Holiday work – music video 1

Ben Tresidder

Concept The first music video I have chosen to analyse is ‘walk’ by The Foo Fighters. The concept of this video is the lead singer of the band, Dave

Grohl, portraying a character who seems very fed up with his life as nothing seems to be going his way. He carries only his guitar around with him which he then plays when he meets up with the rest of the band, at the end of the video.

Technical The main camera shot used in this music video is ‘tracking’ of

Dave Grohl walking through the city. Other shots such as medium, close up and shot reverse shot

are also used. The setting of this music video (mise en scene) is various

typical places round within a city in America.

Representation The lead singer, Dave Grohl is perceived as the main

character, who is frustrated with life and is shown lashing out his anger on other members of the public.

These ‘other members of the public’ are played by the rest of the band, as they simply change character to suit each different scenario.

Meanings Created

Within the music video we see many different scenarios. Each of these scenarios show different meanings, obviously varying with each situation.

However each situation shows the frustration within Dave Grohl’s characters life, until he is reunited with the rest of the band to play, where he finally seems happy and content.

Genre conventions In other music videos by this band, the majority of them

are performance based towards the end. This shows the audience how the band plays, which means depicting to the audience the genre of music the band is associated with.