Music Video Analysis

By James Taggar

1. 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

Andrew Goodwin’s 7 Features of Music Videos

Sven E Carlsson Theory Music Video artist as a “modern mythic embodiment” The music video artist is seen as embodying one, or a combination of “modern mythic characters or forces” of which there are three general. The music video artist is representing different aspects of the free floating disparate universe of music video. There are two groups of music video: Performance clip - When a video shows an artist mostly dancing and singing. There are three types; song performance, dance performance, instrumental performance. Narrative clip - A short silent movie to a musical background, a visual story that is easy to follow. Conceptual clip - When the clip has something else during it's duration often with artistic ambitions In one type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore; he or she is a materialization of the Commercial exhibitionist – Uses influence to sell products or services Televised bard - A singing storyteller who uses actual on screen images instead of inner, personal images. Electronic shaman - Usually a DJ in modern society but can be any artist that doesn’t sing e.g. Skrillex and Daft Punk – They wear a mask so their identity is concealed and they can change the mask at any time Music - Sometimes the musical elements shape the moving pictures. - Moments like footsteps are often synchronized with the beat, so that people in the music video seem to walk in sync to the music. Melodic phrases can also be visualized by tilting the camera vertically to match the musical phrase’s up and down travel on the scales. Lyrics- lyrics and images interact creating meaning. - New meaning is added to the banal lyrics through metaphorical language - The greater the leap between the content of the lyrics and the imagery in this metaphorical joining, the more difficult it becomes for viewers to understand and interpret the context. - The environment is made to mirror the feelings of the lead characters The image - the visual form is close to the musical form. - By manipulating colour, motive setting, story footage, clothing, etc the music video director creates a couple of ideas which are repeated and varied. - The concept is to rearrange visual motifs so that the work forms a whole. There are three forms of visual tradition in music videos they are: performance clip, narrative clips and art clip. Art Clip - if a music video contains no perceptible visual narrative and contains no lip-synchronized singing then it is a pure art clip. While the music video uses popular music the artistic video uses more experimental music, such as electro-acoustic - The connections between the music genre and the visual genre of music are weak. There are, however, some connections: dance music video clips are sometimes art clips. The editing technique in soft ballads is mostly mixing. The hard rock music genre usually features standard clips consisting of concert shots and inserted narrative shot

John Stewart Theory

• The music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with lots of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the star’s face.

• He sees visual reference in music video as coming from a range of sources, although the three most

frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography.

• Stewart’s description of the music video as ‘incorporating, raiding and reconstructing’ is essentially the essence of Intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings.

• The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can. The mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspiration lifestyle.

Catfish And The Bottlemen- Rango

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6LTDsPMDLY

“Rango” is a song by a British indie rock band Catfish and the Bottlemen. “Rango” is the ninth track on Catfish and the Bottlemen’s debut album - The Balcony. “Rango” was also one of the first three singles released by Catfish and the Bottlemen in 2013, when they were signed to Communion Records. The music video for “Rango” is 100% computer animated done using CGI which at 3:03 second we are told is Pedro Chaves who was also responsible for

Song lyrics

Darling I'm done for once And as soon as I get outta here

I plan on coming back for nothing But then again there's you

And although this town does flaunt All the stuff you need to feel at home

I plan on taking from it nothing, But then again there's you

You see, Abby she's got to wait Until she gets you on your own

So she can make you make mistakes Then you can offer to take her home And it's not like I don't miss it none But the quicker I drink more in here

The quicker I lose track of you But I know you wouldn't want that

And although this town does plot

Much thicker stories than I care to talk You, you've ducked them in style And I've always loved you for that

You see, Abby she's got to wait Until she gets you on your own

So she can make you make mistakes And you can offer to take her home

And now she's wearing that top you love And she's topping it all off

By acting like something's up She always knew how to pull the strings

You see, Abby she's got to wait Until she gets you on your own

So she can make you make mistakes And you can offer to take her home

And now she's wearing that top you love And she's topping it all off

By acting like something's up She always knew how to pull the strings

I personally feel the narrative concept of this music video is disjuncture. My reasoning behind this theory that I have is that narrative concept, is the journey of a sperm cell with an aspect of humour running throughout. Each cells objective is to win “the race” for the first prize of “love” which ends up to be eaten alive by the egg that they are training and trying so desperately to get to first.

Eye Black is the style of face paint that “Rango” applies at 2:07 it is commonly applied by American football, baseball, and lacrosse players to reduce glare. “Rango” uses it as a form of war paint when the race starts conveying a determination to win.

