The music video for “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses uses various visual elements combined with auditory elements to tell the story provided by the lyrics. The song carries a story that is enhanced through the use of visual scenes. The message in the song is enhanced by the motif of rain and use of color throughout the music video.

The music video begins with a scene of Axl taking pills before sleeping. There is the sound of wind and waving of drapes suggesting the oncoming of a storm. So even before the song begins there is a setting the scene for the rain and kind of sobering mood of the song. From here the music begins and so do the visuals.

The first prevalent visual of the story focuses on a church and the sky. The church will be used to symbolize marriage and love as heard in the lyrics. The sky is interesting because in this scene it is bright blue with white clouds, which is opposite of what is first eluded to in the scene of Axl taking pills with the wind blowing. Instead the sky paints a picture of a bright sunny day and has an optimistic tone. This is accompanied by a light-hearted sounding piece of the song played by the orchestra.  At the beginning of the lyrics this scene makes sense because the lyrics point to an introduction to a sort of love song, and this optimistic and pleasant start perfectly accomplishes this idea.

Throughout most of the music video, mainly around the middle, there are a few shots of Slash playing guitar in the middle of a barren area with a church in the background. There are many zooming shots on him as he plays but in all of the shots there is emphasis on showing the church either initially as the shot zooms or as it sweeps. The scene also switches from this scene in the middle of a barren desert area with the church to a more city style church, putting even more emphasis on this detail. The church, as addressed earlier, can be a symbol of marriage and love, which, helps to set a background for the scenes because these ideas are primary in the text and the music video.

The scenes at the church also give important insight to how the characters in the visuals relate to the lyrics. That is the focus of the camera on both Axl and his wife. Although the camera shows shots of both Axl, his wife, and several members of the band, there is usually a longer focused shot on his wife at several parts of the video. An example being when they leave the church to get in the car. So just like the lyrics of the song which are sung about someone, the scenes from the music video show that this is the case by the focusing shot on Axl’s wife instead of primarily on him.

During the reception after the wedding it is important to take note of the color worn by Axl and his new wife. Axl is wearing blue and she is wearing black. It is interesting to note the change from the color white to black from the wedding to the reception. White is used to symbolize life and purity where as black often symbolizes death and despair. So the change of this color foreshadows the events sung in the remainder of the song. Axl wears blue, which again, depicts foreshadowing, and, in this case, the color blue foreshadows rain. These two colors interweave even more because rain as a symbol can also be used to represent mourning. Mourning is the natural occurrence after a death. 

At the end of the wedding reception everybody scatters at it begins to rain and the happy reception moves towards chaos. Listening to the song it is after this scene that the tempo of the music changes, so this scene is gearing up for that. The lyrics to the song change from more words and details to the repetition of just one line. This scene helps to depict the line of “nothing lasts forever” because of the good time that comes to an end.

This immediately transitions back to the church with scenes from the funeral of Axl’s wife. Now, there is an equal focus on the casket and Axl. The mood of the song darkens and there is a feeling of more emotion when listening to the lyrics and music. This is reflected in the music video of Axl’s sorrow from losing his wife, and now the rain also starts which reinforces this. 

Fast forward ahead to the scene of Axl’s wife throwing the bouquet of flowers that change from white too red as they land on her casket. This scene in a way encompasses the entire song and story in just a few seconds. The white flowers symbolizing life which are thrown at the wedding, which is a happy occasion, change to red symbolizing blood and death as they land on the casket at the burial. The burial of course being an occasion filled with immense sadness. The color of the flowers drains as it rains. This occurs at the end of the song as the last note is held out which provides a resolution of sort. However, there is still the unease provided by the note that is reflected as the flowers “bleed” out on the casket.

Along with this, the scene only shown at the beginning of the song, the one of Axl taking pills before going to sleep, reoccurs with Axl then waking up from the middle of a bad dream as it rains in the background. This also suggests that Axl is plagued with this memory and it still makes him uneasy and distressed. 

All in all, the music video helps to show something that the listener cannot completely get by listening to the words alone, but the visuals provided help to paint the picture the author tries to express in the lyrics and music. Axl’s story of heartbreak is apparent from the visuals of the music video and enhance the emotional response apparent in the lyrics and feeling in the song. The details of color with the blues and blacks foreshadow events. The combined use of these elements provide a great contribution to the overall piece of art in “November Rain.”
