Rising singer/songwriter Alec Benjamin released an intense new music video for “Boy in the Bubble” from his recently released mixtape Narrated for You.
The powerful video explores the song’s themes of aggression resulting from loneliness and isolation as seen in the lyrics “Knock me out, kick me when I’m on the ground/ It’s only gonna let you down/ Come the lightning and the thunder/ You’re the one who’ll suffer, suffer” in the catchy chorus. Benjamin previously shared in an interview with Billboard that “Boy in the Bubble” was written from his experience being bullied and that he intentionally wrote the last verse from the bully’s perspective.
The video opens in a vast desert landscape, probably paying homage to Benjamin’s home state of Arizona. It initially depicts a young boy wearing a large astronaut helmet, which serves as the “bubble” around him, who gets beat up by a group of bullies. He recovers, picks himself up, and starts running home. As the song progresses, we realize through the video and Benjamin’s lyrics that the bully has an alcoholic and abusive father, resulting in his aggression toward the young boy. By the end of the gripping video, the bully chases after the young boy on his way home only to find him apologizing to the kid and symbolically putting the astronaut helmet on his own head.
Check out the bittersweet music video below.
