
Centuries ago, refugees came to America seeking opportunity. Eventually, this country was labeled as “The Land of the Free” and the opportunity it offered gave rise to the idea of the “American Dream.” The American Dream embodies the notion that Americans can pursue success through hard work because this country gives its people, regardless of their ethnicity, social class, sexuality, etc., the opportunity to do so. In turn, the spirit of hard work resounds implicitly among Americans. The freedom to pursue success through hard work became a fundamental aspect of this country’s character. This idea of America is realized visually in various artistic forms. In the music video for the song “American Oxygen,” the X Ambassadors use color theory, or lack of color, to illustrate the theme of the American spirit and the resonating trait of hard work in every American.  

In the video, the artist uses black and white colors schemes to demonstrate the fundamental essence of American character. At 0:39, the video shows a bird’s-eye-view shot of a city in gray-scale. By taking away the color, the viewer is forced to have an impression of the shot as a whole and is not distracted by the secondary details. For example, the viewer can clearly see the buildings of the city, but because there is no color, the viewer barely notices the minuscule moving cars on a highway and the smoky clouds in the sky. These lesser aspects of the shot would have made more of an impact if there was color. By doing this, the artist wanted you to see an all-inclusive and overall picture of the city. By taking away the detail of color, the X Ambassadors wanted the viewer to see American life at its most fundamental form. By using the city as a representation of American life as a whole and forcing the viewer to see it in its entirety, the artists wanted the viewer to understand the crux of American society, which is the fundamental spirit of hard work and the American Dream that embody America’s foundation. By using no color in this all-encompassing shot of an American city, the X Ambassadors are attempting to illustrate the basic principles of American life as created by the spirit of this nation.

Secondly, the X Ambassadors chose to omit color so as to take away distinctive details of the people shown in the video in order to make them representations of the American population rather than individuals. At 1:57, the scene shows a man standing with his arms crossed in what looks like a kitchen of a diner with pots and pans covering the counter. This image is shot counter-level making the dishes closer to the camera with the man standing off to the side. Even though this man is an important object of focus in the shot, the lack of color of the entire shot forces the viewer to stray from small detail and focus on the picture as a whole. The picture as a whole is that of a man, and seemingly proud entrepreneur, in his workplace. Also, the lack of color takes away any significant features of the man himself, making it more possible for the viewer to see the man just as a man and not as a specific person. Without color, the man has less unique or memorable characteristics, making it easier for the viewer to perceive him as just like any other American. Therefore, the man in this shot becomes a representation of the general idea of American citizen. By placing him in a kitchen that he seems to own and in which he makes his livelihood, he represents an American that works hard in order to lead a successful life. Thus, through their lack of color use, the X Ambassadors depicts the overall image of an American who finds his livelihood in this country through hard work.  

The X Ambassadors emphasize important objects and, in turn, significant concepts in the video using contrast of dark and light tones. For example, at 2:26 the video presents an extreme close up of a man who is holding a cigarette up to his mouth. When the gray-scale color scheme was applied, the contrast between light and dark functions as a useful tool. In this case, the face of the man holding the cigarette is almost completely blacked out; the grayed out cigarette is almost eliminated from the focus; and the white bandage on the man’s finger becomes the focal point of the shot. By making the bandage more obvious, the X Ambassadors draw the viewer’s attention to the bandage, creating the symbolic importance of the scene. In previous shots, a similar looking man is seen playing the guitar and then the video switches to this shot of the man taking a break, smoking a cigarette with his bandaged fingers. The bandages are implied evidence of the effort he put into his playing, his commitment to career, and his pursuit to achieve success. Specifically, the X Ambassadors wanted the viewer to realize that the bandages are a symbol of the man’s hard work. Also, by darkening this man’s face, the man’s identity becomes unimportant, but his actions become what are significant. This visual effect reflects on the X Ambassadors intention with this video, which is to focus not on the differences of Americans but the similarities they share by being citizens of the same country and its opportunities.  By choosing not to add color, highlighting the man’s bandages and darkening all the other objects in the scene, the X Ambassadors were able to express their message that hard work is what embodies the American spirit.   

The music video evaluated in this essay was created for the song “American Oxygen.” The video was artistically designed to convey the underlying message of the song itself. The meaning of the song is summarized in the title of “American Oxygen.” The X Ambassadors intended to illustrate, with their title and their lyrics, that the freedom to pursue the American Dream is as essential to the American spirit as oxygen is to life itself.  Through the use of gray-scale coloring, the X Ambassadors were able to utilize color theory to relate the fundamental aspect of the American spirit, the American Dream, to the stripped-down images in their video.
