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The music video ‘The Universal’ by Blur follows a narrative set chiefly in what appears to be a futuristic bar fashioned to the style (with its padded, white-washed walls) of a mental asylum or hospitalised environment. This conflicts with the conventions of a normal bar, where the décor usually emulates revelling, relaxation and glitz, rather than surgical cleanliness and austerity seen here. The narrative is somewhat ambiguous as there is no clear story-line however it reaches a crescendo at the end, with a series of subtitled silent monologues growing progressively more obscene.

The video makes blatant references to the work of Stanley Kubrick – in particular, his film ‘A Clockwork Orange.’ The front-man Damon Albarn has taken on the role of the psychotic  anti-hero Alex DeLarge, with his eerie demeanour and costume. He breaks the fourth wall with the audience by directly winking at them and fixing them with manic, bestial grins – suggestive of his dominating force in the video. Kubrick’s work is also referenced with the golf-ball-like mass which appears before a group of people who stare at it transfixed – yet nonplussed by the floating mass. This echoes the film 2001: A Space Odyssey when the black pillar appears before a group of apes, who seem to revere it.

The unusual, warped pop-art style imagery is intercut with the events of the video as well as shots of the band performing on stage in the bar environment. They form together as a satirical stab at modern society. A woman is seen wallowing in the company of her male colleagues who fawn over her as though she were a piece of meat. In her hands she holds sheet music – another reference to the opening sequence of A Clockwork Orange when a woman sits with her colleagues in the milk bar singing to Beethoven. The woman allows herself to become a sex object before their eyes, flirting along with them and adopting a seductive body language. A priest is seen drinking what appears to be some kind of alcoholic beverage and growing steadily drunker with his companion. This conflicts with his role as a religious figure. He also (in the climax of the video) appears to tell his drinking partner something shocking and heinous and his laughter is abruptly replaced with a look of despair. All the conversations in the video are silent adding to their ambiguity. This is also seen in the conversation between the man in a tuxedo and the ‘red man’ who have a surreal and nonsensical conversation which is subtitled. Other characters we see are a pair of twins who wear strange glasses which hinder rather than improve their site.

The theme of voyeurism is again enhanced by the naked female mannequins used as decoration in the bar. Also, a man simultaneously kisses and touches two women furiously. The image is grotesque, with the female’s lipstick staining the male’s cheeks and the fact they are in traditional Chinese women’s dress, a subversion of its symbol of purity and decency. Females contrast greatly to the white-washed environment. Most wear some kind of red (clothes or makeup). This allows them to stand out and be seen images of sexual pleasure.

More references to Orwell’s 1984 are given through the gathering crowds who listen to the events in the bar via the golf-ball like masses with the speaker and camera. The crowd appear devoid of emotion, reminiscent of the passionless Inner and Outer Party members of Oceania.

The use of Warhol-like art is in keeping with the racy and surreal theme and the orange background the unusual drawings are set against is a reference to ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

The slummy council estate environment of the emotionless people outside the bar is representative of a dystopian future. This fits in with the perverse goings-on in the futuristic-styled bar and the song lyrics themselves which sing of the future; ‘this is the next century....’

There could be implications of anti-religion, through the use of the drunk priest and an image of an embryo falling into a cocktail glass. This could be a representation of the Catholic Church’s stand against abortion or perhaps could suggest that human life is not valued in modern society.