TEXTUAL ANALYSIS – KULA SHAKER Kula Shaker are an English Britpop band that released a series of singles and albums in the 90’s, they enjoyed success in the UK between 1996 and 1999. Kula Shaker’s debut album ‘K’ reached no1 in the UK album chart in 1996. The song I have chosen is called ‘Hey Dude.’ They have had a range of record labels throughout the years including Columbia, Sony BMG, Cooking Vinyl and Strange F.O.L.K. They were originally active between the years of 1995 and 1999, however, they have been active in recent years between 2004 to present. The four members are called Crispian Mills, Alonza Bevan, Paul Winterhart and Harry Broadbent as well as past member Jay Darlington. In the opening scene of the video, the band are in close proximity to each

other and represent the era of 90’s Britpop with their clothes. The medium shot of the band suggests to the audience the personal level the band wants to get with their video, it also expresses the emotion on their faces which tells you about the type of song they are about to sing. The low angle of the camera suggests the

importance of the band to the audience and how prominent it is throughout the video. As the video starts the cutting rate speeds up, to set an effect on the audience and to the rhythm of the song. The next scene features a establishing shot which conveys where else the video is going to take place, it is bright which contrasts the mise-en-scene in the beginning. It conveys to the audience that the video has two sides to it and suggests to the listener the personality of the song. The band are on a moving bus which conveys the movement of the video, song and the band, it suggests that the music is going to be the highlight of the video. The band are playing their own instruments in the video which gives the video a live performance feel and the illusion of the bright colours gives the video and song another dimension.

The close ups of the band members playing their instruments on the bus gives the audience an insight to each expression and how they can interpretate it to whatever they feel. The natural lighting gives the video a natural feel and that it’s not too fake with the story that is behind it, it doesn’t seem serious nor happy though. The focus on each band member which allows the audience to get the individual expressions of each member throughout the video which gives a relationship between the music and visuals.

Andrew Goodwin’s ideas about the relationship between lyrics and visuals matches in this scene where is sings about the sun and how the band

member is pointing up

to the sky. This contrasts with the actually song itself. Intertextuality is present as we get a shot of London Bridge as the band are playing their instruments and singing the chorus, however it isn’t clear the relationship between the visuals and music as they’re singing about being a dude. This tells the audience about the bands English background and heritage so it entices fans to research these historical areas of their home. The band uses a range of effects including inverted effect that distorts the video throughout and shows more of their silhouettes playing their instruments. It gives the video two sides to it, where it contrasts with the sunshine but then the effect creates a deeper meaning to the song. The visual effects that have been applied to the video individually and group doesn’t really fit with the song their singing about. However, there are conventions of a Britpop band as they have instruments consistently throughout the video. The mise-en-scene is created by using a red bus and riding around London on it which is intertextuality throughout the whole

video promoting London and their famous red buses. Their costumes are 90’s Britpop style as they are wearing leathers, t-shirts that have graphics on them and tend to be dark in colour which influences the way the audience will see them in the video. In the video it is sped up by 150% to create a visual effect that their life is not under control which matches the lyrics they are singing about. However, it does create an odd feature to their video, perhaps it could be improved more if they had more choice in locations and the inverted effect is apparent too much. The constant use of close ups of the band and mid-range shots create a relationship with the viewers as they can interpret the song more by their expressions alongside the lyrics.