Existing Material Research - music videos

Textual analysis of music videos –

The king blues – Save the World Get the Girl

This video is ultimately a very simple video, which is definitely intentional, as it ties in with the philosophy of the band. The king blues are a punk band with a ska twist. The band have reached out to the appropriate demographic by not having special effects or any ostentatious camera movement.  It is evident that the production costs of making the video were low as it is mainly comprised of short clips of untouched performance by the band, split up by short stop motion sequences.
The video begins by spray painting the band’s name onto a surface, which has connotations of an anti-establishment ethos. From then on it appears to recount the early days of the band when money was short and the good times were sporadic. This is also strengthened by the costume worn by the band members, peaked caps and jeans and t-shirts convey a sense of a very down to earth and average dress sense. Perhaps the choice of costume is to radiate a sense that the band are not out of reach and are ultimately just the same as those who buy their music. The settings in which the videos are filmed are of dimly lit clubs and of broken urban areas, complete with torn billboards and protests. All of these aspects help to enforce a ‘power to the people attitude’, a mindset that is clearly consistent throughout the king blues’ lyrics, promotional material and other videos.

  

The Jam – Going Underground 

I am analysing the music video for the English punk rock/new wave band The Jam because they are the same genre of music as the song we are using for our music video, the king blues-I got love. The video for this song is a very low budget video. You can see this from there being no special effects, not much editing in it and the location. The video is set in a white room with just the band in it, most of the video is of the band just playing their instruments and performing normally and naturally. The camera zooms in and out a few times but not many other different camera shots are used. The music video is made up of simple camera shots and angles. The band are very ‘power for the people’  and not for the government so they just sing the song and perform how they usually would and you can tell that they are because of their songs. The band, for the majority of the video are looking directly in to the camera and singing to the audience. The video isn’t about anything else except them performing and that’s what is shown for nearly the whole of the video. They are wearing suits for the whole video and don’t change costumes at any point.

JAMIE T - STICKS 'N' STONES
Genre: indie rock

 

Location
This video is set in a number of urban and suburban locations, such as railway platforms, alleyways and a backgarden. The locations chosen are unusual as music videos set in built-up areas are normally filmed in inner-city areas, whereas this one is filmed in a more suburban environment. This may suggest that the artist and his music are not as 'grimy' as more urban artists but they still have that edge of urban life to them.

Costumes
The artist is wearing casual clothes that would typically be worn by someone in the target audience of this genre of music such as jeans, trainers and baseball caps. However, the other people who feature in the video, who seem to be his friends. are dressed in a number of different styles, from a full tracksuit to a more grungy style of clothing. This could be the artists way of reaching out to a larger audience by suggesting that people of all walks of life can listen to his music. Alternatively, he could be sending a political or social message unrelated to the story encouraging people to avoid judgement.

Storyline
There is no storyline as such through the video, but there is a clear theme of anarchy and destruction. There are a number of scenes including drinking, especially in public, as well as smashing bricks against the 'screen' etc. This ties in with the story of the song as it is about when they were younger and would drink on the streets etc. The fact that he is glamourizing these behaviours suggests that he isn't concerned with his public image and shuns the 'role model' role that many celebreties take on these days and is proud of his anarchic ways.
There is also a clown who features in a number of scenes throughout the video. The image of a clown generally suggests happiness, laughter and other good natured feelings, however to many can represent horroer. When this mixed image of a clown is juxtaposed with the fact he is drinking and smoking throughout the video, it brings up images of the stereotypical 'washed-up' clown, one who has lost business and has a number of issues, commonly depression and drinking problems. This could be representative again of the story within the song, where the artist feels his old self when he was young and carefree is still inside him but dampened by the reality of growing up.

Performance
There is no live performance in this video, but this may be because he is an individual artist as opposed to in a full band. However, the majority of the video is still him singing into the camera, as opposed to a storyline which shows footage symbolising the story which shows the video is quite down to earth still and he is trying to connect with the audience.

Style
It is a fairly low-budget looking video where the camera work is not smooth and some of it is done in a home-video style

Colour
Many of the scenes are in a low saturated, washed out style. This vintage look has become more and more popular over the years and is common among videos of this genre. It could also represent the theme of the song again, with him looking back to thepast, as film often fades as it ages.