Music Video Analysis

The first music video I have chosen to analyse is that which accompanies the track ‘Gives you hell’ by ‘The All-American Rejects’, this music video uses a mixture of narrative and performance elements. The video content uses a suburban mise-en-scene and employs the bands rebellious image into a quiet neighbourhood, the video’s use of numerous different characters accentuates their band image due to the band’s contrast to the behaviour of the neighbouring ‘middle class’ couple. Richard Dyer’s ‘Star image’ may be applied as this video creates a youthful image of the band which clearly aims to engage a younger male or female, possibly aged between 13-19. It attracts males as it is a desired ‘rock band’ look which they may aspire to and attracts women through the voyeuristic aspects.

The codes and conventions stated by Pete Fraser are conformed to, the camerawork and editing is quick and snappy, switching between shots fast making it hard to take in all of the images placed on screen, which may force people to repeatedly watch the video and possibly allow channels such as Kerrang or MTV to place a it on a heavy rotation. Pete Fraser’s theory that voyeurism is used is also conformed to, from the origin of Freud’s belief that men think in a mainly sexual manner, Pete Fraser took this and applied it to music videos, this would appear to be true with this video. However, this video does not only use voyeurism directed towards women, it uses aspects of voyeurism which may appeal to women to.

Andrew Goodwin outlined conventions for music videos which are visible within this video, the relationship between the video and lyrics is clear, for example when the line ‘I wake up every evening, with a big smile on my face’ arises there is an image of a character literally waking up in the evening, this is evident as outside the window is dark and the alarm clock has a late time on. The song lyrics do however cater for a good narrative which is rare as most song lyrics only allow for parts of a story and force the audience to fill in the blanks. One way which this video may not conform to Goodwin’s approach to music video analysis is that their video does not include much which is typically associated with their genre, though there are various aspects of rock e.g. the drum kit in the house, it rather ironically sets off in the opposite direction and uses a different, calmer style to add humour.

Pork and Beans by Weezer

The second video I have chosen to analyse is ‘Pork and beans’ by Weezer, this video to be understood properly relies on pragmatical understanding due to a large amount of intertextual references. The video is a result of the ‘youtube generation’ including most of the people out of the top viewed internet videos, the inclusion of these instantly creates a lighter tone as they are amateur. However, by using these particular people the audience gain a sense of familiarity. The use of intertextuality is one of the codes and conventions pointed out by Pete Fraser, he however outlines the fact that some would not understand the references which would take away from the general enjoyment of the video, this would be a problem in the ‘Pork and Beans’ video.

Through using these people the star image of the band is less obvious, they appear randomly at different parts of the video but do not conform to what the theorist Goodwin stated, he said that the record company would want to use a large amount of close ups on the band members to create a star image, it is clear that this is not done. This relates to the idea that music videos are primarily acting as a commercial for the track and the band.

It is clear that there is no narrative, just a series of random character additions, this could’ve been done to prompt further viewings of the video as each time it is watched people may see more familiar faces, the largely performance based piece demonstrates large amounts of lip-synching by others apart from the band, but this is done for a reason; the ones chosen to lip-synching are well-known for their ‘youtube voice’ which means they are famous for using an unusual voice. Here is one example of an inclusion in the pork and beans video...

The video uses various camera motions to take in the variety of performers but uses only straight cuts, the lack of transitions is possibly because the straight cuts stay with the beat of the song where as fades would fit neither the tone or register.