D.B: Deconstruction of Music Videos

London Grammar – Strong

Director – Sam Brown

Audience:

·      This video would most likely be consumed on YouTube, a music channel on the TV (for example Viva or MTV), a music blog (http://prettymuchamazing.com/videos/strong) or a music website (for example London Grammar – Strong was recommended by the Guardian and featured on their website: http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/jul/26/london-grammar-stong)

·     
     The video would most likely have a specific level of media consumption with focused viewing being most common because the video is so visually stimulating and intriguing as well as the recommendations for the video on secondary websites meaning people would purposefully track down the video to watch it.
   It isn’t likely that the video would feature in advertisements because when it came out London Grammar weren’t very well known and it is unlikely that they would have the funding to do so.

      Narrative:
   Goodwin discusses that all videos have a relationship between music and visuals as well as lyrics and visuals. London Grammar - Strong has an amplified relationship between music and visuals for example the is a musical interlude between the lyrics "... so damn caught in the middle" and "I've excused you for a while..." in which the video cuts from the narrative to Reid miming the song exactly as the lyrics start again. However the majority of the song does not cut on every significant beat.
   The relationship between the lyrics and visuals is disjunctive because although the storyline of the narrative could be interpreted as being related to the lyrics there is no direct connection and it could also be interpreted as something completely separate.

     Media Language:
   The message of this video is only needed to be simplistic due to Roland Barthes’ theory of the ‘grain of voice’ and it’s heavy presence with the uniqueness of Hannah Reid’s (lead singer) voice in this video.
   The song is entitled ‘Strong’ and throughout the beginning of the video it is shot to look like an apocalyptic LA with a father preparing for battle whilst his daughter is asleep in the car. This appears as though the message is that their strength comes from fighting for survival and a parental love to protect his daughter, who appears weak and sickly from her pale complexion.

   The video takes a turn when it turns out that the dad was building a firework suit and his strength actually come from the beauty of his creation and the joy his daughter gains from his spectacle. The social message is that strength can come from a source that we create.
   There is an incoherent narrative throughout with the unknowing of what it being shown interspersed with performance cross cuts of the band to create a narrative fuzz - for example the video cuts from a CU of the father holding his daughter over his shoulder to a CU of Hannah’s side profile mouthing the lyrics.

    Repeatability is built into the video as well from the visual spectacle and beauty of the shots with the human-firework costume and the warming relationship between the father and his daughter.

    Visual techniques are used to construct are particular view of the artist and the characters in the video:

- MISE-EN-SCENE:  Non-verbal language - the stern expression on the father's face at the beginning of the video connotes the feeling that there is something serious and dire happening and that the audience should feel fearful. The lens flare adds distortion to the shot and a feeling of lack of clarity to the situation.

Character blocking is key in establishing the relationship between who is assumed to be a father and a daughter. The way the father carries the daughter and the way she clings to him when he picks her up creates a feeling of love between them and a lightness is added to the atmosphere of the video.

- CAMERA: Voyerism of the camera is created when a handi-cam shot is used to keep the father and daughter following the rule of thirds and not cut off from the frame when they are moving. This keeps the focus of the audience on the characters and a connection is created as the audience sees the reality of the video only through the perspective of the two characters.
- EDITING: Juxtaposition of foreshadowing shots and the shots of the father unloading the car creates a sense of wonder and curiosity of what it going to happen later in the video. This is designed to captivate audiences so that they continue to consume the video.

Naughty Boy – La La La (ft. Sam Smith)

Director – Ian Pons Jewell

·   
       Genre: 
   Naughty Boy – La La La (ft. Sam Smith) is the genre dance-pop. I know this because it is up-
     tempo, therefore easy to dance to and feature in a club, and has featured heavily on many contemporary hit radio stations. The song has strong beats with an easy, uncomplicated song structure and an emphasis on a catchy melody – all genre characteristics of dance-pop music.

