Music Video Analysis

Matthew McMinn

Notes-Foo Fighters, Walk• Intro sequence adding to the story, no music• Guy stuck in traffic, miserable• Gets a bit frustrated• Gets out the car and walks like the name of the song suggests, then the music starts• Walks down a street alone• Beats shop keeper with a sweet• Pushes a telephone box over• During every chorus he shoves food into peoples face (after 2 choruses)• Guy pushed into dog poo• Steals a golf kart• Running from the police• First sight of the WHOLE band playing in the last 1minute and a half of the video, police surround the building the

band were playing.• Little added clip at the end adding to the story of the video.• The story behind the song (IMO) is a guy living his ordinary boring life and he has enough of being “pushed around”

he goes on a rampage.• The lyrics “learning to walk again” is not necessarily about learning to walk but a guy trying to find his place in the

world.

• As he walks he lip sinks to the song so we instantly know he is the lead vocalist for the band• Not got a lot of money, as he gets angry at $29.99 a month for a phone contract• Conventions of a rock band with the tattoos and long messy hair but this is contradicted with the shirt, tie and

trousers-this shows confusion in who he is till the last minute and a half where he unbuttons the shirt and loosens the tie-shows he has found who he is.

• At the end the band are holding guns, these are usually used in magazines with rock bands as a phallic symbol• Intertextuality f the film Falling Down- FIND DIRECTOR!!!

Notes-Foo Fighters, The one

• Intertextuality of the film orange county starring Jack Black• Standing on top of the school dining tables, conventions• The song is the soundtrack for the film• Begins with a re-enactment of the scene from the film, cutting between the

real scene and the re-enactment, this is continuous throughout the video• Rock guy breaks a girls heart at the end, conventions• Singer begins to tear up and cry at the end which contradicts usual

conventions.• Punk rock looking guy made to play violin, against usual conventions• Mimes, flutes, saxophones, dancers, ballet, dinner people all random but

shows the different cultures within a school, so shows conventions of a high school within the film the sound was written for but goes against rock conventions

• The film and type of music contradict each other

Notes-Black Keys, Gold On The Ceiling

• Live, and in recording studio• A lot of shots of the crowd enjoying themselves, shows care for the fans enjoyment

not their own personal gain• Everything shown is shot as if shooting some sort of documentary of their experiences• Including, live performance, recording studio, wardrobe fitting, photo shoot.• Everything centred around the band, mainly shots of them playing instruments, not a

lot of close ups to the instruments though to be honest. • Against rock conventions of the long hair. The drummer looks slightly nerdy. Lead

singer looks similar to Ronan Keaton who was part of a pop band• Shows stuff such as a SOLD OUT sign suggesting great popularity• Sign up like an old movie theatre saying ALBUM RELEASE SHOW. Suggests the

purpose of this music video is to promote the album. The video does this by showing people who view this video what the band are like, this allows people to feel closer to the band as it gets more personal showing the lives of the two members.

• Shows various destinations of where they are performing to promote concert ticket sales

Analysis of the Video, ‘Walk’The video has an added clip before the music starts. This adds to the

story and the message that the song is trying to push across too its audience. During this there is a Coldplay bumper sticker on a persons car, there is a then a cut to the singers face which suggests that people don’t understand what good music is and that there is something wrong with the world. This is also emphasised with the “Bieber is my co-pilot” bumper sticker. These bumper stickers are examples of intertextuality. As foo fighters have used this intertextuality in their video Once the singer sees “Punk is dead” graffiti on the wall he becomes enraged. This suggests that he believes otherwise and that he wants to prove this.

The whole video is in homage to the film ‘falling down’ where a similar sequence is followed in the film. This shows intertextuality within the video and so maybe intertextuality is something we should consider putting into our music video of he Foo Fighters song we have chosen. If this is a recurrence in other videos then I feel it would be the right decision in order to be able to reach a similar audience. If this is not a recurrence when we come to compare all of our analysis's of music videos we shall not go along this path.

There are plenty of rock conventions used within this video such as the long messed up hair and breaking of the rules and not caring. Andrew Goodwin introduced and found conventions that were repeated in every genre of music and their videos. This video is a narrative which is an aspect Goodwin identified In this video the central character breaks a lot of rules/laws in this video and not caring about what people think. This has been linked with the rock genre for years now and it is still continued today showing the band as a rock band. Examples of this rule breaking includes assaulting a shop keeper and fast food worker, this shows his uncaring of breaking the rules. A lot of this happens within the chorus of the song when the pace picks up linking this to the aggression the character shows.

Analysis of the Video, ‘The One’The video begins with clear intertextuality of scenes directly

from the film alongside the same scenes rein acted by the star vocalist of the band.

This video is to go along side a film ‘Orange County’ conventions of the rock genre are used throughout the video such as the breaking of the rules and not caring what other people think. An example of this is when the main character of the video jumps up on top of a table playing his electric guitar. This shows rebellious behaviour towards the rules and this suggests that this is what the audience respects them for.

However there is a contrast in the rock convention within this video. A young lad walks into a music lesson in school and is given a violin even though his clothing suggests that he should be playing in a rock band with an electric guitar. These images try and explain the song which is an aspect of music videos Goodwin found.

As this song is used as the soundtrack for the film it is important to also add conventions associated with the film into the music video. This is done whilst the guitarist is on the table in the dining hall playing his guitar on a table. Many different high school cultures are shown such as: Mimes, flute players, saxophone players, dancers, ballet dancers, etc. As the film is set in a high school this seems suitable to have in the video. Saxophonist and

Dancer

Analysis of the Video, ‘Gold On The Ceiling’This music video seems to have been shot in a documentary follow around type of style. There are certain instances where the bend are playing in a live environment and in a studio. This shows the band getting slightly intimate with their fans as the video just shows us their daily lives and basically takes the fans on a journey through a simple music video. The music video is almost shot as a promotional video. I think this because there are a lot of clues purposefully placed into the video to show popularity of the band. An example of this is some sold out signs posted up for the duo’s concerts and that sort of thing.

The theories from Andrew Goodwin used in this video will be the camera work used. A lot of long shots of the fans are shown enjoying themselves during the video. This shows the bands care for their fans enjoyment more than there own personal gain. Also we rarely see any close ups of the two guys, most of the shots are long shots or medium shots of the band playing their instruments. We see from these shots that the band go against the usual rock conventions. We usually think of long hair with lots of tattoos. However these two guys have neither of those. One guy looks rather like the usual computer geek whilst the other guy looks like pop star Ronan Keaton.

Also, to reinforce the looks of the possible purpose of this video is the fact a lot of concert destinations are shown throughout the video. This further backs up my earlier point that this music video has been made for promotional purposes to promote the album! This ties in with the tour they seem to be doing for the album release also.