Analysis of three music videos in the genre of the projects song.

I decided that it would be important to gain an understanding of contemporary music videos in my chosen genre to enable me to get an idea of the conventions set in a Rock video. Personally I like the qualities the song (quicksand) has as it is classed as rock however has acoustic traits. I need to analyse similar videos to gain ideas to enable the target audience to easily recognise the genre of “quicksand”.
The first video, after vigorously searching for a similar form of music was Paramore’s “ That’s What You Get”. The songs way of depicting a relationship and the certain use of lexis to produce emotion was ideal to analyse. The establishing shot has the drummer positioned to the left of the frame, this immediately presents to the audience the fact that he is playing the drums which they can associate with rock music. The initial presentation of the drummer ( wearing a black jacket and bright shirt) already enables a audience to make a pre conception to the genre of the music. After this there is an immediate cut away in a different location, this cut away presents the fact that the video has a narrative. The use of the bright light also links to mythological theories of loves, where the sun symbolises love, the use of the light and the way it is distorted on the frame suggests the damaged love of the character in the videos narrative, this is later reinforced in other shots of the video. After this shot there is another cut away of the band and then of the characters embracing each other again, the use of the light suggests the omnipresence of love, the characters of the narrative are shot as a mid-shot, this allows the subjects to be the main focus of the shot and reinforce their love. The narrative then cuts away to the band again in a room with curtains and the sun beaming through the window. The curtains in the mise-en-scene gives a suggestion to the restrictions the lead singer has towards love, the way she can choose to endure love or not.

After this it again uses a cut away to return to the narrative of the video. The proxemics of the two characters inclines the emotion they are both feeling and the physical push the girl uses on the boy suggests how she’s upset with her relationship with the male character. The use of the very wide shot of the female character establishes the environment in which the narrative is happening. The naturalness of the river suggests the natural nature of love and the way love is a natural part of humanity. This is later paralleled with the mid shot of the band members in the urban environment, smashing cars with bricks. The “lack of love” in the urban shots gives connotations and suggestions that real love is an unable process in the industrial world.
There are later two shots put together which use an over the shoulder shot, this enables the audience to gain an insight into the perspective of the characters and how they see the other character.
The cutaway to the band playing their instruments and making bold gestures reinforces to the audience the genre of the band and represents the type of band they are. Wearing Dark clothes such as black hoodies and dark checkered shirts also enables a suggestion to the genre of the band. After watching the video repeatedly there are many shots that suggest a biblical reference. One of the shots is of the lead singer positioned in front of the sun, the close up shot may reference to Jesus and his sacrifice for humanity, in the context of the song it may suggest the bands eagerness and sacrifice for love.

The second video I found worth analysing is System of a down –spiders; the video again has many biblical references and created an engaging narrative, something I am eager to do in my video. The video initially starts with an animation of flowing blue colours, then with flashing lights. The dramatic light sequence symbolises a heart beat and the clashing of colours represent the creation of life the idea of god is soon presented in the narrative in the way a person is positioned with their arms out, like Jesus on the cross. The use of the very wide shot establishes the location of the subject and presents the loneliness of the character in the narrative. The use of distorted and incoherent cutaways from the main narrative may also suggest the inevitable problems that arise in the world.
They video then uses a wide shot of a female character laid asleep in water, the birds eye view of the women symbolises her innocence and fragility, which contrasts with the quick paced ferocious action of creation and the beat of the song. When analysing this video I did suddenly notice how no instruments were shown throughout the video and that the narrative was the main way of distinguishing the genre of the song. The way the narrative does this is the dark black colours, a symbol of death, which contrasts interestingly with the narrative of the video. The binary oppositions in the video is used to reinforce the darkening nature of creation in contrasts to social views of creation, as something to be celebrated.
The video then uses a cut away to a character dressed as Jesus, the medium close up symbolises Jesus’ status in the world and the significance he had to humanity. The use of flashbacks in this video are also something to consider in my music video. Flashbacks enable a greater level of detail in the narrative of a music video and add to the atmosphere generated by the song. The irregular cut a ways break the convention of contemporary music videos and adds an intriguing element to the story. The use of irregular cut away intrigues the audience as it makes them “ piece together” the storyline and interpret the narrative in their own way.
After all of this the video then uses a close up to show the innocence of the character, the white lighting symbolises her purity. The introduction of a sinister character dressed in black also acts as the catalysts for the pure womans temptation. After the introduction of this character the woman awakes. The low angle positioning of the shot of the sinister character again symbolises the characters authority over the innocent woman. The woman in the narrative may be a biblical reference to Eve and the sinister man as temptation, this biblical reference is finally reinforced at the end of the video when the woman falls down the hole, a clear symbol of the fall of man.


The final video I analysed was Greenday: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. The video’s establishing shot is a low angle mid shot of a car driving towards the camera, the dark colour of the car and the state of the car immediately suggests the stereotype of people who would own the car, people who would enjoy rock music. The extreme close up of the cars bonnet with “ Greenday” as the cars logo also creates an understanding to the audience who the band are. The next shot is of the band getting out of their vehicle and walking through a desert path , this links to the lyrics of the song and may also suggest the bands kinship with nature and the freedom the band has to say whatever they like. The cutaways to the destroyed building also symbolises the eternalness of nature in comparison to the industrial world built around capitalism. The power of nature is then reinforced by the low angle shot of the sky as the sky takes up the majority of the frame. One of the most obvious effects this video uses is a film grain over the top, this is a good effect to use as it suggest the bands journey to where they are has being epic, also represented in their journey down “ the boulevard of broken dreams” even the name of the video links to the narrative, that the band have had struggle before reaching their dream. The chorus uses a wide shot of the band playing their instruments, the drums and guitars explicitly suggest the genre of the band and the audience it seeks, something important for any video. After this shot the band walk down the “ Boulevard of broken dreams” the very wide shot used here gets many different stereotypes within the frame, the focus on the stop sign in the middle of the frame also acts as a symbol of the true narrative of the video, to stop stereotyping people in society. The anger the band seems to have towards society is also reinforced by the “ men working” sign, the close up of this sign also adds to the narrative and may even suggest the anger towards our patriarchal world. After using more mid shots of the band walking down the boulevard there is the final shots of the band playing their instruments in a dark room. The low angle close ups of the instruments used in the end of the video symbolises the bands genre and what kind of band they are. The closeness in the band proxemics and the confetti falling from the roof in the final shots suggests the celebration of their unity, the way the band together can overcome their “broken dreams” and become successful.