   Being that it is dance music it makes sense that the video contains a lot of dancing in it, this is used to provoke the audience to dance along with the music and using synaesthesia to associate it with feeling jovial as the audience can see the beats of the music on screen with the dancing. The video doesn’t feature the artist because dance DJs often like to keep their identity as illusive.

·   Goodwin (Dancing in the distraction factory, 1992) theorises that there is often the notion of looking within music videos and this is followed in this music video, for example when the three characters are walking out of the city they walk past a TV that flickers and turns on when they walk past it, across the entire screen is written: ‘Hotel Cabana’.
   The video is very voyeuristic as well as it follows the little boy the entire time and lingers on him to show he is the person the audience should connect with the most as it look into his life.

      Media Language:

·   The intertextual reference in this video is very obvious for the fact that it is a clear bricolage of The Wizard of Oz and apparently features the Bolivian legend of the demon El Tio (believed to offer protection and destruction and is therefore why the small boy finds comfort in seeking the statue of him out). This is what creates the fairy-tale characteristics and because the story is so iconic and well known it is assumed that the audience will understand the reference. The video brings the story in a more realistic way (with a real heart used to give to the 'tin-man') and the audience gets a feeling of nostalgia and connection with their understanding.

The 'tin-man' is given a heart relating it further to The Wizard of Oz

Narrative:

   Archer discusses the ideas that music videos can either be art, porn or advertising.
     The video does contain fetishism of the female body when the women are doing their aerobics class to add a sense of sex appeal to the male gaze. However this video cannot be considered porn because the moment is over shortly and I would consider this music video as art. An emotion is provoked in the audience from the representation of an abusive father in a fairy-tale-like/ semi mythological way.

There is beauty that is created through the positivity of the child as he begins to try and help the suffering people he finds on his journey. This video is a wonderful extension to the song and contains some postmodern characteristics (when the father is surrounded by darkness when he is screaming at his son and the audience is unsure as to whether this is an illusion or real) as well as following classic techniques.
    

Rudimental – Waiting All Night (ft. Ella Eyre)

Director – Nez (http://www.riffrafffilms.tv/video/director/nez/)

Institution:

·      Rudimental are an English band that are signed to Asylum Records and an independent label Black Butter. The conglomerate Time Warner owns Asylum Records as part of its subsidiary companies Warner Music Group. Rudimental can benefit from being signed to this company because they have access to cross media convergence that enables horizontal and vertical integration. This capability ensures that they can use subsidiaries to produce, distribute and advertise their products on a number of platforms. Rudimental would also have access to much larger budgets for videos and advertisement to increase their popularity and star quality.

·      Black Butter is an independent record label based in London that primarily releases Electronic music, fortunate for Rudimental since the majority of their music has the genre of Electronic. The label released Rudimental’s first singles in order to kickstart their career and distributed them to the Warner Brother’s company Asylum Records.

Representation:

·      The band does not feature in the video but they are still being represented with the associations the content of the video provides. The absence of the band in the video adds to Dyer’s theory of the paradoxes with the star persona and creates the ‘incoherence’ of the star image ensuring that audience continue to consume their products. Their star persona is also created with the association of creativity, originality and rebellion.

·      This video adds to Rudimental’s meta-narrative through their continual representation of real and emotional stories in their music videos. For example watch another thought provoking and emotive video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9-Lwpgfd1E. These real world issues that are portrayed in their videos create a way for the audience to relate to the artis and respectability for the artist.

·      Disability is the most prominent social group that is represented in this video. After the man in the video has his leg amputated it seems as though he is going to be portrayed stereotypically as self-pitying and his own worst and only enemy because disabled people are culturally marked as weaker and a burden on society. 

His friends do not make him feel excluded or different because of his disability 

    However disability challenges this dominant belief in society with an emergent ideology that the disabled person is independent and able to continue with their previous life through perseverance and encouragement. This ideology is enforced through the non-verbal language of the people around the injured person. They do not act any differently towards him because they understand that the disability does not define him as a person and they joke around with him in order to lighten his mood.

The man is able to ride his bike again despite his disability