Music Video Analysis

By Harrison Wheeler

Andrew Goodwin’s forms and conventions of music videos. 1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the

visuals. 2. There is a relationship between the music and the

visuals 3. Particular music videos have their own music style

and iconography 4.There is a demand by the record company for lost of

close-ups of the main artist/vocalist 5. The artist may develop their own star iconography,

in and out of their videos. 6.There is likely to be reference to voyeurism either to

other music videos or to films and TV texts. 7. There are likely to be intertextual references to

either other music videos or to films and TV texts.

Overview of “The Take Over, The Break’s Over”

The Storyline of “The Take Over, The Break’s Over” is that a dog (Hemingway) is dreaming and the music video replaces traditional aspects of a music video with things which would be associated with dogs.

This is a satirical and humourous video to attack the traditional professionalism of high cost music videos. The purpose of this video is also to regain their fans who have been turned off them recently resulting in them having to fight back.

Preliminary Shot- Introduces Dream Sequence ^

Relationship Between Video and Song

There is little relationship between the video and the lyrical content of the song. Alternatively, Alan Ferguson chooses to concentrate on creating a playful mood on the video with the theme of the dog dream. The playful tone to the video does however relate to the lyrics “Wouldn’t you rather be a widow than a divorcee” Implying that things could be worse emitting an optimistic vibe.

This video can be seen as a promotion of the band as there are lots of close ups and medium shots of the band members and long shots of the whole band.

This whole video is set in black and white which could be seen to mock the artists who attempt to “glamorise” themselves to create a professional look. Fall Out Boy here, are using it for the opposite reason as they are willing to make fools of themselves and having FUN.

As with other music videos there is an “As live” performance to create a clear link between the song and the video.

MICRO Elements In this video there are lots of obvious jokey

props used to create the “dog appeal music video” to imply what Hemingway (the dog) would imagine to be a good music video.

For Example- Female Dancers- Dressed as cats Male Dancers- Dressed as postmen Leadsinger- Dressed as both Cat and Meat Bones falling from above which is later compared to the confetti

in the performance shot Fire Hydrants- Sprouting from the ground There are also props which imply a live

performance- For Example- The Amps Guitars Car, used to do tricks on Leads and Cables Guitarist Seen clapping as if to get the audience involved.

The black and white colouring of the video leaves little room for lighting effect but allows the idea of fantasy to be created and can be helpful to emphasise things for example the meat costume is colour filtered to allow the red colour to stand out empasising the joke.

Comic Effect

Performance

Storyline. There’s not a highly noticeable storyline

unlike some music videos. There is the obvious storyline of Hemingways

dream world. There is also the storyline of the bands fans

going against them. The song aims to re-attract fans to the band lyrics such as “don’t pretend you ever forgot about me” suggest this.

These fans are portrayed in this video as an angry mob shouting abuse which appears as text on the screen in an animated style.

The video ironically uses the character of the Dog to reunite the fans and the band. This is also done in a humorous way, reflecting the light-hearted, fun-orientated iconography of the band and the genre of the music

The Bands Iconography resembles that of many other pop-punk bands as they are shown in party style situations to show the enthusiastic party-hard values and lifestyle generally depicted in such bands. This is present in their other videos, also directed by Ferguson (Shown below)

Overview of “Ignorance”

This Video is the first off of Paramore’s album “brand new eyes”. It is the introduction of both the new look and sound of the band.

The lyrical content of the video is an aggressive attacking style to show the feeling of being unwelcome and ignored.

The message of this video is portrayed in symbolism and in a very professional and serious way unlike the Fall Out Boy music video. This allows the emotion of the lyrics to effectively be shown to the viewer

Relationship Between Video and Song

As with Fall Out Boy’s video, there is an element of “as live” performance throughout.

The establishing shot of the video shows the opening of a door revealing the band in a confined space. This emphasises the claustrophobic aggression within the song.

The song shows the lead singer holding a light bulb wit which she insists on confronting her fellow band members with an “in your face” attitude as if she were directing the song at them. At other points she gets into the “face” of the camera.

The shots which show this, like in Fall Out Boy’s video, promote the band as the close ups of the lead singer and other band members (including the new band member) can promote the band and their new composition and look as well as the song.

Claustrophobia/ Performance

Confrontational

MICRO Elements The Mise-En-Scene in this video is very simple.

The band and their instruments emphasises the as live performance. The clothes they wear are predominantly black and white, this draws attention to the lead singer as her orange hair clashes with the clothes, this is also done in the clips of her in a blue glass box as it contrasts well to the other dark shots.

The lightbulb is a created use of symbolism as the lead singer is seen flashing it into the band members faces to try and get their attention as they ignore her which links to the song title. The lightbulb also allows the lead singer to create her own lighting in the shots creating some bizarre and abstract lighting. This also brings attention to the lead singers trademark colourful hair when the light shines on it thus promoting the band. There is also some strobe lighting which adds to the energy and aggression of the song.

One of the final shots shows the singer wrapped in the cable of the light with it held in front of her face completing the symbolism of her feeling restrained by the fellow band members within the wires.

Storyline

There is no storyline to this video. There is the implication that the blue

glass box represents Hayley’s own personal world where she is separate from others as it is a strong contrast to the world and people she criticises in the rest of the song and the rest of the shots.

This video is driven by performance and symbolism rather than storyline

Overview of “Stay With Me”

This song is written by Josh Franceschi, the lead singer of this band. He wrote these lyrics along with the album “Hold Me Down” in response to a break up.

This video aims to show the emotions of losing someone from a relationship in an abstract way (whilst remaining professional) reflecting the heartfelt lyrics.

Relationship between the video and the song.

As with the other videos, there is a noticeable band promotion in the video with close-ups and mid shots of all the band members and an as live performance.

The idea of “Stay with Me” is reflected in the characters in the video effectively “growing” their partner back to symbolise growing back their relationship.

This also links to the lyric “these things take time to grow”

This song seems to be a lot softer than You Me At Six’s other songs with the soothing “Woah” sounds in the backing vocals, this soothing sound is enhanced by the soft shots with pull focus’ and the use of contrast and brightness adjustments.

This video allows You Me At Six to show another side to their music and expands their iconography as most of their music involves a lot of energy and loud aggressive lyrics but this video allows them to show their lyrical abilities and how they can tell a story.

MICRO Elements

The lighting and contrast in this video is complimentary of the song as it gives a fresh, soft tone of viewing and enhances the emotions displayed in the video. There is also a strong use of lens flares to show softness which is also enhanced by the soft pull-focus’ when filming the band, some of these may be added in after filming or may have been carefully shot on the day.

The mise-en-scene in this video emphasises the emotions, storyline and performance. The characters carry sentimental objects of the people they love such as the tambourine, the photo and the teddy bear which, again, shows the emotions within the storyline.

The pick up truck on the dusty road suggests that this is set in the middle of nowhere as if the characters were lost without their partners.

The tree is iconic to this song as it mirrors the tree depicted on the single cover.

The guitars, drum kit, microphone and amplifiers all create the live performance feel to the video relating the video to shows at which the band would perform.

Storyline The storyline of this video

depicts a group of ordinary people (of whom the reader can relate to) who climb a hill to a spot at which they bury their own sentimental object. They then water the objects like plants. A viewer watching this for the first time would not understand that is going on until the climax of the song where the people, lying/standing beside their buried objects, find their partners have grown back from the soil in a symbolic representation of reviving a relationship.