bands play off this and show what they think their ideal of love is. In the music video “Kids” by One Republic, two kids meet in Spain and fall in love. The music video is stunning filled with beautiful shots of Spain, amazing camera work, and a very good song that keeps the story progressing. The music video is also filled to the brim with visual motifs. The visual motifs used in this music video revolved around the use of color, specifically the color red. The color red illustrates the theme of love in the music video by surrounding the city and showing up subtly in different places.

Visual motifs are used as a way to convey feelings without the use of words, but instead relies of visuals to convey emotion. When a color is used extensively in a video it can be associated with a certain emotion. This is called the color theory; color theory suggests that different colors convey different meanings subtlety in the background of the piece. The color theory in music videos often have different themes and have different ways that the directors use the color. The lyrics can help determine what the theme is as well.  When looking at "Kids" one thing is clear the use of color theory is prominent in the piece. 

The video’s use of color is extensively prominent throughout the video. Red is shown in the first shot in which the main female protagonist’s dress, in the background through the use of red bricks in Spain, and on the lead guitarists guitar. The color red in music video’s is used to convey romance and passion. This music video is filled with the color red, from the first scene where the girl gets out of bed and puts on her red dress. To her love interest’s shirt which happens to be red. Even the brick city in Spain that they run through in the background is all red. This is all used somewhat subtly to convey that the two kids are soon to be in love. The color red is extremely precedent throughout the video making sure it conveys the idea of love and passion. The color red has always been a symbol to convey love. We have red roses that someone give to their partner, it is the color of hearts and has been associated with passion. Red is a vibrant color full of passion and can take on many meanings in this instance it is associated with love. 

Red has been associated with love and passion for a very long time. The media has used the color red in adds for a long time. They use it on valentine’s day even using a different hue of red to convey love. This now has become a motif for the media to exploit often using roses and other things as hearts to convey the use of passion. As seen in "Kids" red is used extensively and subtlety throughout the piece. It is in the background as bricks, the color of the protagonist’s dress, flowers in the background and even the guitar that One Republic’s lead guitarist uses is red. These motifs help convey and illustrate the idea of passion and love in the piece creating a very vibrant and passionate music video.

            The lyrics also helps complement the visual motif and aids it in illustrating the theme. The lyrics in the music video talk about endless youth and can also be interpreted as love. The lyrics imply that there are two people involved in the activists he is listing off. “Nights when we kept dancing” this suggests that two people are together and by the lyrics it suggests it was a date.  This is one of many instances in which the lyrics suggests that two people presumably a boy and girl are running around having fun on a date. The music video also supports the lyrics, in the video a boy and a girl are running around Spain having fun on a date. This is also where the motifs come into play, the use of red in the music video illustrates passion and love. In both the lyrics and the video it suggests that two people are falling in love. This is all brought together in order to illustrate the music videos theme of love and passion.

In conclusion the visual motifs help bring the music videos story together. The story focuses around two young kids falling in love in Spain. The city is covered in the color red and the two main protagonists in the story are both wearing red clothes. The visual motif that is portrayed in color and is used to express an emotion, in this case the emotion is love. As the video starts it opens up with Spain and focuses in on a boy and a girl. When the two kids are running around the city the main protagonist is disappointed because he cannot get a chance to talk to his love interest. The girl who he is trying to talk to is constantly moving around the city with her friends. Finally, the boy gets up enough courage and talks to her and they go to a concert. The visual motif of color works in order to express the emotion of love and how easy it is for two people to love each other.  The music video conveys this by making an interesting story and follows it perfectly with the two characters falling in love.   