MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

Laura Bush

All Time Low’s ‘Lost in Stereo’ video is a pseudo-documentary style music video (as dubbed by Diane Railton and Paul Watson; ‘Music Video

and the Politics of Representation’) which means that it is shot in documentary style with common

documentary techniques – handheld cameras, black and white, “backstage” footage. It offers

the fans a connection to the band by offering an insight into their seemingly personal lives and

offers an exclusivity via footage of concert(s) that the viewer cannot experience simply by

attending the concert. It is useful to the band because it can help to portray them in a certain

way and can emphasise a persona.The screenshots to the left show various angles of concert footage, which shows the exclusivity

side of the pseudo-documentary music video style. There is a general shot of the crowd and

the band (this also helps to sell them by showing that they are popular – this particular video was shot at their largest headline at the time), a shot

from an attendee’s point of view and also a “backstage” shot which is taken from side of

stage, topping off the exclusivity of it all.

Another aspect of pseudo-documentary style music videos is offering the band an image/persona. In ‘Lost in Stereo’, the band All Time Low are shown as down to Earth and friendly, ready to interact with their dozens of fans (again, this is also designed to show their supposed ‘popularity’). The screenshots on the right show the band interaction with fans in a number of ways; through signings, photo opportunities and the fans waiting outside their tour bus after the show whilst the band are signing and taking photos. This is shown to be a large part of the bands ‘life’ and will appeal to people, tying in with the exclusivity and a feeling off ‘knowing’ the band better that comes with pseudo-documentary, and is therefore good press for the band as it adds to their star iconography and image.

‘Backstage’ shots are also a large aspect of pseudo-documentary videos. ‘Lost in Stereo’ has

plenty of these – both actually backstage and activities that the band and their crew do on

their days off. This emphasises the exclusivity and strengthens the legitimacy of the connection

the video offers fans.

Aside from Diane Railton and Paul Watson’s pseudo-documentary definition, Andrew Goodwin defined general characteristics of music videos. He said that there is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist. ‘Lost in Stereo’ stays true to this by offering lots of close-ups of vocalist Alex Gaskarth as shown by the screen shots on the right.

A Day to Remember’s ‘All Signs Point to Lauderdale’ music video falls under the Narrative style music video in Diane Railton and Paul Watson’s ‘Music Video and the Politics of Representation’ book – the video tells a story. In this Narrative video the vocalist also lip syncs to some of the lyrics to show that the characters are also the band members. As the band members are also the characters the viewer is encouraged to associate the character’s personality with the band member’s, and this can help create a persona for the band and its members. Throughout the video ADTR are portrayed as underdogs who fight back against their bullies and come out victorious, which is a situation a lot of people listening to their genre of music will be able to relate to and will therefore look up to them as idols. They want to be shown as tough, as this is an admirable trait in this genre. They are shown urinating in food, swearing and ganging up on the bullies and this all confirms their ‘toughness’ to their fans and the viewers and cements their integrity.

Andrew Goodwin’s observation of a demand from the record company for

close-ups of the main voacalist/artist stays true in this music video, as there are a lot

of close-up shots of the vocalist Jeremy McKinnon. A Day to Remember are a

completely different genre to All Time Low yet still retain this, and this shows how

Goodwin’s observation bleeds across different music and video genres thus

proving its validity.

Like the ‘Lost in Stereo’ video by All Time Low, ‘The Rock Show’ by blink-182 is another pseudo-

documentary style music video. However, instead of general backstage antics and stage performance, it states at the beginning of the

video that the band were given money to shoot their music video by themselves. Straight off this

tells the fans that everything that is about to happen in the video is from blink-182’s own

minds – that this is the members being themselves with no apparent influence from

their record label. It shows them turning up at the bank and even offers one of the lead

vocalist’s explanation of the situation to solidify this.

The band are shown with the money from the production company, throwing it out the street, counting it and throwing it out of the window of their van. The nature of this video suggests that they are mocking the idea of being rich and people who are rich. This will appeal to their fans as a lot of fans of this genre are from broken homes or generally don’t have a lot of money and find everything one big joke. Blink-182 are also a fairly non-serious band, and so it would make sense for their fans to be the same and therefore gives more evidence to the fact that this ludicrous display of money is to mock, and that their fans will find it amusing. This is a testament to their star iconography (Andrew Goodwin) and shows how they have developed a persona.

As with most pseudo-documentary style music videos, performance is integrated within. There are two versions of performance – public, in an

apparent “concert” situation and a “private” one, which appears to be in a lift/enclosed space with

CCTV style cameras (staying true to its pseudo-documentary style, and also adopting the

voyeuristic aspect of music videos as observed by Andrew Goodwin) and money lying on the

floor beneath the drum kit (carrying on from the mock of ‘rock star wealth’). There are many

different shots of the ‘concert’ style performance, indicating an exclusive view, but

the private performance emphasises this by even more exclusive as it is only the band.

As with the All Time Low video, blink-182 give themselves an image of being very involved with their fans through their music video, a benefit for the band. Again, this shows their supposed popularity whilst at the same time showing how involved with their fans they are, which is something attractive to the fans and therefore to the band as it will, in turn, generate them more fans. Blink-182 are shown giving out free stakeboards/shirts/etc. and signing them, all out of the back of their own van and therefore in their “free” time. This helps to make it seem that they go out of their way to do this and actually want to do it, all the while creating a favourable persona, adding to their star iconography.

In this video, women are portrayed as sex objects. Although it doesn’t take up a large part

of the video, the band members go to a strip club and hire out dancers in scantily clad dancers

and take them to somebody’s house and have them wash the car. Given the nature of the

video, we can assume that the band are half serious about this and, as other reckless and

mindless activities, between going into a hair salon and paying a woman to shave off all of her hair and dropping an expensive-looking car from a crane and then slamming into it with their van

(which features their logo and will therefore cause people to associate this behaviour with their band), it is just something that they find funny and think that their fans will find funny.

Again, with the music video for The Rock Show by blink-182, Andrew Goodwin’s theory that there is a high demand from the record label for close-ups of the main artist(s) comes into play. There are various close-up shots of the two lead singers, Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus, whilst the drummer is paid little attention.