Radiohead – Lotus Flower Music Video Analysis

Artist - Radiohead

Track – Lotus Flower

Genre – Rock/Alternative

Album – King of Limbs

Released – 2011

To further grasp the concepts of narrative shown through camera, editing and mise-en-scene, as well as understanding genre and media language I have decided to analyse the music video of Lotus Flower. This song is by a band called Radiohead who are an English rock band.

Genre

The genre of this music video is alternative rock. Barry Keith Grant states that audiences recognise media texts by recognisable characteristics. For alternative rock this may include abnormal locations and alternative clothing/costume worn by people in the video. Different styles of lighting are also used to reflect mood, for example in this video the opening sequence of shots are gloomy with small parts of side lighting to reflect the narrative and overall mood of the video. The video to Lotus Flower is a series of the same thing shot with different camera angles and shots. It shows a man dancing quite strangely in the video making his body move in weird ways. This all contributes towards the genre of the song as it gives the audience questions as to why he is doing that in an abandoned location.

Goodwin’s theory of star image comes into practice here as when the camera is closer in the video the audience can instantly see that the man dancing is in fact lead singer of Radiohead, Thom York. This is important to the genre as it meets the audience’s expectations of seeing the band or members playing in the video, which is typical in rock music. However, Radiohead are known for being quite different and breaking conventional laws in terms of this so it would not be unusual for them to create a video with none of the band in. This links in with Jason Mittell’s theory that industries use genre to sell their products to the audience.

In relation to camera and editing there are some recognisable ‘alternative/rock’ characteristics in this music video. For example, the camera shots have a lot of high angle shots as well as varied shot types that show the lead singer up close as well as from a distance. Low key lighting is a typical feature of this genre of music videos and this video does have a lot of low key lighting that

creates a gloomy atmosphere at first in the video. However during the video brighter lighting is also used to contrast the darker points in the video. It is interesting because all the time the shot is showing Thom York dancing continuously. The editing in this video does not follow typical generic conventions of cutting between band and narrative or have close ups of instruments. The editing in this video features a lot of multitakes played for a long time in the video, changing the camera angles and shots when the music changes.

I believe Thom York’s facial expressions in the video are vitally important when researching into the genre. Whilst the video is fairly strange and abnormal, which is expected, the audience starts to grasp the idea behind the video as it goes on. His performance builds up to more adventurous movement and concentrating facial expressions that give the idea he is dancing for expressionism or escapism. When reviewing this the video was dubbed as art in relation to Thom Yorks spastic dancing.

Media Language

This music video backs up Godwin’s theory that performers and objects in a video move in time with the music. Thom York moves perfectly in time with the music so the video is choreographed really well. Juxtaposition is used really well in this video, for example having dark shadowy tones in an outside environment. The fact that the video is in black and white enhances this and maximises it to effect. Vernallis’ theory of camera moving in time with the music is important in this video as it not only reflects the genre but it helps build the narrative in this video. The camera follows Thom York as he dances around, cutting in when the music changes.

Goodwin’s theory of thought beats is also evident in this video as the camera will change to a different shot or cut zoom in or out when a distinguishable beat is heard in the song, this makes the video more dramatic which fits in with the song. The pace of editing is also really effective in this music video. For example the song starts of slow with Thom York slowly dancing strangely flailing his arms around. As the song climaxes and the speed of the music increases the editing is quick and jumpy and shows multitakes of him dancing exceptionally quick throwing his arms around at top speed. This is important in the video as it varies the scenes in the video and stops it from getting boring. I think it is done really well as the video is very basic i.e. the full video is Thom York dancing in the same place, but the way the video is directed maximises its potential to be outstanding, which it resulted in being so.

Representation

In terms of representation in this video the audience has to relate to the lyrics. For example ‘I will shrink and I will disappear’, I believe that these lyrics relate to Thom York’s dancing in the video

of him trying to escape and disappear. ‘Slowly we unfurl, as Lotus flowers’ is a lyrics in the song where Thom Yorks dancing becomes more prominent and energetic. This represents the idea of him believe in himself that the dancing is a way of feeling human whilst behaving bizarrely.

‘Just to feed your fast ballooning head, listen to your heart’ is a significant lyric in the song which can represent both love and loss. I believe that it represents loss and the Lotus flower is a memory of it still being real, which relates to his dancing – comparing himself to the flower and wanting to be like one.

The video itself also represents the album. The album it titled King of Limbs and the video shows Thom York being a mass of tangling limbs in the grip of attack and, hence, the king of his limbs.

For representation, media is an insight into society. In this music video Thom York shows the audience that society and real life can be forgotten about by expressing yourself through art, in this case dancing. It is all about escapism for him in the video which is also shown through his performance and facial expressions as he appears to enter another world when dancing.

Narrative

Despite most alternative rock music videos containing narrative I believe that thing video lacks narrative. There is one overall narrative in the video which is the lyrics relating to the idea of the dancing. Thom York’s curiously spellbinding limbs give the audience a strange realistic feeling. It tells the story of how he is escaping from his real life and dancing his problems away. There is also something really captivating about the music video. People may think one man dancing in a room would become boring but it is quite the opposite. When the audience starts to watch the video there is something mind blowing and magical about it and you have to watch the video all of the way through. This is because of the way media theories have been used in the video in relation to genre, narrative and media language.