Length: ~2.5 pages, ~1600 words
Reading Time: ~8 minutes
Watch the relevant music video:
"Hole In The Roof" by AronChupa and LittleSisNora
While AronChupa and LittleSisNora's "Hole In The Roof" raises important questions regarding the responsibilities of landlords to tenants, it also contains several allusions to larger-ranging situations currently at the forefront of inter-classal struggle. In this essay I will walk through the numerous visual cues clearly present in this allegorical music video.
From the beginning we see clear allusions to the plight of the working class, both that of the landlord and the tenants in what is made obvious as a run-down and largely underkept building.
First, who is the landlord? We cannot know for certain, but there are clues. He is seen sitting with his feet up, newspaper in hand, obviously attempting to avoid work. However, when he is called he immediately rushes over to the scene of the titular hole in the roof, despite a heavy downpour; certainly not the action of an uncaring and absentee owner. Additionally, his clothing appears to be not that much more dapper than his working-class counterparts in the apartment. A little, but not by much. And his age is depicted as someplace closer to his 30's rather than his 50's, definitely not the age one would associate with a real estate titan sitting on rental properties. Furthermore, when he sees the extent of the issue with the apartment's roof, and the numerous people who find their way in through it, he capitulates that there is clearly a problem that requires fixing. Also not the action of a distant and uncaring building owner. But, it is clear from the state of the roof that whoever owns the building has allowed it to fall into extreme disrepair. So, we can safely conclude that this man is likely not the owner and merely a fellow member of the proletariat who, by being imbued with a tiny amount of power over his fellow man, has been pitted against those of his own class and them pitted against him in an effort to produce a stalemate that will minimize the actual building owner's costs by reducing repairs to a bare minimum. Afterall, when the true owner (and the true power) is unknown, unseen, and uncontactable, how angry can you get at the ultimately powerless figurehead placed before you?
And thus the first clear allegory is discovered: that of the working class man pitted against his own kind in an effort to make the proletariat fight eachother and keep them from ever focusing on their true enemies.
This interpretation is further proven by how the tenants themselves speak to the faux landlord: in tones of extreme and open distaste and disapproval. The primary tenant herself, played by LittleSisNora, even refers to him as “you little shit” when he arrives and begins immediately bossing him around, even physically pulling him by the collar into the apartment to show him the status of the roof. Certainly not the action of a renter afraid of retribution from her landlord. She also explains over the phone when attempting to cajole him into coming over that she “ain't got no damn life insurance,” implying that she could be injured by something falling through the roof and would be unable to afford her health or death costs. As an obvious member of the working-class, and a notably angry one at that, she would be well aware that no wealthy capitalist would care about these details. But, she is clearly aware that this man is not the owner of the building and thus is merely a fellow employee under the true power who may have more sympathy for her situation than a distant landowner growing fat on rent. However, she has also made sure that there are three men with her to both strong-arm him and potentially help with the repairs, making it clear that she is aware that it would be well within his ability - and likely job description - to ignore her needs. And hereby we have arrived at the second half of this allegory: that of the working class lacking any false power given to them by the bourgeoisie who are forced by the situation to fight their own kind for any kind of recognition, protection, or even what they've fairly paid for.
The three men in the apartment themselves have much to say about the working class' plight on their own. All three are seen holding tools yet they are unable to repair the roof themselves and are reduced to demanding that this faux landlord handle it for them. Yet their reactions to this situation differ greatly. The first is seen angry, perhaps enraged by the situation or ashamed of his inability to handle it, while the other two show a combination of astoundment and confusion, simply conveying the general sense of “I honestly can't believe this is happening.”
This begins to reveal the second allegory: that of the working class both presented with and saddled with problems that they are completely unable to solve on their own. It could be climate change (certainly the rain pouring through the hole would hint at this possibility), crumbling infrastructure beyond the average person's ability to fix as shown by the hole itself, or even the inability to improve one's life created by rigid caste roles that capitalism inevitably places on the classes. They have all the tools and none of the power to use them. When one man is struck by lightning through the hole in the roof, the hole itself takes on a central role in this allegory as the power beyond the working class' control that inevitably shortens their lives and prematurely ends them.
Soon we see the neighbors begin to pour into the apartment, neighbors that are noticeably better dressed than the three men already in the room. This clearly hints at a combination of gentrification and, when these neighbors begin to dance and sing along with the three men and LittleSisNora in their gripes regarding the hole, the fomentation of the combined working classes against the upper classes that would happily keep them all down and fighting eachother indefinitely. When an old man reading the newspaper while on the toilet, clearly outfitted with a clergyman's collar, crashes through the roof we see the introduction of both the elderly and the clergy, both frequently kept out of the working class' issues by virtue of a slightly elevated status among their fellow proletariat, into this argument. He has been thrown into a class conflict that he otherwise would have never chosen to be in, and when he states “keep playing” to the other people in the room we get a clear reference to the sudden socialist sentiments among older people of our era. Despite having touted laissez-faire capitalism as the one true way to success and societal survival, often being its greatest proponent despite the harm it clearly did to their children, these same people have suddenly found their camaraderie with the rest of the working class now that it's become obvious that any and all avenues to success via unfettered capitalism have been closed off to them. Eventually, even a depiction of the Abrahamist God enters through the roof after being mentioned by LittleSisNora's tenant, further putting God and the clergy on the side of these downtrodden lower class people and their fight for recognition.
Shortly, we see a soldier enter through a wall and via his rage at unfit conditions (metaphored by his dissatisfaction with a “wienerschnitzel” he carries), he sustains a grave injury when even more objects fall through the roof. Here we see further references to yet more groups of people being lumped down into the lowest of the proletariat despite having previously been placed “above” their fellow working class by the capitalists who purchased their military prowess, and often their lives, to further their own goals. Even now similarities are evident in the alt-gov accounts that pop up to criticize government policies and whistle-blow on poor decisions being made behind closed doors and the military's occasional refusal to follow direct orders from superiors that they view as having poor tactical abilities. These soldiers find themselves now among the rest of the working class with no more prestige than any factory worker in the eyes of the wealthy in a world where “thank you for your service” is replaced with “you've been stop-lossed.”
After another repetition of the chorus, Mozart enters through the hole in the roof and, after a brief recital, announces “let's get this party started, motherfuckers!” And thus we have the final group normally held above all the rest of the proletariat lumped down with them by a bourgeoisie that has lost all ability to care about the power systems they themselves implemented to maximize their survival: the artists. The message is clear; this time, the revolution will include everyone. This time intellectuals are allies rather than enemies because they've been held down and held back as much as the rest of us and they know it.
Finally, snow and cold begins to flow in through the hole in the roof, freezing everyone from the tenant to the three men to the neighbors to Mozart to god himself, and, perhaps most importantly, the faux landlord who finally admits “I kinda get that it's a hole in the roof.” And thus with everyone finally on the same page it is clear that something needs to be done, that change is required.
Ultimately, it is the refrain that is perhaps the most revealing. “There's a whole in the roof, and you got shit to do” shows that everyone, from the absolutely poorest of the poor to every group that's ever been held above them while still being denied any genuine position among the wealthy, has shit to do to fix this system and save us all.
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