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Recommended Music Videos Textual Analyses

The Strokes - Reptilia


Reptilia is a performance piece video, throughout the video there are only shots of band (The Strokes). There is more emphasis on the instruments in this video rather than a narrative, the use of shallow depth of field, coupled with the consistent use of close-ups draws the viewer's attention to the band playing the piece.This therefore meets the demands of the record label (Rough Trade) like Goodwin stated in his theory. Lip syncing and synchronisation of the instruments is used. For example when the guitar riff comes in it cuts to a close-up of the guitar's fretboard with the guitarist playing in sync to the track. At 2:56 there's a cut from rhythm guitar to both rhythm guitar and bass guitar. A couple of seconds later the screen splits into four, and there's the lead guitar and vocalist shown on screen as well, showing all the instruments playing at once (expect drums). At the end of the last chorus the speed of the cutting between shots changes, and it becomes much more rapid and in time to the song.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California


Dani California is a performance music video. The music video shows the band (Red Hot Chili Peppers) performing the piece in the costume, and hair and make-up of many different iconic eras in music history. An establishing shot of stage curtains opening in black and white opens the video. The curtains reveal the band in 1950s style costume. There is a great deal of mise-en-scene in this video; from the stage setup and the instruments to the way the band are performing the piece.  There are so many intertextual references in this music video, such as the bass guitar used at one point is similar and a direct reference to Paul McCartney's Höfner bass guitar. The first three minutes of the video are the band progressing chronologically through these eras to the present day, where the costume and setup has change yet again. In the background of the stage is the Red Hot Chili Pepper's logo, meeting the demands of the record label. Dani California conforms to typical music video conventions with the frequent use of close-ups, and this again meets the label's need for focus on the artist. The video nearer the end has frequent cutaways of the eras shown before, and this occurs in a montage like fashion. The video rounds off with a similar shot to the opening one of the curtain; giving it a cyclical structure.

Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box

    The video for Heart-Shaped was created by the lead singer for the band, Kurt Cobain, and was directed by Anton Corbijn. Kurt drew out images for the video and would fax them to Anton Corbijn. The music video is a dig towards the Catholic Church's teaching about abortion. The little girl's costume relates her to the Pope (pro-life) and the KKK (conservatism, fascism). Heart-Shaped Box's unique look was created by the footage being hand tinted in post-production. In the video there are visual references to the lyrics. For example the little girl holds a heart-shaped box at 3:48. There's also an reference to the bands album, In Utero, with a woman dressed up similarly to the album artwork. The band is featured performing in the choruses, with close-up shots of Kurt coming in and out of focus lip syncing; also at one point the mechanical crows appear to be lip syncing the lyrics. 

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist 

Frontier Psychiatrist is a fairly unusual and unconventional music video. The music video begins in a black and white, film style setup, with the superimposed text 'The Avalanches In "Frontier Psychiatrist"'. The video features various 'characters' re-enacting the piece, from a skeleton to cowboys having a duel with a kazoo, all on one stage.There are also instruments featured in the music video which are synced up to the track, as well as lip syncing. For example the woman that appears from the ghost like sheets says "he was as white as a sheet". There is heavy emphasis throughout the video on the visual representation of the elements of the song. The video cuts between mid shots of these 'characters' with the occasional long shot of the entire ensemble. This is so that the audience doesn't get confused and disorientated.  At 3:53 a large vinyl record is brought out onto the stage. This is an intertextual reference to where the band got their name from, an American band who recorded only one album in 1963, Ski Surfin'.


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