Dashboard – Modest Mouse

The music video I chose to analyze is “Dashboard” by Modest Mouse. I have always been a huge fan of this song and finally got around to watching the video a couple weeks ago. It tells the story of a fisherman sharing his tale about him chasing down an elusive giant fish but there is definitely more going on than meets the eye. The video does a good job of keeping the audience visually entertained and mentally stimulated. Give the video below a watch!

In the music video, the lead singer of Modest Mouse is playing the role of the story-telling fisherman who has had his hand replaced by a microphone.  The story behind the song/video is the story of Modest Mouse’s pursuit of fame, a record deal, and “making it big” which is represented by the fisherman going after this giant fish. He goes out into the ocean alone and tries to catch the legendary fish with nothing but a CD and a cassette tape hooked on a microphone at the end of his fishing rod/microphone stand. This represents the leap of faith taken by the band when they decided to pursue a career in music. When he finally gets a bite, he is taken to a very unfamiliar place and gets his hand bitten off by the fish, which is then replaced by a microphone. This could represent the members of the band getting so caught up in the pursuit of success that they lost parts of themselves along the way, and then the music they created took the place of what they had lost. These are all interpretations I made, but I could be wrong.

I think the video they decided to shoot was perfect to portray their pursuit of “success”.  It is represented very well by the typical fisherman tale of chasing down such a large fish. Because everyone is familiar with the type of story, most people could probably tell where the video is heading. Then at the end they surprise you with the entire island of musical fish worshipers. A very good video that accompanies an even better song.