Melancholy Hill Consumerism

“Up on Melancholy Hill” by the band Gorillaz is a song from their album “Plastic Beach”, which uses the extended metaphor of a beach formed by trash and plastic that has been collecting on the sea. This song takes place on the island, with two lovers looking out towards the titular Melancholy Hill, with the singer speaking to her. It uses this to make a statement about consumerism, and more specifically how many people try to fill a void inside themselves with consumerism, but can never truly succeed, instead only killing the natural world in their pursuit. The songs speaker is reaching out to their lover, trying to convince them to abandon their chase, and instead pursue something much more fulfilling. The example used would be them traveling the world together because the plastic beach their on has …show more content…
The speaker says “Up on Melancholy Hill there’s a manatee”(Albarn) in the beginning of the third stanza. While at first the line seems to be a non sequitur meant to reemphasize the dream like nature of the song, it actually has a much greater meaning in the context of the album. This is because the manatee is used to portray nature and its relationship to modern society. The manatee is alone and dying on the plastic beach, but still watches over the singer and his lover, hoping for the best for them. This is in contrast to the worlds generally uncaring and cold attitude towards them. The music video attached to the song doesn’t have much to do with the meaning of it, because the band as a whole is actually one shared storyline, but the video does take place on this beach. The manatee is seen in the video, and a character known as the boogeyman is seen grabbing at its skin, trying to take it away. The boogeyman is speculated to be the literal personification of consumerism, as he also brings dead and decay where he goes. This adds depth to his interest in the manatee, and to the character