Music Video Analysis of “Guns and Horses”

Ellie Goulding

Indie/Alternative

Background Research

“Guns and Horses” is a song performed by Ellie Goulding by the English singer-songwriter Elena Jane and features on the album “Lights”. The date of release was March 1st 2010. The music video was filmed in the USA; Los Angeles in Griffin Park a remote forest and was directed by Petro. The song was nominated for numerous awards including the Brit nominations and Ellie Goulding album debuted at No.1 in the United Kingdom with 40,000 copies in its opening week.

Ellie Goulding is signed to Polydor records founded in Germany 1946 and established ten years later. Initially Polydor records were for German artists however they realized that by popular demand that the Germans enjoyed the music of the British. Polydor also established their connections with the USA and link with the Interscope, Geffen and A’n’M labels. Currently the label continues to boast plenty of pop names including Daniel Bendingfield, Ms Dynamite and Scissor sisters.

Genre Characteristics

Guns and horses is an indie/alternative song and this is reflected within the video due to the genre characteristics. The use of establishing shots that occur within the first 6 seconds automatically associate the audience with the lyrics and the visuals. The use of a single artist is another code and convention that has come up frequently whilst I have been analyzing music videos. The majority of the camera shots of Ellie are close ups and medium shots, this is likely to emphasis the fact that she is the artist thus ensuring that the focus of the camera is predominantly on her. In addition to this there are a number of long shots, which allow far more to go on inside the

frame, making the video more interesting/vibrant for the audience members. Furthermore when the long shots are on screen it is usually to depict the d backing dancers behind Ellie Goulding. This helps to create a sense of ambiguity and quirkiness this is more likely to attract extraverts to the music video; which is the characteristic of a typical audience member that is into the indie genre of music.

The Relationship Between the Lyrics and Visuals

The lyrics of the song are loosely related to the visuals, the song is called guns and horses how no actual guns appear onscreen but there is an establishing of a horse at the beginning of the music video and horses are also shown throughout as well. Initially I expected this as with an indie/alternative music video the relationship with the visuals and lyrics tend to be amplified but not literally illustrative. This is based on Goodwin’s theory he suggests that there should be a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics whether this is contradicting, illustrating or amplifying. In addition to this indie songs tend to be concept based with elements on performance and this convention appears throughout the song. An example of this when Ellie says “When I’m standing here in the dark I can see your face in every star” even though Ellie Goulding is standing in the forest this could signify darkness due to the location and the low key lightening then a few sounds later various bursts of light appear from different angles and various shots change. Then the location then becomes high key lighting, this shows a subtle link between the lyrics and the visuals; this amplifies the meaning of the lyrics.

The Relationship Between the Music and Visuals

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is usually based on how the music video is edited. In the music video guns and horses the cutting rhythm speeds up when the chorus is about to come as the pace speeds up. This enables the video to have similar shots that just last for shorter seconds (no more than 3 seconds) unless the artist is playing up to them camera through movement or expression. This allows the visuals to flow simultaneously with the music so the target audience can have a pleasurable experience with the music video. Similarly when the tempo increase later on in the music video the cutting rate increases as well it highlights the change

in beat, in addition to this various medium shots are used to emphasis the beat.

Meeting The Demands of The Record Label

Goodwin’s theory states that the demand of the record label will include the need for many close ups of the artist and the artist and develop a motif across to the audience. In order to meet the demands of the record label close up shots need to be used in order to introduce the artist to the target audience. An example of this is in the first 20 seconds of the song when a tracking shot is used to establish the location of the music video and the artist which is Ellie Goulding. Then further on throughout the music video (around 28 seconds) a medium shot is used followed by a close up of the artist. These shots show the artist costume, hairstyle and make up. As the record label demands that the artist should have their own image/style Ellie Goulding has adopted a typically indie style which is make shift style clothes such as a checkered shirt and free flowing hair such as the main artist.

Intertextual References

In the music video “guns and horses” there are no intertextual references to other songs or films. This could be due to the fact that the artist may want the audience to focus completely there song, visuals and the message that they try to deliver in their music rather than how it compares to other song. This could attract the target audience as indie culture strives on individuation and independence rather than being mainstream and relying on others.

Voyeuristic Treatment of the Female Body & Notion of Looking

Goodwin’s theory says that there should be frequent reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. The music video guns and horses contain very little notions of looking and have very little voyeuristic treatment of the female body. The only voyeuristic treatment of the female body would be the female dancers as they are only wearing underwear as part of their costume however, I don’t think that this was done intentionally as indie culture strives on being different and I

believe that it is a representation of a horse jockey to the nature of their outfits but I could understand how it could be perceived in audience members eyes if they had not watched frequent indie/alternative music videos before as the woman are shown laying on the floor and in various positions with their legs in the air.