Music video analysis

Andrew Goodwin’s 7 Features of Music Videos1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). 2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.6. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)7. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).

Kasabian – eez-eh• “eez-eh” is a song by the British

band Kasabian. It is from the 48:13 album and was released in April 2014. the song falls into the indie rock genre and features electric guitars, bass guitars and drums.

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routines for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop)

• Goodwin’s theory of indie/rock music videos is that they have a stage performance. This theory is supported by the video to eez-eh, there are things in the music video that contribute it to being a rock video.

• One key concept of a rock music video is that it includes a stage performance. Although there is not a crowd the eez-eh does include a performance on what looks like a stage. So the music video conforms with the convention.

• The video also consists of a few close ups on Tom the lead singer, singing directly towards the camera for the performance affect. This could be to try and get the audience to feel closer to the band.

“There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with image. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)”

• “Eez-eh” being a mainly performance based music video, the lyrics don’t have much correlation to what's going on in the music video.

• However at 59 seconds the lyrics are “turning my milks sour” and Tom the lead singer is drinking milk and then spits it out as if it was sour just like the lyrics this is the only bit of lyric and visual correlation we have throughout the video.

There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)• The relationship between the music and the visuals in “eez-eh” is one of

amplifying. The music has a very electrifying and bold sound. This is represented in the music video as the images and colours they use are very bright and bold such as bright pink and a bright white colour.

• There is also a illustrative relationship between the music and the visuals as the lyrics to the song come up on a big screen behind two of the band members.

The demands of the record label will include the for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)

• The “eez-eh” video has very few close ups. But when they are used they are used for performance purposes and to make the audience feel closer to the band and to entice the audience.

• Kasabian have created a motif that runs across all of their work and that is the trousers and hat the Serge always wears. They are skeleton trousers, and whenever you see him performing in a music video or live he will always be wearing these trousers and the hat. This promotes that the video is Kasabian and that the audience recognise that it is their work.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and particularly sexual treatment of the female body• With the lack of close ups in the video for ‘eez-eh’ it lessens the

notion of looking. Although the eye contact between the camera and Tom the lead singer with the camera at the same height as he is gives the sense of looking and being looked at.

• There is no sexual treatment of the female body as there is females in this music video.

“There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc.)”• The video does not really have any intertextual reference, other than the

name of their album which they released. They had the album artwork as the background for a few of the scenes in the music video.

“Whether the video is primarily performance-based, narrative-based or concept-concept based and how elements of each is used in it”• The eez-eh music song is primarily performance based where we have

many clips of the band lip-syncing the music. There are a few close ups of the band performing and lip-syncing the words.

Adventure Of A Lifetime - Coldplay

“Adventure Of A Lifetime” is a song by the boy group Coldplay. The song was released on the 6th of November 2015 and the video released later that month on the 29th. The video was produced by Hannah Clark. The Chimps were CGI affected onto the faces of the band members.

“Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).”

• The main convention of a pop video is that there is a performance happening in the video and this video follows that convention. With the song being a pop song and coming from a boy band. The video displays a performance by the band members as the chimps and also it has a dance routine in there as well. This goes very well with the convention set by Andrew Goodwin.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

• The lyrics are represented in a amplifying way on the music video for Adventure of a Lifetime. This is because there is a clear lip syncing of the chimps singing the lyrics. But it has a creative way of relating the lyrics between the song and video by having the chimps sing it rather than the actual band members themselves.

“The demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (e.g. A visual style)”• Because of the CGI and the band members being changed to chimps

there are some close ups but they do however have some motifs so that you can relate the chimps to the band members. This allows the viewer to know that the chimps are actually supposed to be them. One of the motifs is one of the band members on the guitar wearing his customary hat that he always wears whenever performing this lets us relate the chimp to the band member.

“There are frequent references to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic (sexual) treatment of the female body”• There is not an notion to looking in the adventure of a lifetime music video as the video is a performance

video. There is also no voyeuristic treatment of the female body. As the video is a performance and contains chimps so there are no female bodies for any voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

“There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc.)

• In music video for adventure of a lifetime there is some intertextual references to other films and other pieces of work by the producer. At the very start of the music video it has an opening shot saying it is a Mat Whitecross film. Mat is a movie producer who has won many awards for different films and pieces of work. Adding this at the start the viewer will be able to know who made the video and may be able to relate some of the things in the music video to those of what Mat would do.

• Also at the start of the music video there is a intertextual reference to a record company that is Parlophone Records. This record company have worked with all of the big stars such as The Beatles, John Lennon and David Bowie.

Jamie T - Zombie• Zombie is a single by Jamie T. it is taken

from the album Carry On The Grudge. It was released on the 11th of August 2014. the genre is indie/alternative. As a result we can research the Indie/alternatives conventions a learn what to expect as a audience.

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).

• In the music video for Jamie T – Zombie there is a stage performance in the video. The genre however is not metal. So in that sense the music video does not follow the genre characteristics. The video contains a performance on stage with lots of close ups. These close ups make the audience feel closer to the singer and makes the audience feel part of the performance, this is done with the hope of more popularity and a larger following. In the music video Jamie and the rest of the band they turn into zombies.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). • The video for Jamie T Zombie is mainly a performance based

music video so there is not much relation to the lyrics to the visuals on the video, however when Jamie start singing the first chorus of the song all of the band start to turn into zombie’s. this creates a relationship between the video and the lyrics.

There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). • In the video for Zombie there is a relation from the song

to the atmosphere and visuals in as when Jamie goes into the first chorus the band start to come alive and get involved and provide some energy in the performance. The intensity of the music increase and that’s what starts the reaction from the band in the performance.

• Also during the video after the first chorus of the song the band all start to become zombies, these like the first point the band come alive and start to perform.

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). • The video for Zombie by Jamie T contains a

fair few close ups therefore the video meets the demands of the record label to have the close ups. These close ups are cleverly used to make the audience feel closer to Jamie T to provide popularity and hopefully more fame.

• The close ups are also used after the first chorus to show Jamie turning into a zombie. This is also clever because it really highlights the zombie effects that have been put on Jamie’s face. This is quite a unique effect for the producers to use but fits the song very well as it is about zombie’s these effects that have been used have will definitely create media attention and get more popularity for the video and fame for Jamie.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.• The video of Zombie contains them on a stage performing. This gives

use the notion of looking at Jamie performing and gives us the sense of us as the audience being in the crowd watching him preform. However although there is female presence there is no voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).• The video for Zombie could be intertextually linked to the music video

for thriller in the fact that all the performers turn into zombies. You could say that the producers have in a sense copied the idea from that video and put it into the video for Zombie