At the last moment of the music video the audience is presented with a CGI message that would commonly be associated with music videos and films that feature and include animals within the filming production.

The use of the pun “Sperming ham” is humorous and at 9 seconds into the video the audience already has a brief insight to the content of the music video despite how vague it could appear to some.

Humour

14 seconds into the music video the audience is again reinforced with a closer visual representation to what “Sperming ham” is

The hidden band

0:12 - 0:15 0:46 - 0:48 1:15 - 1:19

1:43 - 1:48 1:48 - 1:51 2:51 - 2:53

Not only does the butterfly reappear during the 3 minutes and 6 second song. Catfish and the Bottlemen themselves in animated sperm form also appear 6 times and also have a total screen time of approximately 19 seconds.

The reoccurring band turn this music video from purely narrative to narrative with a hint of performance which uses Steve Archers theory that a music video needs to be both performance and narrative not just one.

Butterfly

Throughout the entire 3 minutes and 6 second song the viewer repeatedly sees a butterfly that has 6 different moments where it appears on screen, in total having a screen time of roughly 19 seconds.

0:06 - 0:08 0:24 - 0:30 1:16 - 1:20

1:24 - 1:27 1:49 - 1:51 2:07 - 2:09

Reasoning behind the reoccurring butterfly

I personally believe that the reoccurring butterfly acts as a form of amplification as the butterfly has many symbolic references: One being that the butterfly mirrors our own life and the stages in our life as the butterfly progresses through its life. In Greek mythology, Psyche (which translates to mean "soul") is represented in the form of a butterfly. It is said that Psyche is forever linked with love as she and Eros - the Greek god of love (More renowned in Roman as Cupid) Share an endless passionate bond together - both hopelessly in love with the other. An interview with the lead singer of Catfish and the Bottlemen - Van McCann. States that “Abby” (An unknown girl in the song) is actually McCann “first ever girlfriend from when [he] was in school” and how the song “was about her, almost an attempt to win her back” which was unsuccessful. To conclude the butterfly represents what McCann and Abby could have been .

The intertextual references for Rocky occur a total of four times in the entire music video. All references are re-enacting the Rocky training moments. The first occur at 1:11 when “Rango” is boxing with the animated version of Mr Miyagi; the next is at 1:18 when “Rango” is doing extreme sit ups on a pull -

Rocky intertextual reference

up bar. 10 seconds later is “Rango” running with Mr Miyagi on his back. At this point the animate sperm version of Sylvester Stallone who was the original Rocky appears on screen. The final intertextual reference of Rocky is at 1:45 when “Rango” is running up

stairs (Again with Mr Miyagi on his back)

The intertextual references for Karate Kid first occur at 1:01 when the protagonist “Rango” is presented with a letter proposing an opportunity to be trained. This letter is presented by the animated version of “Miyagi-San” who is the Japanese trainer in the 1984 ‘Karate Kid’ film. The animated version of “Miyagi -San” is later seen at 1:36 when “Rango” and him are re-enacting a scene from the original 1984 Karate Kid - The famous scene where Mr Miyagi is teaching Daniel the “wax on, wax off” technique.

Karate Kid intertextual reference

The final intertextual references is a Star Wars reference that is shown on screen at 2:34 when “Rango” kills the antagonist with a Star Wars prop – lightsaber. In addition, the entire duration of the music video has been created using a monochrome theme that is seen throughout, this colour palette is a common genre characteristic found in indie rock music videos. This however changes when lightsabers are drawn. The lightsabers also look like the only objects that have been created using a different tool as it doesn’t share the same hand drawn style the remainder of the video does, this is because the battle between the main protagonist “Rango” and the unknown antagonist is a key moment in the music video, that emphasizes the end of the video and exaggerate the winner of the race.

Star Wars intertextual reference

To conclude Catfish and the Bottlemen song, “Rango” has a well constructed animated music video that often cuts to the beat throughout the whole song. It follows Steve Archers theory as it is both a performance and a narrative because of the hidden animated Catfish and Bottlemen that play in the background of the main narrative story. The intertextual references regarding Rocky and Karate Kid are metaphors for the lead singer of Catfish and the Bottlemen, Van McCann and his struggle to get back Abby. Similarly to the struggle that Rocky and Daniel had to go through to get what they wanted. The true symbolic meaning of the reoccurring butterfly is left unknown and for the reader to make their own justification what it represents in relation to the music video. Finally the sudden use of colour in the form of a lightsaber emphasizes the final ending of the video and how “Rango” himself has developed compared to the start of the video where he was initially bullied and appeared weak.

Song conclusion