Music video analysis

The Pretty Reckless- Makes Me Wanna Die • The video by Pretty reckless- Makes me wanna die was directed by Meiert Avis,

he is a music video and commercial director. Avis has directed videos for artists such as U2, Avril Lavigne, Paramore, New Found Glory and Josh Groban amongst many others. These artists also follow a rock/alternative genre.

• The video uses special effects extravaganza, from the start of the video the main singer is surrounded by lights and visual imagery that have been done in the editing of the video. It is mysterious at the beginning of the video as most of it is the in the dark, you cannot see the lead singer or the rest of the band.

Like most of the pretty reckless videos, the band members have an attitude throughout the video and don’t care what people think of them. The video to ‘Makes me wanna die’ was filmed in a grungy and seedy part of a town at night time; it starts off filming down an alley way where a few suspicious looking people are standing.

During the video there are shots of the band performing and close up of their instruments. There are some generic conventions in this music video, in most rock music videos there are scenes of the band playing as their fans value live performances. The editing of the video has used a lot of straight cuts which makes it flow faster. The lighting is very dark which adds to atmosphere of the song. The lead singer Taylor Momsen is the main focus of this video. The video follows her through to the end; it cuts in some sections back to the band performing. She has heavy eye make-up which looks dramatic against her pale skin and blonde hair. As the video goes on she gradually undresses. Godwin references voyeurism which could be seen as they are objectifying her as a sexual symbol, at one point she is half naked in a grave yard, throughout the video she is looking at the camera seductively as she sings. At the end of the video she is standing in a graveyard which is surrounded by lights and fire. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the video as the song nearly finishes she ends with the lyrics ‘makes me wanna die’ then falls into a pit of fire, seeming as she has died.

You Me At Six- Stay With Me • The video is directed by Frank Borin, and features

the band playing in a forest in Chatsworth, California. The establishing shot is a long shot of a car driving down a long road in the countryside. It then cuts into the band playing and then back to the car. It is a generic convention for a rock band to perform in their videos as it gives the fans what they like. In the video there are a lot of close ups to show the facial expression of the characters in this music video, it shows the song as a lot of emotion. As it focuses on the man in the car you can see other people in the background but at the time they aren’t relevant, later on in the video you know why they are there. The man goes to the back of his car and picks up a photo frame and a shovel, he finds a place and starts digging, he then puts the photo frame in and starts to bury it. It could be that he is burying a bad/painful memory of the woman in the photograph. There are links between the lyrics and the visuals. A specific line is ‘these things take time to grow’ while the man is trying to make something grow by pouring water over the ground where he has just buried something.

As the video moves along, you see the people that were in the video before and their presence become apparent they are also there to bury memories with possessions they have brought. There are walking through the field and each go to bury what they have brought.

Throughout the whole video it cuts back to the band performing which most rock fans would want to see. They have all their instruments out in the field so it looks like they are playing it live. After each person has watered their object they lie and wait for something. At the end people start seemingly growing out of the ground. The people from what someone was burying the memories of. When they are out of the ground it seems they have resolved their issues.

They use a lot of natural lighting and the sun shines through the trees on the singer so it looks quite positive even though the tone of the song is sad and painful.

Calvin Harris- Feel So Close

• The video is by Calvin Harris who sings and is also a Dj, his music genre is mostly electropop and electro house. Other artists who follow this genre has a lot of dancing and images or partying, this video also follows this convention. There isn’t an obvious relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as there are many people in the video and they don’t seem to be linked. The singer Calvin Harris is in the video at some points and is miming along to the song without a microphone this is common in pop videos. As the song has a lot of beats in it, every time a beat drops the image changes to other people and the dancing is in time to the song. 1 minute and 13 seconds into the song the video changes every couple of seconds to a different image to match the beat, this makes it flow very smoothly. There are some links between the lyrics and the visuals as the chorus of feel so close is playing it shows images of couples getting together and feeling close.

During a dance off between a group of girls and boys there was some sexualised dancing between them, the camera does use a close up during it. The video is mostly performance based on the people in the video dancing. This video uses a lot of skilled chorography and doesn't focus mainly on the music being performed only just the beats are important. The lyrics are linked in some ways as the song is called ‘feel so close’ there are images of people getting closer.

The artist himself isn’t put on sexual display as much as some others in the video. As it gets nearer to the end there is a shot of a couple starting to undress on top of a mountain but it isn’t explicit. In most of this artists other videos he uses a lot of people in his videos and almost always includes dancing.