Music Video Analysis – Ian Brown – F.E.A.R.

For this music video analysis I decided to do it on Ian Brown, of The Stone Roses, with F.E.A.R. The music video’s concept is that Brown is cycling through a shopping centre, or part of a town, however all the footage is reversed and slightly blurred. This gives the music video a very unique look and feel. As he is cycling through the city and the lyrics to the song, all which begin with the acronym F.E.A.R., for example one of the lyrics is ‘Forget Everything And Remember’, appear on the screen in white font. This looks good against the clips in the music video as the white, plain font stands out.

The music video starts off with Brown hopping onto the bike, with a slow pan around The Stone Roses frontman, this immediately cuts to a different angle of him again getting onto the bike. The camera goes from a close up to a long shot as Brown rides backwards away from the camera. In the image below you can see that the edges of the shot are blurred, this gives more sharpness and focus to the centrally framed Ian. It could have also been used to show the movement of Brown on the bike.

In the shot below you see an over the shoulder shot, again showing Brown moving backwards on the bike. Every shot used so far in this music video has been a different angle, however all focusing on the artist. The way that Brown rides the bike, is a very laid back approach; standing up on the pedals like a child would ride it. This represents the rebellious nature of the indie rock genre and the idea of expressionism and being yourself.

The shot below is a close up of the bike wheel, I think this is a very effective shot because it adds to the shot variety and I think it looks good as you the spokes going around. The camera is not still during this it is shaky and going in and out, this gives it a sense of jerky unclean movement, which is what you would expect when riding a bike, therefore gives it a feeling of realism.

The concept of the music video is that he is going backwards, possibly to escape something, FEAR, the setting of the music video is Chinatown and Soho in London, this is a busy part of London and was used for this reason, riding amongst the people in the street is something you are not meant to do, as bikes are meant to be on the

road, this gets in peoples way and again is reference to the rebellious nature of the Indie Rock genre. The music video was directed by Brown himself, it was his directorial debut, the song was also written by him too therefore the song and the music video were completely done in his vision.

In the shot above it shows Brown from a low angle, a shot from the handlebars. It is done in low-key lighting, as brown cycles through some sort of tunnel. This is effective because it adds to the variety of lighting, as the music video is shot in the same setting, the streets of London, it gives it a variety, so that the shots aren’t all the same and don’t become boring. The lyric used in this scene is ‘free expression’ this again is reference to the history of the genre and the culture he grew up around, in the 80’s with bands like Oasis, Blur and The Stone Roses all presenting this view of expressionism.

The music video adds an idea of repetition, when you watch it you will become familiar with it and the concept quite quickly because it is repeated throughout. The audience will become inquisitive of the process of actually making the music video and how it was accomplished. Although they are many cuts throughout it, you can barely tell because of the flow of the full song works well with the pace of the music. This gives it a calm and easy approach to the whole scene.

The lyrics that appear on the screen are very deep and meaningful and the fact they are all an anagram of the word ‘Fear’ show that a lot of thought has went into the song and therefore the music video.