BW: Music Video Analysis

Media Language and Genre & Narrative

Song - Walking on a Dream
Artist - Empire of the Sun
Album - Walking on a Dream

I believe that the video for ‘Walking on a Dream’ by Empire of the Sun was made to create a very unique band image for the group. I find the band to be quite enigmatic with their costume, make up, body language – it’s difficult to work out what the band’s about, however I feel that the band represents individualism. The mise-en-scene represents the two band members in a very eccentric and edgy way; with the band members wearing very unorthodox clothing it makes them really stand out. Some of the locations are also rather unusual such as an old Chinese temple. The unusual and uncommon locations and costume all help to create a very distinctive band image which help to promote the agenda of individualism.

Goodwin stated that music videos contain genre characteristics, and this video is in my opinion, very conventional of the alternative/indie pop genre because many other music videos of this genre are very performance based. The band is featured in almost every shot either dancing or gesticulating. The video is also about the band distinguishing themselves from other bands of the same genre which is also very conventional of indie videos since indie means independent, so bands wish to make themselves appear unique. Goodwin also considered the relationship between music and visuals to be an important covention. In 'Walking on a Dream" we can see that the cutting rate matches the beat most of the time.

There are almost no links between lyrics and visuals. This video is mostly disjunctive but there are a few examples of an existing relationship between lyrics and visuals. Firstly, one of the band members covers up his eyes with a fan when the lyrics of “Will I see again?” are heard. Also, where the songs says “We are always running for the thrill of it, thrill of it” one of the band members is running, and where it says “Always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it” one of the band members appears to be searching for an answer from a crystal ball in the way that so called ‘psychics’ do. Finally, where the song says “When two people become one” their hand gestures go from two hands joining together or one finger pointing up. All of these show some amplification in an otherwise completely disjunctive video.

I also think that there may possibly be more than one social message being constructed in this video. My first theory is that it's about a person chasing their thrill, whatever it is, always "pushing" to find his thrill. It's a very individualistic song-- it celebrates the power of oneself to command his own world. Your world can be a thrill if you make it that way. My other theory is that the song is just a very straight up message celebrating and describing the human instictive lust for sex. I feel that the lyrics of "We are always running for the thrill of it thrill of it. Always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it" and "When two people become one" state this in a really obvious way.

This video can definitely be considered art because it is not only very creative, but it is also conveying a message and presenting the idea of individualism. The band's name, 'Empire of the Sun', was borrowed from a 1984 JG Ballard novel which was adapted for the big screen by Steven Spielberg in 1987. This is an example of intertextuality that the band uses. When describing their video one of the founders of the band, Luke Steele, said "We wanted something quite epic", citing the history of Chinese emperors and the importance of the sun to the Aztecs. The band is hooked on mythology and it's links to the novel and film 'Empire of the Sun' which was set in China, is a clear use of intertextuality since the video is set in Shanghai. The album cover is very similar to the Star Wars theatrical posters, another use of intertextuality.


Media Language and Representation

Song - We Are Young
Artist - fun. Ft. Janelle Monáe
Album - Some Nights

The song 'We are Young' by fun. can easily be considered as a youth anthem. Therefore, I believe that the music video for this song is trying to give off the social message that your young days are truly the best in your life. I believe that the song is celebrating the general carefree nature of the youth, but this also means that they can be disorderly, chaotic, and out-of-control. The camera techniques such as the use of long shots and close ups are to show the chaos in this highly turbulent environment that is dominated by young people just letting go. The setting of a party and a bar is quite iconic of youth culture, and the very casual dress code means that the mise-en-scene is also effective in creating the social message that the youth are easy-going. Finally, a slow cutting-rate and the exploitation of slow-motion in places may suggest an intoxicating feel to the music video.

The only social group represented in this video is young people. Young people are shown to be partying at a bar and are portrayed to be disorderly, chaotic, party-animals, fun-lovers, drunks (with the lyrics "Carry me home tonight"), and carefree, which is the entire ideological discourse of this video. Goodwin referred to the notion of looking which is evident when the camera lingers on a couple kissing. This and the other actions that represent the youth in this video reinforces the dominant ideology, amongs the war-time generations (this I know to be true), that the youth of today are degenerate. The band may wish to create this ideology within the video almost to acknowledge and accept that old people may think this way, but the band says 'who cares?', and so this video is, to me, a giant middle-finger to older generations that criticise and complain about the youth of today.

  The band represent themselves as part of the youth and part of the chaos. This helps to sell their product because this song is a youth anthem, and so it is imperative that the band can be seen as champions of the young generation. There does not appear to be any intertextuality or references to popular culture in this music video.




 Genre & Narrative and Institution & Audience

Song - Pumped Up Kicks
Artist - Foster the People
Album - Torches

The music video for 'Pumped Up Kicks' by Foster the People doesn't have a narrative as such, but the song certainly does. I think that the song is about gun violence in youth due to the lyrics of:

"He's a cowboy kid,
Yeah, he found a six-shooter gun,
In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things,
And I don't even know what,
He's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks,
You'd better run, better run, faster than my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks,
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet"

"Daddy works a long day and he's coming home late, yeah he's coming home late". That's the main part that leads me to think that this kid is suffering from neglect by his father. So a young man with no proper example of a man, stays a boy and is unable to cope with sexuality, morality, and relationships. He then isolates himself and starts the downward spiral, unable to let go of any hurt no matter how slight and it eats away like cancer. He then turns to drugs and alcohol to cope which only further him from reality. If this continues long enough he will become anti-social, then he will become depressed, finally he will become a sociopath and lose empathy and lose all touch with humanity. Now we see a portrait of a monster, a true monster, but remember he was once just a scared little boy that was abused, bullied, and outcast. In these situations its hard to tell who the monster is, the boy or society. Its simple, father puts son through a cycle of violence, innocence is replaced by coldness and the son becomes the father, only ussually it escalates, as it did here, from abuse to murder. To sum up my thoughts this song is about a kid who was trying to make his father proud of him, but needed help with communication skills and as a result he couldn't resolve his problems in a socially acceptable way.

Goodwin stated that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. This video could be characterised as being in the alternative/indie pop genre. It is conventional in that it is entirely performance based which is similar to most other indie videos such as 'Celestine' by Spector, and 'This is the Life' by Two Door Cinema Club. Goodwin also considered the relationship between music and visuals to be an important convention. The cutting rate in 'Pumped Up Kicks' matches the beat of the song the majority of the time, which is conventional of most music videos, not just the indie genre. This video is disjunctive because of it's focus on performance and none of the visuals really match with the lyrics. I feel that this video is mostly commercial because of its performance based nature. There are a lot of meat shots and close-ups of the singer's faces which is designed to get their faces out there and more known to the mass audience.

This video may be consumed on a variety of media platforms, such as the traditional music channels such as MTV, or using Web 2.0 and websites such as Vevo for focused viewing.This video may also be consumed on iPods and other mp4 players. Considering that the indie genre is very popular and that the song 'Pumped Up Kicks' was popular in the band's domestic market, the USA, the record company would have had a big role in creating this music video. This is because music videos are a form of advertisements and the record companies would want to generate as much money from the popularity of the song as possible. Music video director Jonas Odell said that "the industry has the power to choose which direction music videos are going", this implies that record labels do have a big role in creating music videos. As the record labels are motivated by gaining money, marketing becomes very important. Per Sundin of Universal Sweden said that "with the vast selection of music you have today, you must have a strategy to succeed, you must invest time and money and you must be daring." This means that music videos become an essential tool in collecting money from single sales.