Foo Fighters Learn to Fly Music Video Analysis

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Foo Fighters Learn to Fly By Alyshia Knowlson

Transcript of Foo Fighters Learn to Fly Music Video Analysis

Page 1: Foo Fighters Learn to Fly Music Video Analysis

Foo Fighters Learn to Fly

By Alyshia Knowlson

Page 2: Foo Fighters Learn to Fly Music Video Analysis

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. Stage performance in rock or mental videos and a dance routine in a

girl/boy band videos.• In Goodwin’s theory it sates that every

musical genre has certain characteristics that define what genre of music the video is. Foo Fighter’s Learn to Fly video is again a rock genre music video and is taken from the bands 1999 debut album “There is Nothing Left to Loose”.

• The concept of the music video is that it is taking the fun out of all the stuff that happens at an airport and on a areophane

• Unlike Paramore’s The Only Exception, this must video moves along at a much quicker with the use of quick short paced shots, with each scene moving to the beast of the song.

• The colour scheme that is used is very natural as there are no colour pallets used. This is different to Paramore’s The Only Exception where the each scene had it’s own colour scheme.

• The music video is based on the film “Airport” which was released in 1975, where some scenes from the film are used in the music video.

Page 3: Foo Fighters Learn to Fly Music Video Analysis

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)

• The music video is narrative based as it follows on particular fight where we see all of the members of the Foo Fighter’s playing different roles as air staff. There is no relationship between the lyrics and the visuals apart from the chorus “Learn to Fly” The video opens with Jack Black and Kyle Gass (Tenacious D) play two mechanics who are getting the plane ready for take off where we see Jack Black smuggle and hide their narcotic known as "World Domination brand 'Erotic' Sleeping Powder" in the coffee-maker as Dave Grohl ( Foo Fighters singer) who plays a gay air staff enter the plane.

• After this intro the song begins we see each band member Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, and Taylor Hawkins portray themselves as well as several other roles such as the pilots and air staff. At the start of the song we see them welcome people on board of the plane especially a fat women who Dave plays. The reason for this is that it is mocking those who are overweight and struggle on planes. Also on boar the plane we meet a whole lot of other passengers who are played by the band, such as a Foo Fighters fan girl who sees Dave Grohl who plays himself as a passenger on the plane and gets her album signed.

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There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)

• Whilst all of this is going in we also get to see the band perform through a TV on a wall of the plane, tis could imply that the plane journey could be a long time and therefore the passenger could need to be entertained.

• Referring back to the story of the music video there is a cameo of Dave Grohl playing Kurt Cobian (Nirvana singer). This was the first band Dave Grohl was ever in which he played the drums until Kurt committed suicide. After Kurt death Dave went onto form the Foo Fighters. After this cameo we see another Foo Fighter member start to make the drinks for the passengers where he fails to notice the drugs that Jack Black had hidden. The coffee if then given to some of the passengers and the air staff including the piolets where the start hallucinating.

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There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)

• Towards the end of the music video the drugs start to have an effect to the pilots flying which leads Dave Gorhl and the rest of the band who are playing themselves as passengers to take control over the plane as they did not drink the coffee and they safely land the plane. Finally the last scene shows Dave playing an FBI agent who arrest Jack Black and Kyle Gass for sneaking the drugs onto the plane.

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The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artists and the artist may

develop motifs which recur across their work e.g. visual image

• The music video uses a lot of different camera especially close ups of the front man Dave Grohl as he his a well known frontman so it will be key that the camera gets as many close ups as they can throughput the music video. As well as Dave Grohl the music video also features Jack Black who is a famous well known actor, although he and is band partner Kyle Gass are making a brief cameo in this music video it is still key for the camera to get enough shots and close ups as the can of the two.

The main start image of this music video is Dave Grohl who is the frontman of the Foo Fighter and through he years has created his own visual style, his iconic symbolic look is his long hair and his beard.

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There are frequent references to the notion of looking (screens, telescopes etc.) and particularly voyeuristic

(sexual) treatment of the male body • This music video shows no sexual treatment of the male body as it would be

completely out od context with the whole music video. The concept of the music video could be classed as a comedy stench as the band are taking their song “Learn to Fly” as an opportunity to mock the reality of working on an aeroplane. The music video does uses a lot of the same scenes and it is telling a narrative story of one flight, so there is a need to recap to the scenes to show the passing of time.

• The mise en scene of this video is set in the present day (1999 when the music video was released) maintains to use a high key lighting throughout the scene which involve the passengers as it is key for the audience to see what is going on. Plus a low key lighting is used in the control room is very dark which could illustrate the time to day it is, according to the music it looks like the plane set off early evening. The costumes that the band where are very simple and they reflect the character that the band are playing this is key for the audience to know what character each band member is mean to be playing.

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There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.)

• The music video is a is set on a commercial airliner, which parodying the movie “Airport !”. Clips of the film are used in the take off and in the landing sequence of the music video. The band members also mirror Karen Black’s role in the movie as each band member avoids drinking the coffee for liquor instead of the coffee that has been intoxicated with the drug.

The film “Airport” was released in 1975 and was the and was the main basis for the Foo Fighters music video as wells as parodying the movie “Airplane” 1980. In 2015 a video was published of 1,000 Italian musician in Cesena, Italy all playing and singing to the song in unison, which was followed by a plea for the Foo Fighters to come and play a concert is Cesena, which the eventually did and the music video gained more that 22 million views.