Textual Analysis of Music Videos

Kasabian-Fire



This song is by the band Kasabian and is called 'Fire'. The video was made by British director W.I.Z. Kasabian are an Indie rock band. One characteristic of this genre is that it can be quiet and polite music that flows in a steady easy way. This is typical of the the song 'Fire' and it shows in the video with the singers running along to sound of the music. Although in the video they are rushing the music goes with it and slows it right down.

At the start of the video a member of the band is singing and looking at himself in the mirror. This gives a visual representation of the song being performed by the band. The song is called 'Fire' and the lighting in the music video is a light orange from the sun this goes with the colour of fire. When the song reaches the chorus it speeds up and this is shown in the video as the band storm into a bank and steal money from it. This amplifies the song. The band use their guitars as guns this gives the video a comedy side to it and goes with the inde rock theme of calm polite music. The lighting goes dark for a few seconds 3 minutes in when the music dies down this goes with the music very well. The gun shots in the music video are a contridiction of using guitars as guns and these sounds are editted into the video and are not in the song alone. The music notes are seen on paper at the start and then again at the end representing the song.

To sell the video their are many close ups of members in the band. The image of 'bad boys' is being offered to the audience through both the song and the music video. The songs lyrics talking about alcohol and drugs and to go with this in the video the band breaking in to and stealing from a bank. The Characters are all wearing different clothing, one character is wearing a suit, hat and sun glasses this is selling his looks. Other than this the band are not on sexual display. This does not relate to some other videos where for example the band are the centre point of the video and they are their to sell themselves rather than the music. This video is very performance based, the music goes with the video and it all runs smoothly together.

I am now going to look at a video that is different to the one above as I am not totally sure which sort of video I will be making myself. I do believe it will be from the same genre of the two videos I have looked at here.

Aha- Take On Me



This Music video is by Aha and the song is called 'Take On Me'. It was directed by Steve Barron and the genre of music is pop. Pop music tradionally is aimed at young people and they are short simple love songs. Their is always an emphasis of technology over muscianship. The video does contain a love theme and the technology involved could easily be described as being more the centre of the video than the music.

The music starts with a short snappy beat and the music works really well with this by cutting quickly from one cartoon picture to another. As the music starts to quicken the cartoon comes alive and a rush of motorbikes go from the right hand side of the screen to the left. The music lyrics start as the cartoon changes to real life and the audience begins to be told the story behind the cartoon. The words 'take on me' are spoken in the song as the woman in the video sees the cartoon come alive infront of her as the man in the cartoon winks at her. This is giving a visual representation of what the music means by take on me as the man in the video is challenging her. The woman is then pulled into the cartoon making her a cartoon herself and bringing her into this cartoon story. The woman and the man begin to sing the lyrics to each other. The lyrics are illustrated by the video really well, the line 'i'll be gone in a day or two' is always said with the man in the picture meaning that he means himself. To sell the band themselves half way through the video you see them in real life with their guitars peforming their song and it cuts to this quite a few times. To illustrate the lyrics, 'My worries away' the cartoon shows the man and a woman being followed by two men who look like they have the intention of causing harm. As the music dies down the man comes out of the cartoon and we see the man and woman together, this follows the love theme of pop music.

I think that the artist is on sexual display sometimes as it cuts to him in real life and shows the woman in the video with a real interest towards him once she has seen him not as a cartoon but as a real man. The characters are also wearing leather and this was the fashion back in time the video was produced which was in the late 1980's. The way the man struts in the music video gives the audience the view that he fancies himself, displaying him sexually. There is a reference to 'looking' when the man becomes real once stepping through this window in the cartoon. This has been used to make the audience aware of the characters appearance.

Directors Research Task

Chris Cunningham

Chris was born in 1970 in reading and grew up in Lakenheath Suffolk. Since his first production for Autechre he had a close relationship with "Wrap Records" Chris Cunninghams most well know for his videos for "Aphex Twins", "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker". Chris won the MTV music video award for breakthrough video. Chris has been nominated at the Brit Awards and he dirceted Madonna's "Frozen" video.

Chris Cunningham likes to focus on beauty and horror in his videos. I have seen the video "come to daddy" and it is very focused on horror. The set is dark and there is an old lady walking her dog this gives the sense of danger right from the start. Suddenly the television comes on and the music video comes to live with loud music and a face on the televison. I fel that this worked really well with the video and had the impacted intended by director Chris Cunningham which was to shock the audience.

Dave Meyers

Dave Meyers attended Loyola Marymount University after graduation from Berkeley High School. Meyers gained a degree in both Film Production and Philosophy. Meyers filmed his first music video with rap crew "The Whordias". Meyers won the 2003 MTV Video Music Award for Best Video of the Year. Recently Meyers has been trying his hand at 3d video making when in 2008 he made his first 3d music video for Missy Elliots single Ching-a-ling.

Meyers has worked with some of the best known male and female singers of the last 20 years which include Dido, Britney spears, Pink, Dave Matthew Band, Hilary Duff and Jay Z.

I have watched a couple of videos directed by Meyers and he does not use the same styles in all of his videos but it is able to split up all the videos he has directed into sections. For example one section can be emotional. Dido's " Thank You" and Britney Spear's " lucky" would be included in this section. In these videos Meyers uses props and scenes to emtionally involve the viewer in the song and whats going on in the video. In Britney Spear's music video "Lucky" Meyers shows Britney looking at herself whilst singing about being sad. This pulls the viewer in and gets them emitonal on Britneys side and to feel the same way that she does and relate how she feels to other situations.